With this little charmer, Miike was fully poised to ram his angry pecker up the poopchute of stateside broadcast. It wasn't to be, sadly. Sadly, but understandably, what with whores, disfigurement, bouncing abortions and copious torture all making an appearance. We can only look forward to the day when this kind of aesthetically pleasing depravity is synonymous with primetime tv. Until then my idiot box remains unplugged but for DVD-viewing.

Content-wise, Miike doesn't hold anything back, and the plot has elements of those Buddhist Japanese scare-the-shit-out-of-you cautionary fables, which I like. Miike is certainly a master of torture-porn. The fact that this was too disturbing for air, while also being the most gripping AND horrible AND morally resonant AND gory of the series, is like a giant Fuck You to the other "Masters of Horror" and modern American "horror" cinema, no?

Silly story, poorly acted but worth a watch for the level of insanity this film is.

Wow I can see why this wasn't aired, that and it kinda makes the other "Masters of Horror" seem like amateurs. Drago's not at his best here, but I do think Miike is.

Besides Billy Drago's incredibly awful performance, this was great.

Certainly the most original and different of the whole series, with some very disturbing moments and some taste of Rashomon structure. Somehow I think that it shouldn't be fully English speaking is far too much (it feels a bit weird sometimes) and the ending was a bit dissapointing for me.

Damn this nasty

NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED DURING THE FILMING, but other things, yes.

Only Takashi Miike would ever make a horror film like this. Most of the actors don't speak the language the movie is in, but everything has an otherworldly, unreal style that makes the strange acting somehow appropriate. It makes you feel uneasy from the style alone, but when you add the really creepy story and the gruesome visuals, this ends up being a truly unsettling film.

One of the best Mike films I've seen. By turns brutal and sickening, with a distinct bizzaro aftertaste.

I was caught off guard. I was not prepared for this movie. It was dark, twisted and quite frankly I cannot believe this was released in the US. I am glad I was able to watch it though. Highly disturbing and the torture scene was crazy.

Weird but not creepy.

I'm giving this movie 5 points more than Memoirs of a Geisha.

The acting is terrible, and the story is really silly and nonsensical, but it scores some points for pulling no punches and for being utterly demented and twisted in a way that only Miike is capable of. It's certainly memorable, if nothing else.

I read an article stating that this film was an "infernal variation on Memoirs of a Geisha", which is understandable in many ways, but I don't think it's as polished or sophisticated (but compared to Miike's previous work it's perhaps his most polished and sophisticated). Since it's a short film there's not enough room for the story to breathe, but it plays exactly as it should: a perverse, and often strange, story about a man and the prostitute that he came to love.

Even though it was filmed for a program that was on a premium cable channel, for a series entitled, "Masters of Horror," it was still banned in the States. And it probably should have been.

Fucking Drago sucks fucking shit. I didn't think it was much more disturbing or scary than Cigarette Burns (how in the name of Vishnu did THAT one air?). Anyway, overrated. Kind of boring. To me, Miike never really lived up to what the internet promised. Well-built geek show sadism and gore, I get and appreciate that, but I was never quite able to hear what he was trying to say.

Seriously, what the helllll did I just watch?? Supposedly the second best episode in the Masters of Horror series, but it totally WASNT! Aside from the shitty acting, the plot was really strange and there were a lot of scenes in the episode they could have left out. At the ending it became even stranger when the whore told 3 versions of the same story, each one WEIRDER than the previous. The 'hand thing' was just too random.

Wow, I can see why this wasn't aired. Quite possibly the WORST MoH episode. A terrible script, poorly translated and then performed by Home Shopping Network caliber actors who could barely memorize their lines, let alone deliver them with any sort of professionalism. Though set in the mid 1800s, the (pitifully enunciated) dialogue was overly modern, simplistic, and repetitive ("This place...is a damned place!"). Yes, the "baby gore" is over the top, but if that's your thing, watch "Inside."

Brutal and, at times, intriguing, but in the end it's a convoluted mess.

I watched this following an online recommendation, and have to say I am very disappointed. Although it is, at points, graphic, there is little or no 'fear' inspired by the story. The acting is, to be generous, poor, and there is little in the story or direction to make a second (or indeed first) viewing necessary. I expected more from Takashi Miike.

What, the fuck. Some people might dig it, if they excuse the acting (Billy Drago specifically), and the "Engrish."

One of the more intense Masters of Horrors I've seen, but still not all that memorable.

Fucked up movie. so good and then it breaks back into the person telling the story to -that- guy. anyone who watched this movie knows what im talking about. possibly some of the worst acting ever?

A bit cheap sometimes but it really freaks me out and this is what a good horror flick should do...

Laughable, really, even if it is sorta good lookin'. The fact that everyone speaks English despite the fact that no more than one or two of the actors have any clue what they're saying renders it unwatchable from the get-go, but on top of that it's a pretty awful movie.

Some pretty gruesome stuff mixed with some pretty lol stuff (like the acting in general and the headstuck hand-sister). Then throw in hints of pedophilia and mystery, and you have a pretty weird film. Not surprised this didn't make it onto American television. Either way, I think it is quite good, and the torture scene is beautiful in a twisted way.

Couldn't have gotten a worse actor than Billy Drago. That aside, it was crazy. Watch it.

Insane and gory, but both of those elements have to be there to tell the story. It isn't "torture porn," because the splatter serves a story purpose.

I sort of like the condescension here; this really feels like Miike trying to "make something for the Americans." Lousy acting, awful dialogue, garish costumes and sets, and a fucked up gore-soaked misanthropic plot that manages to be deeply disturbing even while it's being incoherent. Sometimes it's nice to see the outsider's perspective, even if it's not very flattering.

Wildly inconsistent.

Some of the plot twists are, I think, very intriguing, and it is extremely uncomfortable and unsettling, which is a realm Takashi Miike knows effortlessly. But the limitations of what it is are clear. The costumes are over the top, the sets are cheap, and the most of the acting is actually rather bad (particularly Billy Drago, though Kudoh isn't bad herself). Maybe it's me, with my personal objections to some of the content, but I couldn't enjoy it.

this movie is all over the place, it tries to be a torture movie (which i dont like) and fails by including some sort of monster thing. it has some seriously bad acting, and those accents are simply unacceptable. the torture does get to you, and the "monster" is a little on the "wtf?" side, but it has flaws, and an ending that just doesn't make any sense.

Spooky, gruesome, and eerie, Miike's may be the best entry in the Masters of Horror series.

Esse média-metagem foi originalmente concebido como o último episódio da série "Masters of Horror", onde cada episódio é dirigido por um mestre do horror, nomes como Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter e Dario Argento. Mas é Takashi Miike quem rouba a cena em "Imprint". Esse episódio foi PROIBIDO nos U.S.A., e se você procurar no site da série, verá que o mesmo nem se encontra listado... Miike simplesmente cagou em cima dos "mestres do horror" e dos U.S.A, mostrando quem manda!

Extremely intense, grim and more than a little insane, Miike's one-hour entry into the Masters of Horror series went unaired when the distributor freaked out at the film. It's easy to see why, its very potent sequences would send mom, dad, the kids and the dog shrieking in horror out of the house, which is part of the purpose, I'd think. Still, it is gorgeously filmed and thoroughly surreal, with memorable image after memorable image. Miike delivers a sure-fire knockout.

Along with 'Cigarette Burns', 'Imprint' shows what the MoH really should have been with such great horror directors. I think this is also one of my favourite Miike films.

The best Masters of Horror episode. Brutal and bizzare, and very compelling. The plot was great too! Drago is not at his best here, but the rest of the cast and Miike is!

One of the best MoH movies

Pretty brutal and bizarre, but very interesting and compelling. Drago's performance is bad, though, and I think it would have been better with a tighter story and less "insane for the sake of being insane" stuff.

Em honra de Billy Drago (1945 - 2019). Uma desculpa para revisitar Masters of Horror que nunca mais vi desde que foi lançada e realmente Miike é um verdadeiro mestre do horror, o único problema desse episódio foi ter sido falado em inglês, o que tira o clima de verdadeiro horror japonês. BlurayRip GUACAMOLE