Film Fan: Exte (5 Stars)

Thursday 14 November 2019

Exte (5 Stars)

This is my 12th horror film in November 2019. It's a 2007 masterpiece by my favourite director, Sion Sono. This fits well, because I recently decided to rewatch all of his films, but still haven't started. Almost all of his films have horror aspects to them, but they're not pure horror films. There's more of a psychological thriller aspect to them. "Exte" is his only film that can be unreservedly classed as horror, an example of Japanese supernatural ghost stories. In fact, it slots so perfectly into the Japanese tradition of female ghosts with long hair that it can be accused of being a parody of the genre.

Gunji Yamazaki is a morgue worker with a dark secret. He's a tricophile. In case you don't know what that is, it's a person who's sexually aroused by hair. I suppose that's a less harmful fetish than a lot of the other -phile words, but it does have an effect on his job. He cuts the hair off dead women and takes it home with him.

One evening a dead body is found abandoned in a dockyard. She was kidnapped, and her internal organs were cut out to be sold. The strange thing about her is that her hair is still growing after her death. This excites Yamazaki so much that he steals her body and takes it home with him. The hair is growing so fast that he cuts it to sell it to local hairdressers as hair extensions.

This brings him into contact with Yuko Mizushima, an apprentice hairdresser in a salon called Gilles de Rais. I know that French sounds exotic to the Japanese, but did they really have to pick that name? Gilles de Rais was a notorious 15th Century serial killer who was accused of killing hundreds of children. I suspect this name was meant as a subtle joke by Sion Sono.

Yuko is played by the stunningly beautiful actress Chiaki Kuriyama. I used to have a poster of her on my wall when I lived in England. She doesn't have a typical beauty. It's more of a distant alluring look that makes me want to stare at her face in an attempt to figure her out.

Yuko has to adopt Mami, the daughter of her abusive sister. She's been psychologically damaged, and she's been convinced by her mother that she's a bad girl. Yuko has to help her regain her self confidence.

Mami is played by Miku Sato, aged eight when she made the film. She was a wonderful actress, considering her age. She appeared in several films until she was 12, but hasn't been heard of since. She's now 21, so it's not too late for her to return to acting.

You're probably wondering by now why "Exte" is a horror film. It's because the hair of the dead woman is possessed. Women who wear the hair extensions see visions of the woman being raped and tortured before she was dissected, and then the hair extensions kill them. Yamazaki finds this exciting, so he attempts to distribute the hair extensions as widely as possible.

I know that "Exte" is a horror film, but the lasting impression it leaves on me is Chiaki Kuriyama's beauty. Can you blame me? Yamazaki is fascinated by her as well. He says her hair is beautiful, and he has to touch it. At least I'm not that creepy.