but it leaves an "imprint"

Scott Bresinger | New York, USA | 11/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Takashi Miike's entry into Showtime's "Masters Of Horror" series, in which a bunch of spooky directors get their shot to make a one-hour, no-holds-barred film, became somewhat notorious after the pay cable net decided against broadcasting it. In a series where gory violence was the norm, how bad could this one be? Of course, anyone who's seen Miike films such as "Audition" or "Visitor Q" could tell you that he can make Rob Zombie's hardcore-horrific "The Devil's Rejects" look like Disney. Still, here Miike would be constrained a bit by the format and even the language (this is his first picture in English), so it couldn't be that far beyond the pale, couldit? Well, my fellow perverts, while "Imprint" does not mark a new extreme in the extremes of extremity, it's definitely one of the most grotesque of the "Masters" series. It's also one of the best.

An American (Billy Drago, doing a David Carradine impression) travels to a small Japanese island that serves as a brothel/village to find the beautiful young prostitute he fell in love with and vows to rescue. Unable to find her, he instead spends the night in conversation with another prostitute with a facial deformity. She tells him about her life, and weirdness ensues. What probably got this episode pulled might have been the extended, unrelenting torture scene, but it was probably the subplot involving an abortionist, with graphic shots of dead fetuses left to drift