HAZE

A man (Shinya Tsukamoto, A SNAKE OF JUNE; ICHI THE KILLER) wakes in a darkened, confined space. He has no recollection of how he came to be there. While pondering his cramped surroundings, the man is suddenly dragged backwards at high speed, stopping only when he violently falls into a seat, cutting his head in the process.

Now seated, the man realises he is bleeding profusely from a stomach wound. This is just the beginning of his unexplained nightmare, as the walls start to narrow in on him and he frantically crawls on his belly, searching for a way out.

But there seems to be no way out - just horrible torments to endure in each direction he chooses. At one point, he finds himself chewing on a huge pipe as something lunges out from a hole in the wall, smacking him in the head repeatedly. In other direction, he stumbles across a girl screaming, surrounded by severed limbs.

The man starts to think that perhaps his country have gone to war and he has been taken prisoner. Or it may be that a strange cult have abducted and brainwashed him.

Searching for answers - and an escape - he eventually runs into an attractive female (Kaori Fujii, JU-ON; TOKYO FIST) who is similarly trapped and bleeding from a stomach wound. She has no idea how she got there either, but resolves to help the man find their escape.

Tsukamoto is best known as a director, with cult hits such as TOKYO FIST, TETSUO: THE IRON MAN and VITAL to his name. HAZE, then, seems like an odd career move for the filmmaker - a low budget horror film of only 48 minutes in length.

Still, it's very well executed. The vision of Hell that Tsukamoto musters works on both visceral and metaphorical levels, while his own performance brings fear and tension to the table. Some of the visuals on offer are particularly striking, as is the unexpected flashes of considerable gore - severed limbs, stab victims, etc.

Unrelenting and tightly edited, HAZE is a well crafted nightmare on film. But it can't help but be ultimately unfulfilling. Even though it clocks in at under an hour in length, it feels drawn out - as if it were conceived as a short but outlived it's welcome. The ending, too, is a letdown. It doesn't provide the twist or revelation that I imagine Tsukamoto was hoping for.

Still, as a curiosity piece, HAZE works well for the first thirty minutes in creating a claustrophobic atmosphere of violence and panic.

The disc offers the film uncut in it's original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. The image has been 16x9 enhanced. Picture quality is not too bad, but for a dark film I'm sorry to report that the transfer doesn't cope with blacks too well.

The Japanese 2.0 audio is fine, making good use of the thumping, effective Industrial score. Removable English subtitles are easy to read and free from typing errors.

Animated menus include a scene selection menu offering film access via 12 chapters.

Extras include a 23 minute Making Of documentary, filled with interesting on-set footage of Tsukamoto preparing many of the film's set-piece scenes.

A 19 minute interview with the director follows, as he discusses the themes of his early films and how VITAL was a turning point in his career. Tsukamoto thinks aloud, so is quite often pretty incoherent.

Next up is a 17 minute video diary of sorts, featuring Kaori Fujii attending the Locarno Film Festival for her first time in a decade.

All three of the above come with optional English subtitles.

Two trailers follow, along with a photo gallery offering 17 stills from the film. Rounding off the extras are filmographies for Fujii and Tsukamoto, and a trailer for THE SUICIDE MANUAL: INTERMEDIATE LEVEL.

HAZE starts off well and hits a decline during it's final third. It's a shame, because when it first starts it shows the promise of being one of the director's best works. Still, it's worth a look and Terra's disc doesn't skimp on the extras.

Review by Stu Willis