Plastic
surgery has done a lot of good for people, but you wouldn’t get that impression
from films that prominently feature plastic surgeons, like Eyes Without a Face and The Skin I Live In. Hana is one of the top plastic surgeons in Seoul. She is
smart and pretty, but she harbors a dark secret. She could open a practice with
Antonio Banderas’s Dr. Ledgard from Almodovar’s film and share office space with
Jeremy Irons’ twin gynecologists from Dead
Ringers. Yet, the slow-building horror comes not from her, but someone
close too her in Takeshi Sone’s Ghost Mask:
Scar (trailer
here),
which screens tonight as a selection of the 2018 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
Miyu
has come from Japan to find her sister, but it is unclear whether she wants to
be found. The older sibling was always overshadowed by Miyu and Sae, the youngest,
but a terrible misunderstanding brought her resentments to a boil. It is indeed
significant she is never given a proper name. Miyu only refers to her as “my
sister” and “sis.”
Initially,
Miyu finds Seoul to be an expensive and inhospitable place, but she seemingly
catches a break when she meets Hana, the plastic surgeon. Forging a fast
friendship, Hana invites Miyu to stay with her and her lover Hyoshin, whose
instant jealousy is awkwardly conspicuous.
Something
is profoundly wrong here, but Sone takes his time revealing his characters’
secrets. Be careful reading about GMS online,
because many synopses (including imdb) giveaway way too much. Even though viewers
can sense something sinister in the air, the first hour of the film is entirely
gore-free. Yet, the tension rises steadily, culminating in a spectacularly bloody
climax.
Whether
you call it a horror movie or a mystery, GMS
is unnervingly effective thanks to the terrific cast. Lee Yu-ha gives a
remarkably complex performance as Hana, never skimping on her insecurities or
her excesses. Yurika Akane is even more nakedly vulnerable and yet still a
little off (in a hard to define way) as Miyu. Miya Sakimoto just makes viewers
ache in her flashback scenes as the unnamed sister, while Sou Hirosawa’s
Hyoshin viscerally and chillingly schools Othello in the corrosive power of
jealousy.
Etsuo
Hiratani’s screenplay gives the deceptive impressive of being rather Spartan,
but it really delves quite deeply into the characters’ damaged psyches and
makes provocative connections that become clear with hindsight. Sone’s own austere
cinematography nicely suits the film’s coldly creepy vibe. Very highly
recommended for fans of Miike and Cronenberg, Ghost Mask: Scar screens tonight (10/12) at the Wythe Hotel, as
part of this year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
