, or ''Freezer'', is a

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

Takashi Ishii. This film stars

Harumi Inoue is an actress, model and accomplished swimmer. She has a younger sister, Mami Inoue, who is also pursuing a similar career. Also, a younger brother, Eiki Kitamura, with whom she performed alongside in '' Rock Musical Bleach''. Because of her sp ...

as Chihiro, a

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

victim who tries to live a normal life, only to be visited several years later by her three rapists in her apartment and raped again before she kills them.

Synopsis

One February night in a small town north of Tokyo, school girl Chihiro Yamazaki was brutally raped at home by her childhood friend Noboru and his two friends Minoru Baba and Atsushi Kojima, who even recorded their misdeed on film. Traumatized, she left for Tokyo, where she managed to bring her life back on track and even got herself a boyfriend. However, five years later, Chihiro is horrified to meet Noboru, who has tracked her down. She tries to flee into her apartment, but Noboru catches up with her, brazenly lodges himself in her apartment and prepares to rape her again. Chihiro manages to lock herself into the bathroom, but then Noboru begins to put pictures of Chihiro's previous rape into her neighbors' mail slots, forcing her to give in to his sadistic whims. He also summons Baba and Kojima to join him at Chihiro's place. Noboru soon begins to barge into every aspect of Chihiro's life, and by introducing himself as her new boyfriend, he purposefully isolates her from her friends. Chihiro's desperate mind quickly turns to murder, and one day, as Noboru takes a bath, she slays him by bashing his head in with a water bottle and hides the body in her freezer. However, right afterwards the next of her old tormentors, Kojima, arrives. Initially he apologizes to Chihiro for his misdeed, but drunk and frustrated with his life, he eventually also begins to lust after her. As he prepares to get himself a beer from the freezer, he finds Noboru's body stuffed inside and is thereupon killed by Chihiro. Developing a sick fascination for frozen corpses, she purchases another freezer and hides Kojima's body inside. After leaving a message for her boyfriend Nogami, telling him all what happened to her five years ago, Chihiro packs up and moves away. However, the last of her tormentors, Baba, finds her but is not aware that she killed his friends. He also rapes Chihiro, but as he plays video games afterwards, Chihiro slays him and stuffs his body into her freezer; however, a power outage in her apartment disables the refrigeration systems, gradually thawing the bodies and leaving them to rot in the summer heat. Driven delirious by a fever, Chihiro decides to flee to Europe when she is suddenly visited by Nogami, who has missed her. After spending a night together, Nogami notices the smell of decay and finds the bodies in the freezers. Chihiro instinctively kills him as well, but after coming to her senses, and with her life now thoroughly in shambles, she commits suicide, throwing herself off her balcony.

Cast

as Chihiro Yamazaki *

Kazuki Kitamura is a Japanese film and television actor who won the award for best supporting actor at the 21st Yokohama Film Festival for '' Minazuki'', ''Kyohansha'' and ''Kanzen-naru shiiku'' as well as the CUT ABOVE Award for Excellence in Film at JAPAN CUTS ...

as Noboru Hirokawa, Chihiro's former childhood friend and one of the rapists *

Naoto Takenaka is a Japanese actor, comedian, singer, and director from Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, affiliated with From First Production. He is married to idol singer and actress Midori Kinouchi. He is also known as the voice of Samuel L. ...

as Minoru Baba, a

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

and one of the rapists *

Shingo Tsurumi is a Japanese actor. Career Shingo Tsurumi has appeared in the films such as Katsuhito Ishii's '' Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl'', Hideo Nakata's '' L: Change the World'', and Tak Sakaguchi's ''Yakuza Weapon''. Filmography Films * ''Tonda ...

as Atsushi Kojima, a yakuza and one of the rapists * Shunsuke Matsuoka as Yûsuke Nogami, Chihiro's colleague and boyfriend

Release

''Freeze Me'' was distributed by

Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...

on May 27, 2000.

Reception

The Japan Times'' described ''Freeze Me'' declared that there was "nothing childish about Ishii's vision of evil" and that "Ishii sees more clearly than many of his directorial colleagues, with their winking indulgence of the male id and ego, how that evil, in the absence of any countervailing force, has penetrated to the heart of Japanese society. Chihiro's solution is still extreme, but her worst fears have become all too common."

References

Sources

*Alexander, James R
"The Maturity of a Film Genre in an Era of Relaxing Standards of Obscenity: Takashi Ishii's Freezer as a Rape-Revenge Film"
Accessed October 6, 2007

External links

* *

' at the Japanese Movie Database {{Takashi Ishii 2000 films 2000 psychological thriller films Japanese psychological thriller films Films directed by Takashi Ishii 2000s Japanese-language films 2000s erotic thriller films Rape and revenge films Japanese erotic thriller films 2000s Japanese films