 THE LAST SUPPER (2005) Dir. Osamu Fukutani, 92 mins Before you ask, no, Film Gutter hasn't suddenly started to delve into religious movies – although this and many others might have had us saying 'Oh my god' here and there. In fact there's very little of any religious persuasion in The Last Supper, a fairly obscure Japanese offering following a plastic surgeon/cannibal who tells his story as a sort of confessional diary. If the idea of cannibalism makes you distinctly uneasy, now might be a good time to turn back from this particular review. On the surface Dr Yuji Kotarida seems to have it all – highly revered and idolised in this field, about to be profiled by a significant TV channel and seemingly having women fall at his feet everywhere he goes. But this move doesn't mince words (if you'll forgive the phrasing), as we kick off with him brutally beheading a date with a massive cleaver. From there most of the story is in flashback, with the doctor tracking back to where it all began, with him cooking and eating fat removed by liposuction (it sounds gross and it is gross here, trust me). He then retells the growth of his obsession for human meat, and the many women he cooks and eats – from a suicide victim he found in a forest through to a woman he paid a large amount of money for the privilege (which went to her struggling family, it appears) to more recent victims he has knowingly and deliberately killed. In fact, it seems human meat is about all he eats. But when a woman close to him goes missing, he comes under ever closer scrutiny from the police and his gruesome, heinous crimes are at risk of being unveiled... I can't move on without talking about the horrible dub on this – I'm stuffed if I could find any subtitles, which I would have far preferred. But apart from that there was a lot I liked here, and I've made a conscious version not to hold the English dub against this film here. Some of the delivery is so underwhelming and underplayed it sounds like either the voice actors new saw it in context, or they were doing this dub at the end of a super-long working day. Yet this was an interesting movie, with a sort of macabre humour running through it at times. It's one of those 'not for everyone' movies, but I found it held my attention strongly. Some of the plotline above might sound outlandish, but in its context it works and takes you on from relatively minor indiscretions to full-on atrocities committed by our charismatic lead. Many people who visit him talk about just how good the meat he prepares is, without knowing its hideous secret of course. It moves along at a good lick, and while the end is maybe a bit convoluted there are a couple of cracking moments there I am absolutely not going to spoil. The gore actually isn't too over the top for what it is – in fact it's probably bookended at the start and end by the most gruesome scenes – and much of the middle is suggestion and intimation rather than being horribly in your face. I think that helps it not slip too far into absolute absurdity, and leaves it some impact by the time you come to the closing credits. It's over the top, but not too much so, and whipped along at a good pace with some interesting and original concepts. RATING: 8.5/10. This one was certainly a pleasant surprise, given just how little I knew about it before watching it. It's pretty macabre and ghoulish, but does keep a strong pace and has some little flashes of very dark humour that I'm sure some of my hardened readers will enjoy. I can't really tell you any one element was particularly special, but every aspect of it – acting, pacing, visuals, sound, concept – ultimately ranged from good to excellent, so this one does rank pretty highly. I feel like it almost earned half a mark for its striking closing moments too – which I'm still not spoiling! A very strong 8.5/10 for this one. BY ALEX DAVIS    |
Archives
February 2022
|
RSS Feed
|
|