Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007)

Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007)
Japanese Title: Kuchisake-Onna
Translation: Slit-Mouth Woman

Starring: Eriko Satô, Haruhiko Katô, Chiharu Kawai, Rie Kuwana, Kazuyuki Matsuzawa, Kaori Sakagami, Sakina Kuwae, Yûto Kawase
Director: Koji Shiraishi

Kuchisake-Onna is a Japanese urban legend, sort of the Nihongo equivalent to our Bloody Mary, or Brazil's "Woman in the Bathroom." The gist of it simple: there is a mysterious, sinister woman in a raincoat and a facemask--Japanese people have naturally used that for years as a demonstration of courtesy--stalks people and, approaching a victim, asks them the age-old question: "Am I pretty?" If a person says "No," she stabs them to death with scissors on the spot. If they say "Yes," she removes the facemask to reveal a Glasgow smile. She then repeats the question. Once again, a negative answer will result in a good hacking-and-slashing. If the victim says, "Yes," she gifts them with a Glasgow smile of their own.

Some historians claim that there is evidence suggesting that the legend dates back to the Edo Period, possibly as far back as the 17th century. Others say that the legend started in the 1970s, when it really entered the J-Pop lexicon. During the height of the post-Ringu J-Horror revival, two low-budget films were made about the subject, both of which offering possible explanations into the origin of the legend. 

Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman is set in modern times, coincidentally at a time in which the talk of the town in the Kanagawa Prefecture is...you guessed it...the Slit-Mouthed Woman. The movie never tells us why people are talking about the legend, and events in the film will make you wonder how the legend came about in the first place, but whatever. One day, there is a mysterious earthquake in Kanagawa. Following the tremor, our titular fiend emerges from the closet of an abandoned house and claims her first victim: a young boy.

Now we meet our main characters. There is Mika Sasaki (Tokyo Vampire Hotel's Rie Kuwana), a twelve-ish young girl whose home life sucks. Her mom, Mayumi (Chiharu Kawai, of LoveDeath and Mutant Girls Squad), recently lost her husband, and has turned to child abuse to deal with the pain. In an interesting scene, the school bullies (female, of course) start accusing Mika of being the Slit-Mouthed Woman the day after the aforementioned kid's disappearance, citing her use of a facemask. They then lift up the mask, see her bruised face, and promptly shut up. Mika's teacher is Kyoko Yamashita (Eriko Sato, who played the title character in 2004's live-action Cutie Honey), a young divorcee whose daughter resides in the custody of her ex-husband (a rarity in Japan). Kyoko tries to befriend Mika, although when the latter declares that she hates her mom, Kyoko's rather triggered reaction gives us some clues into what her former family life was like.

Anyway, school policy following the boy's disappearance is for the teachers to escort the children home, or at least a designated pick-up spot. Mika refuses to get into her mom's car and when Kyoko tracks her down, she witnesses the young girl getting abducted by the kuchisake-onna. The police assume it's all a kidnapping and hang out at Mayumi's pad 24/7 waiting for ransom call. Kyoko initially doesn't know what to do, until one of her fellow teachers, Noboru Matsuzaki (Pulse's Haruhiko Kato), approaches her and starts asking about her experience. Noboru shows her the picture of a woman, whom Kyoko identifies as the "kidnapper." He eventually reveals that the woman is his mother, who was a horrible, physically-abusive woman. One day, she "disappeared," along with his two older siblings.

Finding a dead woman who kidnaps people isn't the easiest task, although Noboru can make up for that via his "Spider Sense." He can here his mother whispering "Am I pretty?" when she's about to strike. By following the voice, he arrives at the home of the next intended victim: a young boy named Kita (Yuto Kawase). Kita is interesting in that the boy has a scrapbook of information about Kuchisake-Onna that he has accumulated...how? I mean, the movie makes it look like the woman started her attacks after the earthquake, although maybe she worked in waves and the earthquake sparked the next wave? I'm not sure. Kyoko manages to stab the Slit-Mouthed Woman to death, who turns out to be a housewife named Kazuko (Ryoko Takizawa, of Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro: Yûrei manshon).

So, is the curse over? Of course not! Don't be silly. Noboru starts hearing his mother's voice again and this time, the victim is Mika's best friend, Natsuki (Sakina Kuwae, who was a supporting character on "Junken Sentai Gekiranger," which later became "Power Rangers Jungle Force"). And since Kuchisake-Onna has taken a page from Denzel Washington's Fallen, she's a body jumper. And this time, she has possessed Natsuki's own mother!

The running theme of the movie is child abuse, especially that which is committed by mothers. Apparently, child abuse is a huge problem in Japan, which sports some of the highest rates in the world. Even the total number of reported cases of child abuse exceeds that of the United States, which is bigger and has a higher population. The problem is exacerbated by a social infrastructure that frequently kneecaps both foster and adoption services, often returning children to the root of the problem (even after adoption). Apparently, a survey of deaths caused by abuse performed by the Children and Families Agency in 2021 revealed that mothers were responsible for the lion's share of those deaths.

I won't pretend to know the reason why. I am not Japanese. I know little about local culture beyond Godzilla and Sonny Chiba. As Japan is a culture where being outwardly polite and not stirring the pot is something people are expected to do in order to maintain the status quo--that is, there is little room for individual expression--not to mention that mental health disorders (and services) have long been stigmatized there, I'm guessing people do not have healthy outlets for accumulated frustrations. So, perhaps one's own children (unfortunately) become the target for one's pent-up frustrations. I understand that economic pressures and the increase of single mothers is also to fault. That's my two cents on the topic.

The film addresses the topic--there are no fewer than three abusive women in the script--albeit not deep enough to explore the Why's of child abuse. The movie was made with local audiences in mind, so it's not meant to explain a phenomenon to us gaijin. Beyond that, the film is quite spooky. It has a minimalist piano score that adds to the atmosphere. There a few moments of powerful violence and children are not exempt from danger in this film. The last 20 minutes or so are very suspenseful and the denouement just piles on the tragedy. On the whole, the film is a worthy addition to the collection of J-Horror films made after Ringu breathed life into the genre, with some moments of strong violence, a memorable villainess, and a smidgen of social commentary. I've definitely seen worse out there.