Piercing

[Rev+]

It's been 'available' for a bit but is just getting its UK release - not sure if we've discussed this one before.

Adapted from a novel by a writer who previously gave us the source material for the Takashi Miike film 'Audition', there are quite a few similarities, but this one sets out its stall in the first ten minutes.  A normal middle class dude is going to murder a prostitute, because if he doesn't do that it he'll murder his newborn baby.  That urge has to go somewhere.  He books a hotel room and a prostitute for execution, and then...  well, just 'and then'.

It has some very manky moments but if you're a horror fan you'll have seen worse.  I'm interested to know what people make of the story, as I've already had a mild argument over it:  I don't think we ever leave the hotel room once we're in there.

[BlodwynPig]

It's been a while since I read Ryu Murakami's stories. They all range from unsettling to full on whacked out (Almost Transparent Blue). I liked this story a lot as it was unconventional, but it might be good to revisit the book before watching the film.

[Schnapple]

I liked this enough, but did it really do anything Audition didn't do better? The sequence of him rehearsing greeting, hosting and then murdering the sex worker were funny and weird. But I found my attention waned in the final act and that the crux of the shifting power dynamic shifting got surprisingly old, quite fast. Probably not a great sign in an 81 minute film, but I'd still reccomend it to fans of grubby cinema. Both central performances are great.

[rasta-spouse]

This had a build-up as a horror/thriller then after 15 minutes became a boring softcore fetish movie.