Marebito

The film unfolds in modern Tokyo, with a key subterranean labyrinth beneath the city where eerie, dero-like beings dwell. Masuoka moves from cramped apartments and neon streets into a sprawling network of tunnels and underground ruins. The setting contrasts surface-level urban life with a hidden, claustrophobic underworld that drives the story's paranoia. The urban landscape and its shadowy underworld create a claustrophobic mood that heightens the horror.

🌀 Fear

Masuoka’s search for the origin of fear pulls him deeper underground, suggesting fear is a primal form of knowledge tucked away in the subconscious. The labyrinthine spaces and encounters with deros force him to confront the limits of perception and control. As he records scenes with his camera, fear becomes both his motivation and his moral test, blurring the line between observer and participant.

🎥 Voyeurism

The camera and observation drive the narrative: Masuoka films F and the unfolding violence, turning real danger into a recorded spectacle. The act of watching becomes a form of power, enabling manipulation and a chilling detachment from the consequences. The film questions ethics of surveillance, consent, and the voyeur’s complicity in violence.

👁️ Otherness

F embodies a disturbing non-human presence that unsettles Masuoka and those around him. Her blood-based sustenance and inscrutable nature blur humanity with monstrosity, forcing a confrontation with boundaries between caretaker and captor. The underworld and the people who encounter her reveal societies’ uneasy fascination with the unknown.