HENGE (2012) review

Henge (2012) (1st viewing) d. Ohata, Hajime (Japan)

The best way to describe this flick is to imagine David Cronenberg, Shinya Tsukamoto and Ishiro Honda’s three-way cinematic love-child. In a little less than an hour’s running time, we witness a couple (Kazunari Aizawa, Aki Morita) attempting to cope with the husband’s increasingly violent and frequent seizures. Medical science is baffled, especially when he starts speaking in prehistoric, mystical tongues and segments of his body begin inexplicably mutating. I could have done without the patently false CGI blood splatter, but that’s a mild complaint against this brilliantly surreal taste of vibrant body horror whose final reel payoff will Blow. Your. Mind.

Fantasia Day 2 (Friday, July 20)

The day started with me waking up (as most do – it’s the days where I don’t that get me a little worried) and heading over to the press office to check out their digital screening room, hoping to figure out – due to my overcrowded viewing schedule – which films I might be able to catch on the small screen. Good news is that pretty much everything on my wish list can be accommodated, and really, if they can’t, it’s no crime. (If all goes as planned, I’ll leave Fantasia with 100-110 more features under my belt.) One that I’m particularly interested in is Jaume Balaguero’s latest, Sleep Tight, which is slated for Fantasia’s last day, Aug 9. Due to the organizers adding two days onto the schedule at the last second, my flight leaves that morning, so I would not have been able to catch it. Looks like that’s less of a problem now.