Uzumaki: Editing, Obsession, Acceptance

Kathryn joins Melvin in discussing an early Junji Ito live-action adaption, Uzumaki! Although the film went into production before the manga had reached its completion, there’s still a lot of exciting material to cover in this truly wacky film; and not just because of the spirals!

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 38-minutes of Kathryn and Melvin competing in a Movie/Entertainment Trivia game, finally figuring out which one of the two knows more about everything Movies and Entertainment! (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• Kathryn and Melvin are huge fans of Junji Ito, both of which having read his manga for close to 10 years. The two talk about what it is about his work that captures their attention.
• In introducing Uzumaki, the two can’t avoid it: They have to talk about the editing first.
• The setting feels fresh and “lived in”, and even the various characters within the story feel as though they’ve known each other for a long time.
• Melvin wonders about the correlation between films about social issues, or that have social awareness, and the size of the community within the fiction (or, the reality they’re based on). Kathryn shares her thoughts.
• There’s one scene in Uzumaki that is so hauntingly patient that it really affected Melvin. He describes the scene, and the two explore it together.
• Discussing how Kirie and Shuichi are roughly the same characters between both the manga and the movie, but how what they represent in the story in relation to the spirals is different.

Recommendations:

• The Devil’s Candy (2016) (Movie)
• The Spiral (Original Title: Rasen) (1998) (Movie)

Uzumaki is Unrated. It features Eriko Hatsune, Fhi Fan, Hinako Saeki, Shin Eun-kyung, Keiko Takahashi, Ren Ôsugi, and Masami Horiuchi. Directed by Akihiro Higuchi. Uzumaki is available here.

Consider supporting Cinematic Doctrine on Patreon! As a bonus, you can gain access to a once-a-month movie poll where you decide a movie we discuss on the podcast, early unedited episodes of the podcast, and merch!!

Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

Cinematic Doctrine is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and other major podcast apps.