Somehow, Zoroku has contracted a weird disease, one that transforms his
body and makes him slowly decay ... and decay with all that comes with it,
including stench and flies. Soon, everyone in the village is freaked out
by him and wants him cast out or (better yet) dead, even though he's
refined to his home anyways, only his family stays by his side ... at
least at first, when Zoroku's mind starts to decay too and he has
outbursts of madness, his father decides it would be best to kill him, a
sort of mercy killing. But Zoroku's sister Haruko, who's always been
devoted to her brother, won't let daddy harm Zoroku, and she rather runs
away with him - actually she's carrying him - than let any harm come to
him. Haruko's and Zoroku's escape however is intercepted by the mayor's
son, a guy who feels some weird affection to Haruko but was always the one
who demanded Zoroku's demise the loudest, and he has no problems
overcoming Haruko, weakened from carrying her brother, and beat Zoroku to
death. Haruko becomes so enraged by this however that she picks up an axe
she can hardly carry and cuts down the mayor's son to size ... quite
literally. A heart-warming tale about love (and quite innocent
love I might add) between brother and sister - but with a twist to it
inasmuch as the brother is gradually decaying, so this is rather a film
for horror- than for family-film-fans, but it also means the film is much
more poignant in making its point because of that. However, The Ravaged
House does not relie so much on sensationalist details andopen shocks
than it does on atmosphere, and the pace of the film is deliberately slow,
which fits the narrative quite nicely. In all though, the film is not
perfect, in many instances it just lacks real depth, but it's short enough
to not outstay its welcome, and despite an obviously low budget it's
beautifully shot. Worth a look at least, but it might help if you do enjoy
your family films a bit weird.
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