DECEMBER 19, 2012
GENRE: REVENGE, SLASHER
SOURCE: STREAMING (NETFLIX INSTANT)
Are certain filmmakers legally prohibited from telling stories in a conventional manner? There is absolutely no reason for Black Rat to be presented in such a convoluted way, telling its fairly traditional revenge story with the use of excessive flashbacks (including three to the same moment in time) and at least one unnecessary plot twist, unless there was some law preventing them from just telling the damn story and letting the audience get attached to what is happening in it. It's not as baffling as say, the Ju-On films, but still - keep it simple!
It's especially frustrating here, because the revenge slasher demands that we sympathize and identify with the characters more than the usual spookfest ghost movie, but the mangled timeline makes it hard to get a handle on the victim and why they're hellbent on seeking revenge. Take a movie like Terror Train - we get why Kenny is so enraged, and we fully understand that the bulk of the protagonists deserve what's coming to them (well, at least Doc). But here, the victim (Asuka)'s tragedy doesn't quite correlate to what she (or someone acting on her behalf) is doing to her peers in the present - all that we really learn is that they didn't like her much. Hey man, some folks just don't gel with one another. No need to kill them because they didn't invite you to karaoke or whatever.
But it's the chronology that really stings; even with their "crime" being far less villainous than Terror Train's (or Slaughter High, Carrie, etc), it would be easy to get on board with it if the info wasn't presented near the end. I kept waiting for some "holy shit" moment, where we learn that they had done something horrible to her, but instead with each bit of info I found the killer's actions less justified, with many of the flashbacks merely stressing what we already know - Asuka needed better friends. Not that there's ever a 100% OK reason to kill someone, but if it's the "I Know What You Did" scenario or something, we can at least go along with it long enough for the ride - we shouldn't be asking ourselves why they deserve to die before they even do so.
I was also a bit put off by the correlation between the tragedy (a suicide) and the killer's getup - a goofy rat mask, like something a school mascot might wear. It was mangled up a bit, and I guess it could be creepy under the right circumstances, but with the killer's silly "tests" (one has to perform a karaoke song perfectly or she will be killed, another is forced to play soccer) the potential for creepiness was already diluted enough - even a Michael Myers mask would seem a bit silly with this MO, so the rat thing just puts it over the top. Yet at its core the movie is about a very sad girl who committed suicide - are we supposed to be laughing, or feeling bad? Either way, it's not quite compatible.
That said, it's an enjoyable enough slasher, with some fine kills and a fast pace that I found refreshing, since neither are usually the strong points in a J-horror film. And had the story been built toward more interesting reveals, the flashback structure would work - letting us know a bit of the history at a time until it all comes to a head (like any good episode of Lost), with the final piece having everything fall into place in a way that makes us want to watch it again to see what we missed (like "Did we really never see John Locke standing up throughout this episode?"). It wasn't so much that the flashback idea was unnecessary - it was just unnecessary for this particular story, and the extra twist (involving a character we never really got to meet before) made it more confusing, especially since this part of the reveal involved a sequence where the killer seemed to be in two places at once (for a second I thought there was an additional timeline going on, as they both have the same clothes on as well).
Also, despite the costuming issue I just mentioned, director Kenta Fukasaku (who handled a convoluted structure in X-Cross with far greater results, IMO) does a fine job of making the kids distinctive. Even with the same clothes, low lighting, and a structure that basically starts us in the middle of the story and branches back and forth from there, I never got anyone mixed up, which is rare for this sort of thing. It helps that there's a sort of children's story (about rats) paralleling this one, so they sort of tell you who's who right off the bat ("One always smiles" "One is timid", etc). They're not exactly well-rounded, completely interesting characters, but at least I never found myself having "Wait, which one was he dating? Isn't she dead? Oh, wait, no that's the other one" type conversations in my head. Even when multiple people start wearing the rat mask, I had a strong grasp on who was who and where they were in relation to one another in the school, so that's a plus, or else I might have been even more confused.
In short - nothing mind-blowing, and I probably wouldn't recommend it to the typical slasher fan who was just interested in seeing a new killer design or some creative/gory kills, but if you enjoy a "challenge" of sorts I think it will suit you just fine. Bloody Reunion (which Netflix recommended viewing once this concluded) is still the best Asian slasher film I've seen, but this is a solid enough entry in what is a sadly limited sub-sub-genre. Just don't expect to be able to watch with any distractions!
What say you?
I'd say, "without ANY distractions"...
ReplyDeleteI just finished the movie (the credits are playing as I type), and I too found it a decently enjoyable film, though I seem to have had less problems with the timeline then you did. True, Bloody Reunion was a good film (though the plot twist takes a little to swallow), but I personally find this a dang good attempt. From the music used in the beginning to the creepy demeanor of whoever was in the rat mask at whatever given moment, I thought this film worked. I do agree, though - I wish Asian countries focused more on slashers than they do ghosts. You have no idea what I'd pay to see a slasher film from Indonesia (though I did see a pretty good one from India, but that's beside the point). Anyhow, nice review, man. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteOverall for me, it was a great movie. The flashbacks made me cheer for the masked rat, seeing how they all deserve to be killed. Except two didn't deserve to be invited, they seemed fine. SPOILERS below.
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the only thing that confused me was with the girl blinking like the mask in the end. Did she become the new Asuka and will smile all the time? did she become one with the mask or what? That was the only thing that confused me. oh, and why the glasses guy was killed. He seemed like the nicest other than the best friend.
That was a great movie, sure a bit confusing, but a great movie anyways
ReplyDeleteI'm not big on korean horror, or any asian horror for that matter, but I did appreciate this movie. I felt the characters' acting at the beginning to we kind of weak, but it got better as the movie went on.
ReplyDeleteI did find this movie confusing.
I see how people could be upset over the fact that they were kind of bad friends, but definitely not worthy of murder or even close to it.
The little kid story of the rats could use some work.
Effects were good and bad. *not a big deal*
I give the movie a 2 1/2 out of 5.
It was somewhat good.
Hmmm, I just watched this for the first time, never having heard anything about it before finding it on Crunchyroll.
ReplyDeleteI actually liked it more than it seems you did, but it may be that I formed different expectations early on in the viewing. That is, once it started jumping around in time, and to different unexplained images, I expected that we'd see a lot of the same scenes multiple times - only, each time we saw them, we'd understand them differently, because of what we'd learned in the meantime. Well, that happened, and even though I was expecting those sort of tricks, they still surprised me, so I have to call it a success on that level.
I guess I'd say it's sort of like the "locked room murder" style of mystery novels that was popular in the 1930s. If you read one of those looking for the values that make other novels recognizably good, like deep characterization and emotionally moving plots, you'll probably be disappointed. If you read it instead for the puzzle the author has set up, trying to figure out before it's revealed to you the who-dun-it and how-dun-it, you're more likely to get the maximum enjoyment from it. In this case, the puzzle isn't so much "who-dun-it", it's "out of the things we THINK we're seeing, which of them aren't really what they seem? And what are they instead?"
As for the discrepancy between what Asuka's classmates did, and the punishment that was intended for them... well, that's part of the plot, isn't it? I mean (and there's no way to say this without SPOILERS......)
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... there's multiple people in the movie who put on the rat mask to take revenge on the people THEY view as responsible for Asuka's death, but they have different ideas about who that is. One wearer of the mask blames just about ALL of Asuka's former friends; another places blame on a much smaller set who committed a specific betrayal. Obviously, if it was clear-cut who did and didn't commit truly reprehensible acts, it would be almost impossible to have multiple mask-wearers pursuing different agendas of vengeance. (Besides, who says that the kind of people who put on rat masks and invite people to homicidal get-togethers have to have a reasonable sense of proportion?)
And finally, BOY am I glad that the glasses-wearing nerd got killed off fast. He seemed like he was in a completely different movie, he was overplaying the nerd role so bad.
Any Asian movie with pretty girls and I'm in. I loved that girls constant smiling. She could light up any room.
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