Written by: Michael Den Boer on November 19th, 2007
Theatrical Release Date: Japan, 2005
Director: Takaaki Hashiguchi
Cast: Minami Aoyama, Mayu Asada, Remon Hanazawa, Hotaru Haduki, Kikujirô Honda, Takeshi Ito
DVD released: October 30th, 2007
Approximate running time: 63 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Letterboxed Widescreen
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo Japanese
Subtitles: English
DVD Release: Salvation Films/Sacrament
Region Coding: Region 0 NTSC
Retail Price: $24.95
Synopsis: When a colleague goes a missing a reporter takes over his assignment about a plastic surgery hospital that was shut down when its patience’s and staff started to disappear. The locale legend blames the disappearances at the hospital on a former patient known as The Slit-Mouthed Woman. Is there really a killer lurking the hospitals empty corridors or could something supernatural be behind the trouble at the hospital?
Pink Cinema has finally arrived after years of languishing in obscurity in Japan. More Pink films have been release in North America in 2007 then ever before and if these are any indication of what is yet still to come with many more slated for release in 2008 then fans of this often neglected genre can now are able to see films that they only heard about.
Pink Cinema is still going strong forty plus years since it first arrived on the Japanese movie scene. In more recent years filmmakers’ have gotten even more inventive like writer/director Takaaki Hashiguchi’s J-Horror/Pink film hybrid The Slit-Mouthed Woman. Visually all the sex scenes are composed to show just enough and the more horror based scenes are very reminiscent of the style used in films like Ringu. The plot is a classic example of what a good scary story should be with all the moments of shocking terror done with an elegant pace which draws the moment out to a perfect conclusion. The sex scenes while not a graphic as they sometimes can get in Pink Cinema they are still very primal and erotic enough to get any straight man off.
The entire cast does a superb job with their various roles. Virtually the entire cast is made up of performers who have only worked in a couple films. There is really nothing about this film that I can think of that I didn’t enjoy. My favorite part of the film is how the Slit-Mouthed Woman always appeared just when the sex scene is about to climax. This switch between eroticism and horror never feels out of place or unbelievable. Ultimately if you are fan of J-Horror and Pink Cinema then you will want to check The Slit-Mouthed Woman ASAP.
The DVD:
The Slit-Mouthed Woman is presented in a letterboxed widescreen which preserves the films original aspect ratio. The transfer looks really good despite lacking an anamorphic enhancement. Sure some of the darker scenes lack the same detail present in the rest. The colors look nicely saturated and print damage is very minor if unnoticeable.
This release comes with one audio mix Japanese which is free of any audio defects and English subtitles have been included. The sound mix shows some range and it sounds evenly balanced through out.
Outside of a few stills and very brief text piece on Pink Cinema the extras are not related to the main feature and they lack any repeat value. The Slit-Mouthed Woman is one of the better Pink films to be released in recent years and now fans can enjoy it via Sacrament’s DVD release while lacking in extras comes with a solid audio/video presentation of the main feature, recommended.