is a 2007 Japanese

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

written and directed by

Sion Sono Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

, and stars

Chiaki Kuriyama is a Japanese actress, singer, and model. She is best known in the West for her roles as Takako Chigusa in Kinji Fukasaku's 2000 film '' Battle Royale'' and Gogo Yubari in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film '' Kill Bill: Volume 1''. Life and career ...

Ren Osugi , born was a Japanese actor. For his work in ''Cure'', ''Hana-bi'' and other films, Osugi was given the Best Supporting Actor award at the 1999 Yokohama Film Festival. He often worked alongside Takeshi Kitano and Susumu Terajima. In the DVD comme ...

, and Megumi Satō. The title is a Japanese slang shortening

Romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

term "extension" from "

hair extension Artificial hair integrations, more commonly known as hair extensions, hair weaves, and fake hair add length and fullness to human hair. Hair extensions are usually clipped, glued, or sewn on natural hair by incorporating additional human or syn ...

". The plot involves an aspiring hair dresser (Kuriyama) who becomes the infatuation of a tricophilic man who sells hair extensions to nearby hair salons. The source of the hair is the stolen corpse of a girl whose dead body continues to grow beautiful and voluminous black hair that comes alive, driving those who use the extensions insane or killing them. The movie was released in the U.S. as ''Exte: Hair Extensions''.

Plot

Inside a shipping container, customs agents discover a huge amount of human hair used as materials for

hair extensions Artificial hair integrations, more commonly known as hair extensions, hair weaves, and fake hair add length and fullness to human hair. Hair extensions are usually clipped, glued, or sewn on natural hair by incorporating additional human or syn ...

, along with the body of a young girl with a shaved head. The corpse is transported to the morgue, where it is discovered that the girl's internal organs have been harvested by illegal organ traffickers. The morgue's night watchman, a tricophile named Yamazaki (

), is infatuated by the girl's hair and steals the body. He finds that the body has begun to grow hair everywhere, not just on every pore but in areas that shouldn't have hair: the head, vacant eye sockets, tongue, and open wounds. A delighted Yamazaki harvests the hair to make hair extensions to sell. However, the hair controls and kills its wearers, causing them to experience the dying memories of the dead girl, including the last thing she saw on the operating table: the smiling mouth of the man who killed her, unbeknownst to Yamazaki. Yuko (

) is a young apprentice hair stylist at a local salon. Her irresponsible older sister, Kiyomi ( Tsugumi), dumps her eight-year-old daughter, Mami, on Yuko and her roommate Yuki ( Megumi Satō). By happenstance Yamazaki encounters Yuko and Mami and finds their hair beautiful. He comes to Yuko's salon the next day with his hair extensions, which her co-workers are impressed with. That night, Kondo, one of Yuko's co-workers, is killed when the hair begins sprouting from her eyes, head, and mouth. It is revealed through a flashback that the dead girl's head was shaved by her kidnappers before her murder. Meanwhile, Yuko and Yuki refuse to return Mami to Kiyomi due to her abuse of the child. Kiyomi returns while they are away and drags Mami back to her boyfriend's home, taking some of the hair extensions with her. After Mami is locked in a closet, the extensions kill Kiyomi and her boyfriend. Mami escapes the hair by jumping out of the window, injuring herself. Yuko later uses Mami as her model in a hairdressing workshop and attaches one of Yamazaki's hair extensions to her hair, and lets Mami keep the extensions as she goes back home. The workshop is then interrupted by detectives investigating Kondo's death. Yuko realizes that the hair extensions are the linking factor in the deaths and races home to save Mami. Yuki is strangled to death by the hair and Mami faints. Yuko arrives into the hair-filled apartment but is choked unconscious by the hair. Yamazaki arrives and commands the hair to spare Mami and Yuko. He takes them back to his hair-covered home. There, he discovers the detectives caught in the hair, who searched his house because of the deaths. He kills them as Yuko wakes up. Yamazaki explains that he has learned that the girl's hair keeps growing to carry on her grudge against society. He wishes for Mami and Yuko to stay with him and the corpse forever. Yuko rejects him; Yamazaki, enraged, allows the hair to possess him; his tongue becomes hairy and his blood and limbs replaced by hair. In anger, he cuts some of Mami's hair, which begins to bleed. The blood and Yamazaki's smiling cause the corpse to associate him with the man who killed her and she suddenly sits up and slices him to pieces with strands of hair while Yuko and Mami escape. Her grudge satisfied, the hair disappears and the girl's body returns to normal, finally at peace. Yuko asks Mami to live with her permanently, which Mami happily accepts.

Cast

- Yuko Mizushima *

- Gunji Yamazaki * Megumi Sato - Yuki Morita * Tsugumi - Kiyomi Mizushima * Eri Machimoto - Sachi Koda * Yuna Natsuo - Kondo * Miku Sato - Mami Mizushima *

Mirai Yamamoto is a Japanese actress. Her father is Kansai Yamamoto. Personal life Yamamoto was born in Tokyo, Japan. She met Kippei Shiina in 1995 when they worked together on the series , and began dating him after they co-starred in the 1998 film ''Fuyaj ...

- Kayo Sugimura * Mayu Sakuma - Bald foreign girl

Trivia

Mayu Sakuma, who played the foreign girl, actually shaved her head on-screen for the role.

References

External links

*
''EXTE'' review
at SaruDama.com * {{Sion Sono 2007 films 2007 horror films Films directed by Sion Sono Japanese horror films Japanese comedy horror films Toei Company films Fiction about curses Films about child abuse 2000s Japanese films