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Freeze
Me |
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Year: |
2000 |
Harumi Inoue checks her freezer |
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Director: |
Takashi
Ishii |
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Producer: |
Takashi
Ishii, Nobuaki Nagae, Taketo Niitsu |
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Cast: |
Harumi Inoue, Naoto Takenaka, Kazuki Kitamura, Shingo
Tsurumi, Shunsuke Matsuoka
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The
Skinny: |
A rape victim exacts bitter revenge on her attackers
in this stylish film from Gonin director Takeshi
Ishii. |
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Review by
Calvin
McMillin: |
Whoever said, "Revenge
is a dish, best served cold" couldn't have anticipated
the plot of Freeze Me, a film in which the female
lead murders her aggressors and gleefully stocks them
away in freezers. Still, the aphorism remains an apt
description for this Takeshi Ichii-directed film.
Harumi Inoue is Chihiro,
a spunky, attractive young girl with a good job, a spiffy
apartment, and a loving boyfriend. But her outward cheeriness
masks an inner shame. It seems that five years ago,
while still in school, Chihiro was raped by three men,
who videotaped their repulsive deed for profit. Unfortunately,
Chihiro was so traumatized by the incident that she
did not report the crime to anyone, so the rapists got
away scot-free. Deciding to pick up the pieces of her
life, Chihiro instead moved to Tokyo, re-establishing
herself as a career woman in the bustling Japanese metropolis.
But just when our heroine thought she had escaped the
evils of her past, the rapists return one-by-one to
disrupt her comfortable new life, each seeking a terrifying
"reunion" with their favorite victim. With
seemingly no options left to pursue, Chihiro murders
the rapists one after the other, eventually storing
their corpses in some freezers for safekeeping.
In a sense, Freeze
Me defies categorization, as the restrictive labels
of "horror movie" and "erotic thriller"
do not really do the film justice. The first section
of the film does succeed in horrifying the audience,
but not in the typical slasher movie sort of way. The
manner in which the first rapist infiltrates Chihiro's
life makes for a harrowing opening sequence, but once
Chihiro gets her first kill, the vicarious fear factor
drops considerably. Once Chihiro begins killing, there
is a sense that she is in control of the situation,
even though her life is technically under constant threat.
Furthermore, despite the extreme nature of her behavior,
her acts seem justified. Consequently, the scenes of
murder lack the visceral punch of a film like Audition,
in which the horror comes from the fact that violence
seemingly erupts from nowhere. Granted, the revenge
angle satisfactorily drives the plot, but there should
have been a little more tension over the prospect of
Chihiro being found out. Without these assorted feelings
of dread, the movie can't really qualify as a horror
movie.
And on the question of
whether Freeze Me qualifies as an erotic thriller,
I would have to vote a resolute "no." As cute
and nubile as Harumi Inoue is, this movie is by no means
a softcore T & A romp. Sure, Chihiro runs around
nude most of the movie, and the flick does include one
consensual love scene towards the end, but the majority
of the film involves rape or the threat of rape. Maybe
it's just me, but the term "erotic" is not
something I associate with rape. And if you get off
on that, here's hoping you get locked up in a freezer,
too.
So what's it all about,
Sanjuro? Though not technically science fiction, Freeze
Me does operate under the same principle that many
sci-fi creators adhere, namely social commentary wrapped
in a bizarre, high-concept package. And believe me,
you don't get much more high concept than storing dead
rapists in freezers. But seriously, underneath the shock
value exterior of Freeze Me lies a bleak commentary
on the disturbing obsession with violence in our culture,
particularly among males. For an example, one need only
look at the grotesquely comic image presented by the
head rapist in the film who, while playing video games,
repeatedly shouts, "Kill! Kill!" at the screen
while simultaneously making sexual motions with his
hips. If all men are just like him—out just to
kill and screw—what hope is there for this world?
Sure, it's an over-generalization tantamount to the
old "men are pigs" crack, but it's an interesting
point all the same.
And, while the film may
reduce men to base stereotypes, it's a credit to the
filmmakers that even Chihiro is not immune from criticism.
Though her decision in no way justifies the rapists'
future crimes against her, Chihiro's choice to keep
her rape a secret allowed the criminals the chance to
return, and it is this attachment to hiding things away,
to "freezing" her past that is ultimately
her undoing. It's little things like that (along with
the film's ambiguous ending) which allow Freeze Me
to transcend the level of crass exploitation film to
become something much more weighty. Freeze Me
has plenty of food for thought; just don't eat when
you watch it. (Calvin McMillin, 2003)
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Availability: |
DVD (USA)
Region 1 NTSC
Tokyo Shock
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Japanese and English Language Tracks
Dolby Digital 2.0
Removable English Subtitles
Trailers, Takashi Ishii Biography
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image
courtesy of www.mov3.com
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Copyright ©2002-2017 Ross Chen
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