Week 12 (Sept 6 – 12) – Japanese V- Cinema: V-Cinema is shorthand for the Japanese direct-to-video wave of the 90s and 00s. These movies were often produced by major studios on very low budgets, but they gave filmmakers huge creative freedom as long as they could deliver the “exploitable elements.” This proved to be a great training ground for young directors like Takeshi Miike, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hideo Nakata and more.
Humanoid Puppet (also known as Nagai Go no Horror Gekijo: Mannequin), a fascinating piece of J-horror art penned by the legendary manga creator Go Nagai and directed by Hidehiro Ito. A reclusive, brilliant young fashion student is relentlessly persecuted by a menacing foursome of popular classmates. She faces everything from social taunting to finding her lunch riddled with needles and pins.
Despite the abuse, she pours her heart into crafting an extraordinary masterpiece for the upcoming school fashion contest, drawing praise from her teacher. Driven by pure envy, the cruel clique sabotages her creation just before the show. Devastated by the destruction of her life’s work, the young student tragically takes her own life.
However, the story is far from over. One of the bullies brazenly wears the dead girl’s creation to the fashion show, triggering a supernatural wave of vengeance. A mysterious force begins hunting down the tormentors one by one, tearing parts of their bodies away that soon and gruesomely appear on the titular mannequin itself.
This film is part of Go Nagai’s Horror Theater (Nagai Go no Horror Gekijo) anthology/series, showcasing adaptations of the master’s macabre short-form storytelling translated into live-action terror.
You can watch this on YouTube.
