Director: Sion SonoYear: 2007
"What lovely hair you have..."
It took me a while to sit down and watch Exte. Mainly because the plot sounded ridiculous: cursed hair extensions that kill the people who wear them? but being a massive fan of Sion Sono (Love Exposure, Suicide Cirlce, Cold Fish) I was determined to give it a shot. Fortunately, it turned out to be far better then expected.
Exte opens in a shipping dock. Two custom workers discover the body of a young women among a create of hair used for extensions. After an autopsy we discover that the young woman's organs have been harvested, probably for illegal trade. Gunji Yamazaki, the morgue night watchman (and twisted hair fetishist) is present during the autopsy. Yamazaki notices that the corpses hair has started to grow. Not just on her head no,no, the hair is poking through her empty eye sockets, protruding out of her mouth and pretty much every other orifice imaginable. This excites Yamazaki who hurriedly takes the corpse home.
Running parallel to the story of the crazy hair freak we have the tale of Yuko Mizushima. Yuko is working as a hairdressing assistant at a fancy salon, Mizushima has a burning desire to become a stylist and when she's not at the salon cutting hair she is practising at home on her mannequins. Mizushima's life is suddenly interrupted by her drunk and abusive older sister, Kiyomi, who turns up at the house and leaves her young daughter, Mami, in her care. Child neglect seems to run in the family as Mizushima leaves the extremely shy Mami by herself everyday while she works.
Its not long before Mami gets bored and decides to visit Mizushima at work. She gets lost and is found by Yamazaki, who just so happens to be walking around filming women's hair. Yamazaki helps Mami find the hair salon and is subsequently introduced to Mizushima. He falls in love with her (hair) at first sight.
Back at Yamazaki's lair, the corpse is growing hair at an uncontrollable rate. Yamazaki decides to cut the hair and sell it as extensions to numerous salons around town, including Mizumshima's. Unfortunately the hair is cursed and when it is placed on a human the hair viciously kills them.
In fear of spoiling a great ending I shall stop here.
If you see a copy of Exte in a shop you’ll take one look at the cover and think “Ah god, not another Ringu imitation”, I know I did. That is because of stupid UK distributors who think that in order to sell the product it must be compared to previous hit Japanese horror titles. Take for instance the quote on the cover of Exte:
“Better than The Ring, The Grudge and Dark Water” Gorezone (who?)
Well, yes, Ringu and Dark Water are better than Exte in my opinion but I also think The Shining is better than Evil Dead yet those films are so loosely related I don’t see any conceivable point in comparing them and that’s the problem we have here. Grouping Exte with these three films instantly misleads potential viewers. In one hand we have the casual viewer who enjoyed Ringu and The Grudge, although probably thought the narratives and overall ‘Japaneseness’ of the films a little strange, but watching it made them feel intelligent and inimitable. In the other hand we have the actual cinema fans. The kind of people who can appreciate Ringu and The Grudge (actually maybe not The Grudge as I thought that film was pretty dire), but never fell for the hype and knew there was more to Japanese cinema than the ‘Tartan Asia Extreme’ label. The first group of people will buy Exte based on the fact its been compared to Ringu etc... but when they watch it they'll be very disappointed and confused. Whilst the second group will be put off by the comparison and will miss out on an intelligent and thought provoking example of contemporary Japanese horror cinema.
You see Exte isn't your straight forward J-Horror that the cover leads you to believe. It's an eccentric and surreal black comedy disguised as a horror film, on top of that you have the kind of poignant underlining cultural messages you'd expect from Sion Sono. Sono's message here is in reference to the lengths and extremities young women (and men) will go through to look beautiful. Yet Sono doesn't use Exte as a way of discouraging the message, its almost as if he's making fun of it. The deaths that befall the unlucky extension wearers are so comically over-the-top all traces of horror are instantly removed. I found myself laughing at the death of this particular women:
Having said that there are some gruesome moments. The flashbacks in which we see the organ harvesting of the young cursed woman are pretty nasty. But I think its Ren Osugi's portrayal of Gunji Yamazaki that wins the most disturbing prize. Yamazaki is one of the most bizarre villains I've had the privilege of watching. He is a deeply disturbed individual but has the charm and grace to hide it from all of those who meet him. Yamazaki is the only character that manages to switch between lackadaisical kooky to psychopathically insane successfully and realistically. Imagine a cross between Frank Booth and The Joker.
The other key stars in the film play there roles well but no one will be winning any awards for outstanding acting.
The only thing that lets Exte down is young Mami's story. She has been abandoned by her mother and must live with Mizushima. The whole 'neglecting parent' trend is common in a lot of Japanese horror but it really doesn't fit Exte. The main story has enough social commentary that Mami's story makes the plot feel slightly cluttered. The film is relatively short and the fact that so many factors and messages are crammed in make it hard to be sure what Sion wants the audience to focus on. Having said that the scenes in which Mami and Yamazaki share add a paedophilic edge to the already fucked up character but overall Mami and her side story seem pointless and wholly lackluster. Also the SFX could be better...
Overall Exte is a great film. Its funny, inventive, eccentric and surreal. The final confrontation is worth watching if anything else.
