Oh Mr. Garris, Broaden Your Horizons....

So I've been picking and choosing Masters of Horror episodes to watch, and reading their summaries online. (Since you need the episode title to search for it.) I came across a tidbit on the final episode, 'Imprint'. It was deemed too graphic and disturbing to be aired even at midnight on cable, and even the DVD release was edited for content. Mick Garris himself described it as the most disturbing thing he had ever seen on film, and stated he could barely watch it.

Now, having watched a good handful of MoH episodes already, I was perplexed. If Dance of the Dead and Jennifer could be aired (though I believe Jennifer had to be edited some), what in the world was so horrible about Imprint? Even the description was rather bland and vague: A 19th century American tourist gets much more than he bargained for while searching for a Japanese prostitute he fell in love with years earlier.

'Huh', says I. 'I need more information, let's see..... Oh. OH!!'

Before I even began reading a detailed summary, I saw the name of the director. Takashi Miike. (He of Audition and Izo fame, among many others, but those are the ones most horror fans would know.)

So basically what they mean is 'most graphic and disturbing thing ever....by mainstream American standards'. Though lol at Miike for replying, when the episode was cancelled by Showtime, '...I thought for certain I was within the boundaries of what an American TV audience's limits were.'

I am torn between watching it because I do love Japanese horror and also I'd like to see how it hits me (though I'm pretty sure, from the broader summary I read, I actually know part of the story) and not because it looks like another heavy-on-the-sex-horror episode, and really that gets old pretty quickly.