Oriental horror films, without
doubt, rate amongst some of bizarrest productions in the modern horror market, either because of their graphic
excesses, dark humour or surreal storylines. This particular one, Uzumaki, most definately falls into the latter category.
Set in the small Japanese town of Kurozu, schoolgirl Kirie Goshima (Eriko Hatsune) becomes concerned about the local residents, when they start developing a rather strange obsession with spiral objects.
It begins with her boyfriends father, who spends hours filming snail shells and then develops a strange taste for Narumon Rolls, because of their spiral pattern in the centre. Some of her classmates develop a fixation with the nearby lake because tornado's often touch down there, then one of the girls at school starts sporting a very bizarre permed hairstyle which appears to have a life of it's own.
When her boyfriend's father finally kills himself, by spinning himself to death in the washing machine, she realises that something's definitely amiss. But aside from stories of an old curse, neither she nor her boyfriend Shuichi (Fhi Fan) can find out what's affecting the town.
Based on the Japanese comic book of the same name, this is a bizarre, strange and extremely surreal film. It's not particularly gory, but is very visual in the aspects of its storytelling. Which was presumably done to retain the comic book feel. Should appeal to fans of Japanese horror films, but you might need to watch it a couple of times to understand it.
