by Carrie Xavier

Created on: November 08, 2010   Last Updated: November 09, 2010

Not the scariest or goriest or most horrific but by a long mile the most unsettling Japanese film is FUDGE 44. I have watched that film so many times. Each time I see it, there are different things that stand out. I am always asking  myself new questions. It's basically like an urban myth about something that I have read happened in Tokyo in the early eighties. People in one area saw little creatures walking around. In the film it's connected to a children's puppet theatre and I did hear there was one in that area. You can watch it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jac2-XMGd1w

I mean when Battle Royale was released or Dolls was released or even Zatoichi some of them came close to breaking Japanese box office records and remember Spirited Away won the Oscar didn't it? I think it did? But Fudge is just unknown and weird. It's like made for no money and yet I still dream about it all the time. I wonder mostly about the character of Sal who got stuck in the escalator. Because he was on the train and nervous and the photos off them cleaning him up are horrible. Even though you can't see anything it's still kind of horrible.

There's something really eerie and yet lovely about the different scenes around Tokyo when they interview different people and slowly this picture develops and you're kind of half aware but not really and then it HITS you. It's a bit like SHORT CUTS that way, when your man hits the girl with the rock and suddenly the whole film just falls on top of you.

One thing that is really powerful about FUDGE 44 is that you don't actually see the creatures or the puppets or whatever they actually are. But you really do see them. Loads of old fashioned tricks are used throughout the whole film to make us see them in our minds eye. It's subliminal. It's like if you look at the sun and then close your eyes you can see it. The puppets are imprinted on your iris. They use a lot of tricks that way. They are constantly telling us about the puppets and showing photos of them - with just the puppets missing. But if it's like a table in a cafe where the puppets was sitting, you see the table and the drink but just no puppet. That happens with video footage too.

I have convinced all of my friends from UA to watch this and last fall three of my mates from home were forced to sit through it. Only one of them liked it and he is crazier than me. The others were like what the hell is this about. They just didn't get it, which is not to say that I get it either, but I appreciate the way it hypnotises me at least. 

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