Carved
The slit mouthed woman or Kuchisake –onna is a Japanese horror film directed by Koji Shiraishi and co-written by Naoyuki Yokota. This film is based on the Japanese myth of Kuchisake –onna .
The legend of the woman had been slightly altered for the movie .The original legend is that the Kuchisake – onna was a beautiful woman who would go around the village and ask people if she was pretty and they all said “yes’’ . She grew confidant in herself and married an intelligent samurai , she believed that she could get away with having an affair with an solider but soon the samurai had found out and asked the solider why he did this to which he replied “"For she is the most beautiful of the village, I cannot pass up such an opportunity." The samurai adored his honesty and acknowledged that he had the response and reason. After all he was a poor solider and had nothing positive in his life. The solider had right intentions while his wife did not. She was the most beautiful women in the village and without her beauty she had nothing. The samurai, filled with anger drew his sword and slit the woman’s mouth ear to ear. Soon after that she had killed herself and became known as the slit mouthed woman.
The movie starts off with the legend of the women going through the small village, an earthquake causes a corpse matching the entity breaks out of the closet in an abandoned house. As that happens, a teacher Noboru Matsuzaki (Haruhiko Kato) hears a voice asking “Am I pretty’’. At a playground, a boy with his friends goes looking for the woman and the creature captures the boy, who then mysteriously disappeared .
This incident had the school in which Noboru works at is at edge and had everyone walk home in groups with the teachers. A girl in year 6 Mika Sasaki does not want to go home admitting to her teacher Kyôko Yamashita (Eriko Sato), that her mother beats her. Mika then says that she hates her mother , Kyoko(who has a troubled relationship with her daughter and ex – husband) becomes angered and shouts at her causing Mika to run away, straight into the arms of the Kuchisake - onna , which again is foreshadowed by Noboru hearing the voice again asking “Am I pretty “. As the woman leaves with Mika, Mika knocks her mask of her face causing Kyoko to see her disfigured face .
After the incident Kyoko decides to quit her job and as she leaves the office Noboru runs after her and shows her a picture of a woman that is 30 years old and resembles the appearance of the slit mouth woman . Noboru hears once again the woman’s voice and goes with Kyoko in the direction of the voice which leads him to a house, where he and Kyoko save a boy from the Kuchisake – onna whom Kyoko kills with a knife. The body of the woman turns out to be one of the neighboring housewife’s body, revealing that the Kuchisake – onna possesses mothers whose infection is signified by a developing cough.
Noboru then tells Kyoko that the woman in the photo is his mother Taeko Matzusaki (Miki Mizuno) who used to abuse him and his siblings. One day his mother had disappeared after killing his siblings and soon after that the rumors and sightings of the Kuchisake – onna started. Noboru once again hears the voice of the woman who has possessed Mika, the friend of Natsuki’s mother, who then takes Natsuki to the woman’s lair and cuts her face from ear to ear and kills the boy who she took from the playground . Mika then cuts the ropes on Natsukis but Natsuki is too traumatized and injured to help searching for her friend .
Kyoko looks through the information in a book about the woman that she got from the boy who saved her and finds out that the woman’s hideout is a red, abandoned house that matches the description of Noboru childhood home. As he searches for the house with Kyoko he remembers that his mother tried to have him mercy to kill her and told him to decapitate her head, otherwise she would come back, possess and haunt others. Noboru was hesitant to kill his mother and did it in the end but he had only slit her mouth, stabbed her and then dressed her up in a coat and mask and hid her in a closet.
Kyoko and Noboru find Mika in the basement and are attacked by the Kuchisake woman. The woman stabs Kyoko and drags Noboru and Mika to the basement and cuts Noboru’s ankles. As Kyoko tries to save them she meets Mika’s mother who is also searching for her daughter and together they go down the basement. As the woman raises her knife to kill Mika, her mother pushes her and rushes towards Mika. Mika’s mothers is trying to help her and is too busy to notice the woman behind her but is saved when Kyoko kills the woman..
As they try to leave, Mika’s mother starts coughing and Kyoko, very concerned, looks back to see the woman and tries to rush out with Mika in her hands. Noboru, wanting to end this, crawls all the way to the woman and tugs her down and beheads her to reveal Mika’s mother. As soon as that happens the house starts to collapse and Noboru tells Mika and the teacher to run and stays behind.
Once they get out Mika is taken by the police and Kyoko, seeing how much Mika and her mother suffered meets up with her husband and their daughter. . As Kyoko spends time with her daughter she starts coughing and the woman once again appears and the same word told to Noboru as a child is said to the daughter “ aim for the neck “.
