Carved (2007) Horror Movie Review

by Spider
(Salem, Oregon, USA)

Carved is one horror movie to carve off your to watch list (warning there are some spoilers in this review).

Released: August 14, 2008 (Japan)
Directed by: Koji Shiraishi
Written by: Koji Shiraishi and Naoyuki Yokota
Starring::

Eriko Sato as Kyoko Yamashita
Haruhiko Kato as Noboru Matsuzaki
Chiharu Kawai as Mayumi Sasaki
Rie Kuwana as Mika Sasaki

Quick folklore lesson: the Kuchisake-onna or slit mouth woman is a Yoki or Ghost who has evolved in Japan from a old ghost story to a modern urban legend.

The original story is that in the Heian or Edo period, a jealous samurai disbelieving his beautiful wife is having an affair slits her mouth open from ear to ear with his katana saying, “Who will find you beautiful now?” and that she comes back after her death as a malevolent spirit.

Later this story morphs into an urban legend. A woman wearing a surgical mask (which isn’t uncommon at all in Japan during cold season) approaches a stranger asking, “Am I beautiful?” If the stranger answers, “yes", she removes the mask, revealing her mutilated face and asks “Even now?” If the stranger answers, “no," she slits his face with scissors or a sickle to resemble her own. If he again answers, “Yes," she follows him home and murders him at the doorstep of his house. So he’s kind of screwed no matter what his answer is.

Apparently the Kuchisake-onna legend became popular enough to cause some unnecessary panic in Japan during the 1980s, and there are even reports of schools asking children to go home in groups for safety.

Okay, legend lesson over but pretty cool story that might make a good movie, yes? I thought so and was excited when I came across Carned aka A Slit-Mouthed Woman aka Kuchisake-Onna. Unfortunately, I was to be sorely disappointed.

The film starts out with children at school gossiping about the SMW (slit mouth woman) much like American children gossip about Bloody Mary. The movie follows various children and teachers at school and at home showing the viewers among other things, that 1) Someone has drawn SMW pictures on a blackboard, 2) Three boys go to a park were the SMW apparently likes to show up at 5 pm, hoping to catch sight of her and 3) A young student Mika does not have the best home life as her mother tells her she hopes the SMW gets her, before she proceeds to smack Mika around.

A teacher goes to the backboard to erase the SMW pictures and hears “Am I pretty?” An earthquake then breaks out and a dead gross ghost lady comes out of the closet. The earthquake ends and we go back to the boys in the park. It’s 5 pm and the SMW shows up with a huge pair of scissors, grabs one of the boys and...just takes off? Kind of anticlimactic, but whatever.

The next day, rumors are really flying as the news is reporting a boy was kidnapped by a woman dressed as the SMW. After school the teachers walk students to where their parents can pick them up as a safety measure and Mika (big surprise) doesn't want to go home with her mom. Mika's teacher Kyoko agrees to stay with her and goes on a walk with her, asking if she had a fight with her mom and offering to help them make up. Mika reveals her mom’s been beating her by showing Kyoko her bruises. Kyoko in one of the strangest responses I've ever seen, actually tries to defend Mika's abusive mother and gets upset, screaming at Mika when Mika says she “hates her mother.” I don’t think Kyoko's going to win any teacher of the year awards.

Mika runs off with Kyoko following, and the SMW shows up grabs Mika, She struggles, knocking off the SMW's mask and revealing her hideously disfigured face. Then the SMW walks off with Mika...right past Kyoko who is apparently too freaked out to try and save her student.

Later after the police have been called and (big surprise) don't believe Kyoko's claim that the kidnapper really is the SMW, Kyoko goes home and calls her ex husband, asking to speak with their daughter. He lies saying the little girl is asleep. We find out Kyoko herself is an abusive mom as we see her in a flash back, accusing her little girl of loving her father more and the daughter answering that she does, “because she hates her mommy for hitting her,” to which Kyoko hits her.

Flash forward and Kyoko is approached by the teacher, Noboru, who erased the SMW picture earlier and heard “Am I pretty?” He shows Kyoko a picture of a woman who looks just like the SMW only without the disfigurement, and Kyoko demands that they go to the police with the picture. Noboru tells her it wouldn't help – that the picture is 30 years old – and that he heard the SMW voice when the unnamed boy and Mika were attacked, and is going to follow the voice when he hears it again to try and prevent another kidnapping. Hearing this, Kyoko demands to go with him.

Flash forward and Kyoko and Noboru actually manage to save a boy from the SMW and stab the her, only to learn that the she possess innocent people to interact with the living, and they have just killed some poor house wife the SMW was possessing, leaving the SMW free to take another host. Noboru eventually reveals to Kyoko (what is already painfully obvious to the audience) that the SMW is the spirit of his mother and that she was abusive to him and his siblings. They then follow clues they’ve gathered from the gossip the children of the area are spreading about the SMW until they manage to find where the SMW is keeping Mika which (big surprise) is Noboru's childhood home.

They have a big final battle at Noboro's childhood home that includes Mika's mother who's also found her way to where the SMW is by following urban legend gossip, because despite beating the snot out of her daughter, she loves Mika and wants her back.

The show down isn't too bad but doesn't make up for the utter tripe one endures watching the first part of the movie or the rather predictable lame ending.

So in final analysis of the plot of Carved, it’s lame and strays pretty far from the legend. The main character Kyoko is useless throughout much of the film and is hard to identify with, unless maybe you’re a child abuser. The filmmakers also didn't bother to try and create a frightening atmosphere in the film. The SMW’s face is revealed early on as well as the fact she's dead, so no build up or mystery there. Arguably worse than being bad, Carved is bland and forgettable. I rate the film 1 and a half out of 5 freak heads and suggest you don't bother wasting your time on it.