U.S. DVD Release
I really…really…wanted to like this movie. The first few bits I’d read about this had me absolutely ravenous to see it. When I was able to see stills of the ghost and her ear to ear grimace I just knew this movie was going to kick major ass even if it was a cliché. I suppose I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get so excited about a movie but I did and I regret that. Carved just didn’t live up to any of its potential. There were some effective sequences and the crazy Taeko (the ghost) was super creepy but it just failed to tell a logical, cohesive story.
A small Japanese town is abuzz with rumors of “The Slit-Mouthed Woman” (Miki Mizuno) and how she creeps up behind unsuspecting victims and asks them “Am I pretty?” before she kills them. Nobody is surprised when children begin going missing and witnesses talk about a woman with a surgical mask and large scissors abducting the kids…they all know who this mystery kidnapper is…THE SLIT-MOUTHED WOMAN! Police and grieving parents do their best to pass out fliers and find the children but to no avail.
When teachers Kyoko Yamashita (Eriko Sato) and Noboru Matsuzaki (Haruhiko Katô) team up to find the children and defeat the Slit-Mouthed Woman, Kyoko discovers the origin of the fiendish Taeko and Noboru’s strange connection to her. Can the rumors and facts disseminated amongst children actually lead the two teachers to Taeko before she kills the children? If so, can she even be stopped?
Carved just didn’t make a ton of sense. There was a story here but most of it is filled with illogical (and often idiotic) actions and poorly executed plot devices.
According to the synopsis on the back of this release, this town dealt with the Slit-Mouthed Woman thirty years prior which makes absolutely no sense considering her living son was barely thirty-three and she was killed when he was about seven or eight. The timeline just doesn’t really make a lot of sense. No biggie. Ignore it. Wait, the Slit-Mouthed Woman did the same shit thirty years ago? So this town has been jabbering on and on about this urban legend on a daily basis like this for THIRTY YEARS? What a bunch of psychos!
There’s one instance in the film when the two heroic teachers follow the ghostly voice of Taeko to a home in which she (the Slit-Mouthed Woman) is attempting to murder a small child. The teachers both wrestle with the ghost and one of them stabs her to death. Now, of course ghosts can’t be stabbed to death and we quickly find out a local mother from down the street was possessed by Taeko. The teachers find out her name and address from an I.D. and they’re soon on their way but not before dropping the traumatized little boy off in the middle of an abandoned street!!! Kids have been kidnapped right off the street by Taeko and they figured that was safe?! They then locate the home of the woman they just killed and her two little girls hang out the window eagerly awaiting their late mother’s return. What do the teachers do? Comfort the children? Call the police? Notify somebody? Anybody? NOPE! They agree the little girls’ father will be home by night fall and they LEAVE!!
HUH?
The film continues pretty much in this nonsensical vein the entire running length. I mean, how did some random little girl know Taeko lived in an abandoned home with a red roof? How? These children know this shit but no adult seems to. How is that? How exactly do these children know so much about a ghost that they weren’t even alive to have seen the first time she terrorized the town?
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being overly critical but I just felt this was a poorly written mess. Taeko looked phenomenal and acted like a complete psycho and that was pretty cool but it just seemed to me that they took a kick ass visual concept and simply wrapped a shitty “story” around it. It just didn’t work for me.
The acting and dialogue were okay. Some of the fleeting gore was okay. It was pretty standard and uneventful stuff. Nothing to complain about really.
By the way, what the hell does “Am I pretty?” have to do with anything? Taeko wasn’t played off as a vain character when she was alive nor did her death have anything to do with her beauty or somebody’s uncontrollable jealousy so I just don’t understand why her tortured spirit would ask such a silly question. Am I thinking too hard?
Perhaps. I’d say give it a shot and decide for yourself. Personally, I’m hoping they decide on a sequel and director (and co-writer) Kôji Shiraishi sits it out. Maybe they’ll hit pay dirt the next time around. Then again…maybe I’m just getting my hopes up again.
