- A suburban town in Japan is the victim of what is supposedly just an urban legend, a woman's spirit with a horribly disfigured face who is intent on kidnapping children for unknown reasons.
- The traditional story of Kuchisake-onna is that a samurai, in a fit of rage and jealousy, took a knife to his wife's mouth and slit it open from ear to ear. Other's say it was another woman who was jealous of the woman's beauty. And other says that it was just an accident during a dental procedure. Either way, the woman became a spiteful ghost after death bent on making others suffer like her. What she will do is approach you with a mask over her mouth will come up to you and ask if you think she is pretty. If you say no she will kill you. If you say yes, she will pull off her mask and show you that her mouth has been cut open all the way from ear to ear. She will then ask if you still think she is pretty. If you say no she kills you. If you say yes she will give you the same cuts on her face that she has so you can be as pretty as her (which of course will kill you). Now that you know the story behind the legend, prepare to throw all of that out the window and watch how this off the wall interpretation goes. Movie starts out in the same way that a lot of these Japanese horror story movies start. Kids gossiping about the legend of "Kuchisake-onna" (the "Slit Mouthed Woman"). We see kids talking to kids about it. Parents talking with their kids about it. One of the parents tells his daughter that this rumor isn't new and has been around since he was in middle school. He also tells her that the rumor started right in the very town that they live in (holy coincidence, Batman!). We see an abusive mother yelling at her middle school aged daughter. Telling her that she wishes the slit mouth lady would come and take the daughter away. The daughter just looks at the floor and doesn't respond while the mother continues to yell at her. The mom eventually grabs the girl by the head and throws her to the floor. I am guessing that the girl cut her cheek on the table she was standing next to as she fell, since she is covering her mouth for the rest of the scene. There is another mother with her kids, asking them to go to the store for her. The kids reply that the Slit Mouthed woman is known to appear in the park at 5PM so they don't want to go. The mom says that she will go herself. We then see a teacher (Miss Yamashita) come in where 3 girls were talking about the Kuchisake-onna. The teacher tells them that they all need to go home so they do. The teacher then speaks with a colleague (Mr. Matsuzaki) who comments that it must be hard to be teaching at a new school. The teacher shrugs and says that she will check the roof to see if any students are up there. Her friend goes to his class room and sees on his chalkboard a drawing of the Slit Mouthed Woman (I am just going to refer to her as SMW from now on), asking the question, "Am I pretty?" We then see 3 elementary school boys hiding behind a fort (?) of cardboard talking about what they will do if they see the SMW. As the teacher lady is up on the roof (the scenery is so orange, it looks like a volcano went off recently or something) an earthquake suddenly strikes. We see things falling off of shelves in all of the homes that we saw earlier. Then it goes to a room in a house that we hadn't seen before with a closet/wardrobe with a lock on the door handles. Suddenly a very large pair of scissors bursts through the doors and we see someone wearing a dirty trench coat. Camera rolls up to a decomposed looking face in a mask that asks if she is pretty (we also heard someone asking this while the earthquake was going on). Not sure why the SMW is coming out now. Just because the kids were talking about her? But why? According to one of the dads we saw earlier, people have been talking about her for decades before. So why now? The scene goes back to the boys in the park after the earthquake has ended. The look at the clock nearby and it is 5 minutes after 5PM. The boy in the middle says that there is no SMW when all of a sudden a hand grabs the top of his hand and pulls him back. The other two boys turn around and see the SMW holding the screaming boy by his hair. The two boys turn and run (great friends), for only about 20 feet, and then come to a COMPLETE STOP in order to turn and look back (WHY would you do that if you were running for your life?!). They look back and the other boy and the woman are gone. Next we see elementary and middle school aged kids meeting in a large school gym. Some boys talk about how the other boy got taken away by the SMW (But she never asked that boy if he thought she was pretty, so it feels like the SMW is cheating at her own game). The three girls we saw earlier are laughing at how the girl with the abusive mother is wearing a mask and looks like the SMW. The girl with the abusive mom (Mika) is talking with her friend. Her friend says that there is gossip that someone from their school with be the next victim of the SMW. Mika says that it must be her, because that would make someone else happy. Next we see an adult giving an announcement to the gathered children that classes will be ending early today, and that the kids will all be going home in groups. He tells them to not talk about the incident of the boy disappearing from their neighboring school, that they shouldn't gossip about the SMW, do not talk to strangers, listen to your parents, and don't go out without permission. Next, the three girls from before are bullying Mika because of the mask she is wearing. The call her the SMW and say that she kidnapped the boy. Her friend comes over to defend her, but the 3 girls try to rip Mika's mask off. Eventually they do, and they all freeze when they look at her (we don't see anything since the camera is from behind). Yamashita walks in as Mika hurriedly puts the mask back on and the kids go back to their desks. Yamashita asks what was going on but no one answers. We then see Yamashita escorting her class to their homes, and we also notice that there are police officers patrolling the streets. Mika's mother is not there to pick her up, so Yamashita walks her by herself. Yamashita starts to walk down the street but Mika doesn't follow. Yamashita asks her what is wrong but she doesn't answer. Mika's mother then shows up and apologizes for being late. Mika recoils when her mother tries to touch her and Mika says that she will come home later. Yamashita says that she will stay with Mika until she is ready to go home. Matsuzaki thanks the other teachers for taking their kids home. As they leave, he starts to hear someone whispering, "Am I pretty?" We then see Yamashita asking Mika if she had a fight with her mother, and offering to help her and her mother make up. Mika asks Yamashita if mothers don't like their children. Yamashita replies that some might not, but she doesn't think that is the case with Mika's mom. Mika takes off her mask and we see a large bruise by her mouth. She also shows her teacher other bruises all over her body. Yamashita says that she will make sure that this doesn't happen anymore, but then starts making excuses for the mother's abusiveness towards Mika (there's a great message to give a suffering child). Mika says that she hates her mother, to which Yamashita flips out and yells at her to never say things like that. Mika runs off and Yamashita runs after her. As they round a corner of a building, Yamashita finds Mika being held by the SMW. As she struggles, Mika rips the mask off of the SMW and we see long slits going from both sides of her mouth (though it's not ear to ear. Guess they cheated and we aren't getting a true SMW after-all. (I want my money back!). She is also no longer decomposed looking. Just really pale with really intense eyes. The SMW stares back at Yamashita, who freezes in horror. The SMW walks right past Yamashita with Mika still struggling, and Yamashita doesn't do a thing to help her. Good job lady. We then see the police investigating the area and talking with Yamashita in the back of a police car. The police want her to go down to the station with them. We hear and see Mika's mother freaking out and crying about how her daughter has been taken. The scene goes to Yamashita at her apartment at night. Then Yamashita calls Oto (I think it's her ex-husband or baby daddy) and wants to talk to her daughter. Oto lies and says that the daughter is asleep. Yamashita asks if Ai (the daughter) is still reluctant to speak with her. Oto replies that Ai still refuses to meet with Yamashita. Yamashita apologizes for calling and hangs up. We then see a flashback of a staring at the ground Ai telling Yamashita that she likes her dad better that her mother because her mother hits her. Turns out that Yamashita is also an abusive mother as she slaps Ai and then immediately tries to apologize. Ai runs away and we see that Yamashita is having a nightmare of Ai running and being caught by the SMW. Yamashita still clearly misses Ai. The next day at Mika's mother's house, the detectives tell Sasaki (Mika's mother) that she should get some sleep and they will update her if there is any news. Sasaki says that she can't sleep anyway. She explains that her husband had died in an accident and ever since then her relationship with Mika has gone bad. On the news, they talk about the kidnapping of the two kids. The say that the suspect's description is someone who is dressing up like the SMW. There are 2 very young kids watching the news while their mother is in the kitchen (are you not paying attention to what your kids see lady? This is clearly not appropriate for their age!). The younger one asks if their mother is the kidnapper. The mother turns around and we see that she is wearing a mask. She comes over and pulls the mask down to show that her face is normal, and that she is only wearing it because she has a cold. She coughs (right in her daughter's face!) and leaves to buy some cold medicine. We then see Mika's friend watching the news at her house and crying. Her mother comes in and turns it off (at least one parent has some sense in this movie). The father comes home and has Mika's missing person fliers. He also brings in the 3 girls who were bullying Mika earlier. They solemnly say that they want to help. We then see that the school is closed, and Yamashita is being temporarily suspended by her principal. Matsuzaki runs up and asks to talk to her privately. He asks her about the SMW and what she looks like. When she asks why he asks, he hesitates, and then pulls out a picture. It is a photograph of a woman who looks like the SMW but without the scars. Yamashita frantically asks who it is, how Matsuzaki knows her, and that if he wants to help Mika he will say something. We then hear the "Am I pretty?" question, but it seems that only Matsuzaki the voice saying it. He hurriedly tries to leave in his car but Yamashita jumps into his passenger seat. She says that she isn't going anywhere until he tells her what is going on. As they are driving, Matsuzaki says that the photograph is over 30 years old. He says that he doesn't know what is going on, but every time there has been a kidnapping, he has heard a woman's voice in his head asking the "Am I pretty?" question, and that he heard it just now. So they are driving towards it. (Towards what? The feeling, I guess?) Now we see one of the young boys from earlier watching a news report about the SMW. Kids on the news are talking about rumors where the SMW is supposedly hiding out. Suddenly the doorbell rings. The kid turns off the TV and fearfully asks who is there. Matsuzaki yells out that it's him and asks if the kid is okay. When the kid asks why he is there, Matsuzaki tells him to open the door right away. As he does, Matsuzaki and Yamashita look up and scream as the SMW from inside the house walks over (pretty casually I might add), picks the kid up, and starts to walk back into the house with him. This time Yamashita and Matsuzaki run after her and yells at her to stop. The SMW turns around and points her scissors at the kid. When Matsuzaki tells her to stop again, she tosses the kid aside and starts to ask him if she is pretty. Yamashita runs into the nearby kitchen as the SMW starts to attack Matsuzaki with her scissors. Yamashita then reappears with a kitchen knife, and then runs up and stabs the SMW repeatedly. Eventually the SMW collapses with on the floor and Yamashita and Matsuzaki are stunned. The boy starts to get up and says that she is okay. Then Yamashita screams and we see that the SMW has changed to another person. It is the mom that we saw earlier who had a cold, Matsuzaki pulls out her wallet and finds the ID of Kazuko Yoshida. We see the two girls from before wondering why their mother is late. Yamashita and Matsuzaki drop the kid off by a police box (small police outposts that are common in Japan) and tells him to go to them. But shouldn't they have called them police immediately at the house?! Anyway, the teachers are going to go to the address of the woman to look for Mika, and the boy gives Yamashita a book containing all of the rumors he has been gathering about the SMW. The boy would be a good detective. The teachers arrive at Kazuko Yoshida's house and see the two girls in the window. They tell the teachers that their mother isn't home right now, and Yamashita hurriedly walks away, clearly in shock and guilt over what has happened. Yamashita then tells Matsuzaki about the situation with her own daughter. Possibly as a way to comfort her, or maybe just to show that he trusts her, he tells her that he has never shown the photograph from earlier to anyone before, but now he is certain that it is a picture of the SMW. He also says that he knows the name of the woman in the picture is Taeko Matsuzaki, and that she is his mother! We then see a flashback of how he and his siblings were constantly beaten by their mother. The mother is constantly coughing as she punches all 3 of her kids in the face. Somehow, his older brother, older sister, and even his mother suddenly disappeared. Soon after that the rumors of the SMW started. When he first heard of the rumors he immediately thought of his own other. He eventually ended in a foster home and was afraid to go outside. Now all of a sudden the SMW has resurfaced, and when he saw the SMW right now, he knows that it was his mother. She must have possessed the other woman. He then hears the voice again and gets in his car to leave. Yamashita says that she will go with him. The movie then shows Mika's friend and her mother walking in a park. The mother is coughing and the friend says that they should hurry. The mother starts to have a serious coughing fit, the daughter starts looking around, then looks back at her mother and it is the SMW! We hear a scream as the fliers they were putting up fall to the ground. The teachers arrive at the park but there is no one there. Matsuzaki says that he can only barely hear the voice now but he can't make out where it is coming from. They decide to drive around until they can find it. We then see in a room of a building that we haven't seen before, Mika is tied up and gagged along with another child. We see skeletons on the floor behind them, and what sounds like footsteps coming down the stairs. The lady tosses Mika's friend at her feet (but it looks like she fell from the ceiling??) and she recognizes Mika. The SMW picks her up and starts to tie her up, all while the friend is saying to the SMW that she is her mother. She screams as the SMW shoves the scissors into her mouth and starts making cuts. She then goes to the boy from earlier and starts stabbing him with the scissors. She then leaves Mika alone for some reason and goes upstairs. Mika struggles against the ropes but can't get free. The SMW closes the door at the top of the stairs and the room gets dark. Mika sees some broken pottery by her feet and pulls a piece over to her with her foot. She uses that piece to start cutting the ropes. The scene then goes to a grandfather walking his granddaughter home as night starts to fall. They stumble upon the mutilated body of the boy from earlier. Back at Sasaki's house, the detectives are informing her of the discovery of the boy's body. Sasaki asks them if she can go out for some fresh air. They tell her that it is fine as long as she doesn't go too far. We then see her running to her car and driving off. Then we see the three girls from before being driven back by the father of Mika's friend (who doesn't seem too concerned about where is wife and daughter are). As he drives he sees a bloody young girl walking the streets in his headlights. He stops the car, gets out, and he and the girls walk into the nearby park asking if Mika is there. They stumble upon his bloody daughter, Natsuki (FINALLY we get her name!), she is alive, but her mouth has been slit open just like the SMW's! Now we see the boy that the teachers rescued earlier at the police station being questioned by detective, but for some reason the kid isn't talking. Eventually he says that he will tell the police everything he knows. (Wow. That scene was really informative...) We now see the teachers driving in the car and hearing on the news about the discovery of the dead boy, and Natsuki being in critical condition at the hospital with the cuts on her face. The news also says that they know about the housewife Yamashita killed and are calling it a murder. Matsuzaki turns off the radio as they pull up to a police checkpoint. They pull over and the police ask for ID. Matsuzaki told Yamashita earlier to just act cool, but then keeps his head down and looks extremely uncomfortable while the cop is talking to him. After looking at the ID, the police tells them that they are good to go. Yamashita explains that they work at the school where the Natsuki attended and asks for any news about her or Mika. The officer tells her that Natsuki's condition is now stable, but that there still hasn't been any news about Mika. As they are driving away, they go over the book that the boy left them, and read that the SMW supposedly hides out in a house with a red roof. Matsuzaki realizes that the house he lived in as a kid had a red roof. Back at the police station, the detectives are clearly not buying what the kid has to say (despite him being an eye witness to a murder???) Next we see Sasaki at Yamashita's apartment knocking on her door but she isn't home. So she goes to Sasaki's neighbor and asks if she knows anything about the SMW. The neighbor's daughter comes out and says that she knows about the house with the red roof, and that it is on "Childbeck Hill". (I am starting to think that the message of this film is that adults need to listen to kids more seriously.) We then see the teachers arriving at Childbeck hill. Then we see Mika still working on the rope with the broken pottery piece, but not making progress. The teachers pull up to the house and it is the typical deserted, run down, creepy Japanese house that you would expect. They cautiously enter with flashlights and look around while calling out of Mika. They find old furniture, books, and clothes scattered around the place. Eventually they find the wardrobe that we saw the SMW come out of in the beginning of the movie. Yamashita finds a large kitchen knife on the floor nearby and picks it up. He stares at it and drops it on the floor. Yamashita asks him what is wrong. He doesn't say anything but looks visibly upset. Then he says that he now remembers how his mother became the SMW. We go to a flashback of him as a kid, all beaten up, and his mother coughing like crazy. She comes over and beats him some more. Then his mother starts to apologize and cry about what she has done. She begs him to forgive her. She then runs outside and comes back with the same knife that we saw earlier. Thinking that she is going to kill him, he begs her not to. But then she kneels in front of him, puts the knife in his hands and tells him to cut her head off! (WTF??!!) She says that he has to do it because she is afraid that the next time she goes crazy she will kill him. She ten tells him that she is the one who killed his older brother and sister. He just stares at her and she falls back, coughing like crazy as she did before hitting him. She then picks up a large pair of scissors and yells at him to kill her before he ends up like his siblings. She tries to stab him but misses, then tells him to hurry up and kill her before "it" comes back and tries to kill him. As she comes at him with the scissors again he swings the knife across her face and cuts open her mouth. She tells him that he has to aim for her neck, and he stabs her repeatedly. She then collapses and Matsuzaki puts a face mask over her mouth. Still holding the scissors, he puts her body into the wardrobe and closes the doors, as we hear the adult Matsuzaki saying that he kept hearing her voice telling him to "Aim for her neck." Back in the present, they look inside the wardrobe, and although there is blood on the inside of it, there is no body. They do see in the back that there is a hole behind some planks of wood that is big enough to walk through. Yamashita yells for Mika, who starts screaming back through the gag in her mouth. They run through the hole and find her at the bottom of the stairs still alive. Yamashita unties her and Matsuzaki looks around, saying that he didn't know about the cellar. He discovers the two skeletons that we saw earlier, and they deduce that they most likely are his older brother and sister. They decide to get out and take Mika to the hospital. As the slowly walk back through the house, Matsuzaki hears "Aim at my..." from the voice again (at least that's what the subtitles say. If you understand Japanese, you would know that she is actually still asking the "am I pretty" question again). He tells Yamashita what he heard and that the SMW must be close. But it sounds now like the voice is crying ash she says the words multiple times. He looks down a hallway (and of course nothing is there) so he turns around, and suddenly the SMW appears and stabs him in the lower back with the scissors. He falls over and the SMW grabs his feet and cuts both Achilles tendons. Yamashita and Mika scream and try to run away but can't get any of the doors to open. (Um... hello? They are clearly paper doors. Just go right through them like Homer did in the Simpsons when they went to Japan.) The SMW drags Matsuzaki behind her as she corners Yamashita and Mika. She stops in front of them for a second, then punches and kicks Yamashita when she tries to grab her. Then she hits Mika and tosses her aside. She goes back to Matsuzaki, now belly up on the floor and starts to drag him again. We then see Sasaki arrive at the entrance of Childbeck hill. Next we are back at the cellar where the SMW is kicking Matsuzaki repeatedly on the ground. She goes over to Mika, pulls out her scissors, and kicks her in the face. Then we see Sasaki enter the house and find one of the flashlights on. She discovers the trail of blood from when the SMW dragged Matsuzaki. She calls out for Mika as she follows the trail. She finds Yamashita, still alive but only now waking up. Yamashita points to the wardrobe and Sasaki goes it. We see the SM kicking Mika, and Sasaki comes over and pushes SMW aside (who strangely doesn't resist). Then we see Yamashita upstairs find the knife that Matsuzaki found before. Now we see Sasaki holding Mika (instead of making sure they get out alive??) and the SMW comes over and stabs Sasaki with her scissors. Yamashita points the knife at the SMW and begs her to stop. Matsuzaki yells at SMW to stop and calls her his mother. She turns to him and is about to go at him with the scissors when Yamashita comes up and stabs the SMW in the neck with the knife from behind. The SMW staggers to the other side of the room and falls over. Matsuzaki crawls over and asks for the knife. He crawls for towards the SMW as Yamashita, Mika, and Sasaki struggle to get up and out of the cellar. As Matsuzaki raises the knife over the SMW, to everyone's horror the SME turns back into Natsuki's mother. Next, Sasaki starts coughing and turns into the SMW. She pulls out her scissors and starts to walk towards Mika and Yamashita as Matsuzaki crawls over and grabs her ankle and tells Yamashita to run. The SMW starts kicking him repeatedly and then stabs him with the scissors. He slices her again with the knife like he did as a kid. She gets up and raises the scissors at him again, but he pulls her legs out from under her and then stabs her in the stomach again. The SMW stops and holds him like a mother who is concerned for her child. She tilts her head back, and he hears the voice tell him to aim for her neck. He stabs her in the neck and she falls back as another earthquake starts. We don't see it up close, but he eventually then cuts her head off. The earthquake makes a bunch of wooden planks fall over the entrance of the cells as we see him sitting back with the head of the SMW in his lap. Yamashita and Mika make it outside (they just left Matsuzaki in there? It was just a few thin wooden planks that fell over the opening!) where they collapse by Sasaki's car. Yamashita holds Mika as Mika quietly calls out for her mother. Then we see the decapitated head of Sasaki on the ground with Matsuzaki sitting nearby with his eyes closed. (I suppose he could be dead from the stab wound earlier, but it really isn't clear, since he seemed to have plenty of energy to cut off someone's head), and we see the decomposed version of the SMW standing over him. Next it goes to a scene where Yamashita is meeting with her ex-husband and her daughter Ai at a playground. Yamashita apologizes for calling them there and asks if she can speak with Ai alone. She begs him and says that she will never ask him for another favor again. He agrees but tells her to make it quick. Yamashita bends down to Ai's level and apologizes. She hugs Ai who, after a while, hugs her back and calls her mother. Yamashita starts crying with joy, but then starts having a coughing fit. She gets up and now she is the SMW! She pulls out her scissors, holds them up in the air, and then the screen goes black and we hear the words "Aim at my neck." (Again, that's just what the subtitles say. She is actually saying in Japanese the am I pretty question again.) The screen goes black and for some reason we are treated to a romantic sounding pop song for the closing credits.
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