Film Review: Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! File 01: Operation Capture the Slit-Mouthed Woman (2012)
Randomly discovering hidden cinematic gems is one of my favorite things about being a movie nerd. You simply can’t beat stumbling upon something you’ve never even heard of, only to realize it’s something so up your alley that it feels as if the filmmaker had an X-ray of your brain. These rarities should not only be treasured but also shared with the world – they ought to be placed on a pedestal and admired for eternity.
Hyperbole aside, Kôji Shiraishi’s brilliant seven part mockumentary found footage series Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! (which, according to Google Translate means “The melody returns too strong” – how cool does that sound?) is one such delight. This low budget exploration of the director’s obsession with Japanese mythology and ghost stories hits all the right notes, and does so in ways its SFX-addled counterparts can only dream of.
The first installment, fully titled Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi! File 01: Operation Capture the Slit-Mouthed Woman, is seventy minutes of pure cheaply-made video camera fun. Things begin abruptly as low rent paranormal investigators Jin Kudo and Miho Ichikawa (Shigeo Ôsako and Chika Kuboyama), who document all of their research on video, receive a VHS tape in the mail that purportedly contains footage of the legendary “Kuchisake on’na” or “Slit-Mouthed Woman,” a mysterious feminine entity who asks her victims if they think she’s beautiful before killing them.
They start their investigation by contacting the tape’s owners and visiting the scene. What follows is a thorough procedural documentation detailing every aspect of the tape and the area it was shot at. As they piece together the events and possible motives, they conclude that a trap must be set if they want any chance of capturing the malicious spirit and possibly saving the lives of those who have come into contact with it.
By fully embracing the artifacting and general low quality of store-bought video cameras, Shiraishi’s Slit-Mouthed Woman moves and operates in ways that are much scarier than they have any right to be. Just watch as she runs toward the camera at an intensified speed, and then appears out of nowhere around a corner she shouldn’t be anywhere near. Where most would see such video quality as a hindrance, Shiraishi flips the script and uses it to its fullest potential, giving us a double dose of creative frights.
But Operation Capture the Slit-Mouthed Woman isn’t just scary where it needs to be. It’s also quite funny. The likability of Shiraishi’s protagonists Kudo and Ichikawa (a completely lovable, if bumbling, version of Mulder and Scully) is off the charts. Why they are so dedicated to folkloric monster hunting and urban legend debunking, or how they even got into the business in the first place, is never explained (perhaps in later installments?), but it doesn’t need to be. That they feel an obligation to help people by exposing the sinister and haunted side of Japan is enough to gleefully root for them as they encounter strange events in future episodes. Personally, I can’t wait.
