Sang-il Lee's THE NOSE was commissioned by the NHK television station for a 4-episode series of ghost stories called KAIDAN HORROR CLASSICS. The series took a more reflective spin on the traditional ghost story by noted writers and film directors who normally might not necessarily work in this genre; uniting the diverse talents of Shinya Tsukamoto, Sang-il Lee, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Masayuki Ochiai.
In contrast to Shinya Tsukamoto's THE WHISTLER, which relates its horror drama through the probing of a state of emotional and mental imbalance, Sang-il Lee's THE NOSE turns towards that other staple of the psychological horror (one ironically that one would think more suited to Tsukamoto's usual subject matter) in the nature of physical deformity and body-horror. If it were set in the present-day, the story of a priest (Yutaka Matsushige) with a face hideously deformed by a 5" long nose would be the subject of a TV documentary or a case for 'Embarrassing Bodies', but set during the Heian era (it's significant that all the stories in KAIDAN are set in the past), religion and superstition are brought into the equation to rather more unsettling effect.
The supernatural element of the story, written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, derives from the twist in circumstances as well as the body-horror elements. The priest, a wandering outcast wearing a cloth mask to disguise his deformity, is called upon by superstitious villagers to pray for the recovery of a boy who is believed to have drowned in the river. To the shock of the priest - since the boy's drowning was in part due his reaction to the sight of the priest's nose being revealed - the boy comes back and appears to be very much alive. Regardless of the period or the setting, THE NOSE recognises that there is still a fascination for the afflicted and the suspicion that it reveals something about the nature of a cursed individual. Go on, admit it - you're intrigued to see just how horrible the nose looks. Like the best horror stories, THE NOSE probes those hidden fears and prejudices and reflects them right back at us.
In contrast to Shinya Tsukamoto's THE WHISTLER, which relates its horror drama through the probing of a state of emotional and mental imbalance, Sang-il Lee's THE NOSE turns towards that other staple of the psychological horror (one ironically that one would think more suited to Tsukamoto's usual subject matter) in the nature of physical deformity and body-horror. If it were set in the present-day, the story of a priest (Yutaka Matsushige) with a face hideously deformed by a 5" long nose would be the subject of a TV documentary or a case for 'Embarrassing Bodies', but set during the Heian era (it's significant that all the stories in KAIDAN are set in the past), religion and superstition are brought into the equation to rather more unsettling effect.
The supernatural element of the story, written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, derives from the twist in circumstances as well as the body-horror elements. The priest, a wandering outcast wearing a cloth mask to disguise his deformity, is called upon by superstitious villagers to pray for the recovery of a boy who is believed to have drowned in the river. To the shock of the priest - since the boy's drowning was in part due his reaction to the sight of the priest's nose being revealed - the boy comes back and appears to be very much alive. Regardless of the period or the setting, THE NOSE recognises that there is still a fascination for the afflicted and the suspicion that it reveals something about the nature of a cursed individual. Go on, admit it - you're intrigued to see just how horrible the nose looks. Like the best horror stories, THE NOSE probes those hidden fears and prejudices and reflects them right back at us.