The images above are stills from a Japanese film I watched last week called Black Kiss (2004). It sells itself as a “gruesome crime thriller in the tradition of Silence of the Lambs and Seven“.

It is actually a very good film although it doesn’t quite reach the quality of the above mentioned classic crime thrillers. Unfortunately the story lets itself down at the very end not quite fulfilling the promising twisting turning path that it winds along to get there. That’s not to say it’s not worth watching; as I say it’s a very good film.

I particularly enjoyed the plush-taxidermy scene which is what the stills above are taken from. In the film the killer has taken body parts from the victims, preserved them and sewn them up with fun fur and bright fabric elements associated with plush toys. It’s a beautiful twist on the Dr Frankenstein approach to monster making and prduces some wonderfully grotesque results as you can see.