ID

ID

Delivering precisely the twisted journey into the fragmented unconscious that it promises, Id is a psychological thriller that digs deep down into the starkly terrifying fathoms of the human mind and soul, unearthing the delusions, lusts, and horrors that lurk within us all. Freed from its intellectual/emotional confines, allowed to storm from the archetypical holding cells into the world of physical action, the terrible impulses of the Id are celebrate here with savagery and slaughter. Quite simply, this film sets out to hurt its audience and succeeds brilliantly. Director Kei Fujiwara offers with this deeply unsettling follow up to the fetishistic Organ a cinema experience not only disturbing but challenging in its moral and cultural implications. Media Blasters brings this visionary experience in catharsis to DVD with the technological respect it deserves, allowing audiences eager to experience true cerebral and visceral nightmare to wallow in its artful excess.

What occurs when our unconscious Id -- that driving force of aggression and rage barely kept at bay by societal rule and individual conscience -- is freed from its restraints? Id is the result, and a damned fine bloody bruise of a film at that! When the order of law and expectation are raped by chaotic nightmare and the unravelling of the social fabric, people's true natures show themselves, and a small rural community is brought back to the dark ages of hostility, avarice, and unrestrained impulsive actions. A small area like any other scattered across the world is left to its own meager devices when restraint and polite social mannerisms are replaced by un-tempered desire, leading to horror, brutality, and shocking indifference. In a setting host to pig farms, factories, lax morality, and poverty, there is quickly little difference between animals and humans . . . And little hope. The "Murderer," a deranged killer rushing through a forest, hears a watery flow from beneath the ground,. In a mystical nod to expressionism, he soon hears it through his Id as well, which soon turns into the voice of a human being. Obsessed by that voice, he is picked up by a wild stream of water that washes him up on a nearby factory community, complete with a pig farm. An ancient body of water has been sealed over, and it is to this that the man is drawn, sensing that the voice which captivated him is still summoning him. Soon violent accidents and deaths occur, culminating with a mystical summoning of the "Humanhog," easily one of the more bizarre monsters to ever wreak havoc across the silver screen.

Our unconscious, irresponsible mind, the Id is our most intimate and terrifying link to our savage primal past. Throbbing with instincts, desires, and apprehensions handed down through centuries of evolution, this mysterious dimension of our minds contains not only the midnight properties of selfishness but, more disturbing, all those unnameable dark desires and hatreds, anxieties and wishes that keep us up at night, unable (or unwilling) to name them. It should be no surprise that this repository of violence and nightshade, repression and aggression makes the perfect fodder for a genre film. While practically every piece of dark film and fiction in our inhuman history has been unconsciously dedicated to the Id and its impulses -- as well as fed from its pits of deviation and unsocial desire -- this is one of the few films to actively and honestly use the Id as its primary driving force and theme. In this the titular monster is everyone of us, both individually and communally, as each of us own a portion of the hatred, greed, lust and anger that drives these characters to such bloody and repugnant extremes. The violent and visceral nature of the film will be no surprise to anyone familiar with director Kei Fujiwara's debut Organ. Whereas that film celebrated debauchery, gore, and violence largely for its own sake, Id is an increased step towards storytelling maturity. Kei is a craftsman pure and simple, and with this black kiss of hostility she has managed to evoke the pleasures of philosophical speculation with the baser pleasures of instinctual depravity -- no small feat, and one which she beautifies with poetic attention to detail, pacing, and symbol. Shocking and captivating, inviting social response as well as titillation, this film walks the fine line between intellectual expressionism and exploitation, driving home various philosophic points about our species. Granted, at times the film is difficult to take as seriously as one would like because, after all, there IS a pig-man running about! This sense of the bizarre only adds further charm, however.

Media Blasters continues their respectful and spot-on releases of Asian favorites and newcomers with their transfer of Id. The picture is presented in 1.33:1 standard format, clean and free from any significant grain or lines. Colors are bright and clear, running deeply red and black. Audio is featured in Dolby Digital, and is clear from hissing or other distortions. Extras, while scarce, are pleasing, and include a Promo Trailer that evokes the weirdness of the experience, the obligatory Stills Gallery, and a slew of other weird and wonderful Tokyo Shock Trailers.

Review by William Simmons


 
Released by Media Blasters
Region 1 - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
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