Fuma keeps waking up and finding his son Ren. Over and over again. Sometimes he embraces the boy, sometimes he strikes the boy, but as soon as the scene is played out he wakes up again.

In a secret facility in the woods, scientists are conducting experiments of a less-than ethical nature. The nature of the experiments isn’t clear right away, but perhaps it has something to do with cloning? Or maybe the title of the film?

And engaged couple seeks a marriage venue in these same woods, but the car breaks down and the wedding planner leaves them in an abandoned house on the grounds of a nuclear facility while she seeks help.

These stories eventually collide, and the truth is weird and horrific, and soon the innocent members of these stories are fighting for their lives against mutant, mimic clones. Sort of.

It’s a weird film, but see, Japanese weird is weirder than American weird. I mean, have you ever seen Gozu? Funky Forest?

“Wait, now the mimic is a flying kabuki dude?*” — from my notes.

I enjoy watching films with unexpected worldbuilding. What are the rules? What is the game? In short, What the f@#k is going on here, anyway? Mimicry Freaks is a great film for that sort of enjoyment. What is going on is a mystery for the viewer, but a matter of life and death for the participants. Fuma must come to terms with who and what he is, ultimately, and the others are caught up in their own messes that twine with Fuma’s story, but are their own.

One thing this movie does well that many American films do not, is character design. I know, that’s not usually the term when referring to human actors, but it’s an important thing. In the chaos of flashbacks, intercuts, hallucinations, changes of POV, it’s never confusing who is who. Fuma is a fairly generic man, and Ren a fairly generic boy. Scientists are not interchangeable people in matching labcoats. Everyone isn’t Hollywood pretty — or Hollywood neutral. Hair styles, clothing styles, body types, ages, all distinct. And that’s not to mention the “monster” elements that makes Number 021 seem inhuman. This is especially a crucial choice when the theme is of mimicry. If any character were similar to any other, it would muddy the waters of who or what we are looking at, and the story itself muddies that just fine, thank you.

And not incidentally, the setting is made up of distinct, interesting and photogenic places — a dense forest, an abandoned building, a science facility.

Thoroughly an enjoyable film, that itself really isn’t a mimicry of anything.

*I have since learned that the critter in question is a Namahage.

9 out of 10 Copies