Writhing Tongue (1980) Review

AKA Furueru shita.

 I actually went into this expecting a wacky horror especially with a name like 'Writhing Tongue'. However that was not the case at all, instead I was pleasantly surprised to find that this actually a great drama that shows the mental and emotional struggle of a couple who are stuck in hospital with their sick daughter who has a form of tetanus, as the doctors and nurses do their best to keep her alive and help her recover.
Now though its not a horror, the film does still have a couple of disturbing elements, there's some creepy synth music that comes in every now and again and few of things the doctors do to help the young girl which are quite discomforting. To be fair these elements still made me feel the film was gonna turn into full blown horror and it was about 35 minutes in that I realised thats probably wasn't happening.
The film was still really engrossing though, the acting was very good and there was some very nice framed shots, as well as a bluey/purple colour filter which is used a couple of times that I thought look really pretty.
the film also has a couple interesting dream sequence's that were integrated well and overall I really liked the direction and execution.
I think my only main issue with it, was that the ending did feel a bit rushed, it comes very suddenly and feel could have used  more time to play out.
Overall though I enjoyed this alot and thought it was great drama that was simple and effective, this is the second film I've seen from Yoshitaro Nomura and he's definitely impressed me so far from what I've seen, so hopefully I'll delve more into his work in future. Definitely recommended ****