What They Say:
She’s tantalizing. Spellbinding. Irresistible. And yet freelance photographer Uemura fights his attraction for the beautiful Mari with all his might. For not only is she the wife of the prominent head of a prestigious hospital, but all those who’ve previously had affairs with this sensual succubus seem to have expired prematurely. It’s a losing battle, however, and Uemura soon finds himself pulled into the arms of the voluptuous Mari and the jaws of a trap designed to suck men dry and spit out the husks. Mari’s husband, Ginjiro, is all too aware of who’s been sleeping in his wife’s bed, and the sexual predation that follows will pull Uemura into a world of bondage and depravity. From the novels of the late legendary SM Master Oniroku Dan, comes a twisted tale of ties that bind until only death can part them –THE CURSE M!
The Review:
Audio:
The DD 2.0 soundtrack is encoded at 48kHz at 224Kbps. Most scenes of the film are interior shots with little need for directionality or separation. While basic, the audio provides enough clarity for the more important vocal and sound effect sequences.
Video:
Originally released in 2009, the film is shown in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. While noise seems consistent in many scenes, it never becomes severe to the point of distraction. With good upconversion, the noise fades into a filmic texture.
Packaging:
The DVD comes encased in a standard keepcase size box. The front cover has an image of Mari on crimson silk sheets. While stretched out with only a bikini bottom, a very unrealistic snake covers her chest. The spine offers a cropped version of the front cover image with the title and Switchblade Pictures logo taking up the bottom half. The back cover offers the summary in white font on a black field. A large image of Mari suspended in a rope apparatus over lit candles takes up the right side of the cover. Seven smaller screenshots from the film give away a plot point, so be careful to avoid looking at those on your first viewing. At the bottom the technical grid has been created in clear fonts..
Menu:
An image of Mari elevated in a rope sling looks toward the viewer from the left side of the screen. The image does not have the impact of the rope apparatus on the back cover, but it is understated and does not promise anything that the movie doesn’t deliver. Only Play Feature and Special Features can be selected from the main menu.
Extras:
The only extras are three Switchblade Pictures Trailers.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Movies based Oniroku Dan’s bondage literature vary greatly in their tone and aesthetic. Plots exist to allow bondage scenes to punctuate usually mysterious elements as the male protagonist discovers his self and a lover through rope play and light S&M. On that note, The Curse M meets the bill.
Uemura, a photographer, has an appetite for rough sex. In an opening scene, his assistant has signed him up for a non-explicit porn magazine that has pictures of cleavage and behinds as they appear in the real world, a fetish of dressed women. Uemura doesn’t understand the appeal for this kind of eroticism. The next thing we see is Uemura tying up his nude assistant and taking pictures of her as she pleads for him to get to the business at hand. Uemura needs the voyeuristic and forceful manipulation of a woman to become excited. In one scene, he tells his lover he needs to manhandle her to get aroused, then he rushes to grab his rope. In another scene, he once again dominates his assistant after she has been pushed down the stairs and appears before him bruised and bandaged. Her desire to be submissive sparks a session where Uemura would otherwise not be thinking of her sexually.
Voyeurism tends to be a metaphorical trope throughout the film. All bondage and sex scenes have a camera present, and the eye looking through the lens seems to be trapped in his body whether it is physically incapable of attaining gratification or whether it is a mind obsessively seeking something more gratifying. Unlike some of the other films of this subgenre, the rope play is less about the tying up of the female body and more about the view of the body after the knots have been completed. A strange rope gnashing sound effect gets used repeatedly to allow the viewer to hear a taut and straining rope groan when Uemura pulls on it. We see Uemura posts pictures around his computer and imagines bondage play with his lover. Not only does this sexually excite him, he seems drunk on the obsession, blind to the reality in the room with him.
As one might expect from a movie titled The Curse M, supernatural scenes pop in at various times throughout the film. We learn at the beginning of the film that Mari seems to be some kind of black widow lover, and the deaths of the men are attributed to a religious experience she had while studying in India. We see ghosts in Mari’s dreams and in the imagination of her lover. While the spirituality carries through the film, it offers a side note to the plot, adding a layer of questions for the viewer that detaches the erotic elements from the actions of the characters.
In most erotic scenes, Uemura dominates and ties up his lovers. He enjoys taking pictures, and during this phase, the dialog acts like bondage play-acting, either accentuating the submissive female partner or creating a darker dominance of the male partner over a lightly protesting female. Most scenes offer the beginning of play and quickly skip to simulated intercourse. The camera often lingers over the nude chest of the woman, but there is no full frontal nudity or any of the blurring that would bring the viewer out of the moment.
In Summary:
The Curse M offers a slightly dark meditation on erotic obsession. Multiple scenes of rope play and light S&M create a progressively dark exploration of lovers confronting the compulsion and emptiness of their desires. Add to that supernatural and mystery elements, and the movie creates an experience capable of entertaining couples or the lone viewer.
Features:
Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 with removable English subtitles.
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B-
Menu Grade: B-
Extras Grade: C
Released By: Switchblade Pictures
Release Date: September 11th, 2012
MSRP: $19.98
Running Time: 71 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic
Review Equipment:
Samsung KU6300 50” 4K UHD TV, Sony BDP-S3500 Blu-ray player connected via HDMI, Onkyo TX-SR444 Receiver with NHT SuperOne front channels and NHT SuperZero 2.1 rear channel speakers.
