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Posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 3:47:41 GMT by: Hal MacDermot
Posted under: movie review horror foreign

Year: 2007
Release date: Unknown
Director: Kenta Fukasaku
Writer: Oishi Tetsuya & Nobuyuki Jôkô
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: cyberhal
Rating: 7.4 out of 10

X-Cross is an insane Japanese Slasher type movie that doesn't make any sense, but is great fun. It's all about villagers who want to cut women's legs off, and a loony chick with a giant pairs of scissors. I wasn't initially going to go to this midnight showing, because I was well-knackered, but I met a beautiful blond called Dana, who told me she was off, so basically I had no choice. That's the magic of the LA film festival. Kenta Fukasaku is known for Battle Royale II (I loved the first one, but heard II was a bit dodgy) and Yo-Yo Cop. Kenta actually introduced the movie and said he was influenced by 80s horror movies (though he didn't say which ones) and loved American audiences because they kick and scream. Seemed like a nice chap. The writer, Tetsuya Oishi, penned the live action movie version of the Death Note manga.

The plot centers on two Japanese girls who visit a remote village hot springs for a girlie holiday. One of them, Shiyori (Nao Matsushita) is recovering from a broken heart, while her friend Aiko (Ami Suzuki) has four boyfriends and so doesn't really face that problem. But she does face others, namely that the village they stumble is full of people who like to ritually amputate women's legs. In fact, there's an amazing crucifix/amputation type scene very early on in the movie, and the story kind of flashes back from that. I say "kind of" because it's hard to do true justice to the wonderful mix of images, edits and time jumps that make up the beginning section of the movie.



In X Cross, it's hard for Shiyori to know whom to trust, and for me it was quite hard to know what was going on. But who cares? What I care about is that there's a psychopathic witch women in a kind of wedding dress with a massive pair of scissors trying to chop Shiyori's legs off. The fact that she also attacks Aiko while Aiko's hiding in a portable toilet, only makes things better. Expect many shots of bad teeth. Actually, I was a bit disappointed because although there's blood, I didn't really get to see enough legs chopped off. It's also strangely prudish in terms of nudity, and I wonder if that's something to do with the Japanese rating system. Enough with the nitpicking, Cyberhal. X-Cross is a great movie to watch with a couple of friends, especially after a trip to the pub (or a blond chick who's mad for horror movies).

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