HIRUKO THE GOBLIN (1990)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: A
Duration: 90 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: Japanese LPCM 1.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Cast: Kenji Sawada, Masaki Kudo, Megumi Ueno, Naoto Takenaka
From director Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man) comes the horror flick Hiruko the Goblin (1991), based on a Japanese manga series of the same name, which sways away from the cyber-punk noir of Tetsuo in favor of a more mainstream Japanese folk-horror story with a Lovecraftian edge, wherein Hieda (Kenji Sawada, The Happiness of the Katakuris) is an eccentric archaeologist laughed at by his peers for his belief in goblins. This belief leads him to invent gadgets and weapons to detect and combat goblins, very much along the lines of Ghostbusters. When he receives a letter from his brother-in-law, Yabe, telling him of an ancient burial mound he has discovered near the local high school with strange details he feels it might prove his goblin theories so he hightails it over there.
When Hieda arrives he discovers that Yabe has since gone missing along with a female high school student named
Tsukishima (Megumi Ueno) who assisted him on the archeological dig. Hieda ends up teaming with Yabe’s son Masao (Masaki Kuodo) to search the school grounds, and the school itself which is closed for summer break, for the entrance to the ancient tomb in hopes of finding out what happened to Yabe and Tsukishima, and along the way discovering a demonic cosmic horror that could threaten the world if unleashed.
Hiruko is an atmospheric and often humorous slice of Japanese folk-tale with inventive creature design and special effects with the arachnids looking a bit like H.R. Giger-esque goblins who rip off the heads of their victims and wear them, creating a very The Thing inspired spider-head, offering some truly fantastic moments of gore and blood-geysers. These effects are created using miniatures, animatronic puppets and some cool retro stop-motion. The only effect that didn't quite work for was a goblin scurrying along a ceiling that was chasing the protagonists, that was a bit ropey. I also dug the homemade goblin-busting devices used by Hieda, with a sensor that looks like it was made with kitchen cookery and a car's brake light, and a modified cattle-prod sort of thing.
The main protagonists are quite likable, with Hieda still mourning the loss of his wife, her death shown in a nightmare, and Masao has difficulty coming to terms with the fact that the severed head of Tsukishima being worn by a spider-goblin is no longer the girl he once crushed on so hard. Another interesting aspect is that as Masao's classmates become victims of the goblins, for reasons not immediately clear, a mole appears on his back in the shape of his their faces. Its an interesting flick that is a bit of hodge-podge of influences, I've not read the manga series but there's some easily identifiable homages to Alien, Evil Dead and The Thing happening here, and I loved it.
Audio/Video: Hiruko: The Goblin arrived on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro with a great looking new 2K restoration from the OCN, presented in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1). Its a very pleasing image with sharp detail, well-saturated colors and solid black, and its free of blemish. Audio comes by way of Japanese LPCM mono with optional English subtitles, free of distortion and well-balanced. It's not overly dynamic but there's some depth to it and dialogue sounds true throughout.
Extras kick-off with a 3-min director's intro, then onto Audio Commentary from author Tom Mes who addressed how different this is compared to the director's other works, describing it as mainstream. He's well-versed in Tsukamoto's body of work and talks about the source manga. We also get a new 28-min Interview with Director Shinya Tsukamoto who talks about his decision to take on a more mainstream project that was created by committee and not as an author, and the reasoning behind that.
We also get some cool archival stuff by way of an 8-min Interview with director Shinya Tsukamoto, 4-min Inteview with the Special Effects Creator, 3-min SFX Featurette, and 2-min Theatrical Trailer. The disc is buttoned up with a 14-min Mondo Macabro Preview reel. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork.
Special Features:
- Brand New 2k Restoration from original negative.
- NEW Interview with director Shinya Tsukamoto (28 min)
- Archival Interview with director Shinya Tsukamoto (8 min)
- Intro by Director Shinya Tsukamoto (3 min)
- Archival Interview with the Special Effects Creator (4 min)
- SFX Featurette (3 min)
- Audio commentary from author Tom Mes
- Mondo Macabro previews (14 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
Hiruko the Goblin (1990) is a pretty cool Japanese folk-tale that offers stylish supernatural thrills, respectable gore, humor and some lovely nods to films like the Evil Dead-esque jittery demonic POV and spider-headed goblins that make it hard not to think of The Thing. Mondo Macabro give it a first-rate Blu-ray with plenty of extras, definitely a recommend to fans of Lovecraftian creature-features and folk-horror.
Screenshots from the Mondo Macabro Blu-ray:
