Over Your Dead Body – in Japanese 喰女-クイメ- aka Kuime – is a 2014 Japanese supernatural horror film directed by Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer), and starring Ichikawa Ebizō XI and Kō Shibasaki.
It was released in Japan on 23 August 2014.
Plot:
A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the play, even though he’s a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina (Miho Nakanishi) and Jun Suzuki (Hideaki Ito) lust after Miyuki.
Off stage the cast’s possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the play and reality, the cast’s feelings for each other are amplified. When it becomes clear that love is not meant to be both on and off stage, love turns into a grudge and crosses the blurred line between reality and fantasy…
Reviews
“There are times when the movie feels like little more than a backstage melodrama and a particularly slow and dreary one. But that’s just Miike up to his old tricks, lulling his audience into a false sense of security so that when the blood starts to flow and body parts are lopped off, the shock value hits the much harder. The film might teeter on the line of tedious, but it’s worth it for the gooey mind-f*ck end results.” Dork Shelf
“There’s a dull, diagrammed feeling to Over Your Dead Body, which seems to have originated from an idea that the helmer had already lost interest in by the time of filming. He seems juiced only by the impressive compositions those painterly stage designs allow. Adding to the stillborn feel is an ending in which one character turns out not to be dead after all — something that makes absolutely no sense, given what we’ve already been graphically shown, and here there’s no hint of supernatural doings.” Variety
“At times, Over Your Dead Body’s pacing can be punishing, yet the payoff is very much worth the wait. It’s something worth noting because this is not a film with the tones of Ichi: The Killer or the Dead or Alive series. It is however, still unfiltered Miike. It isn’t for everyone, but those who have missed that specifically disgusting/alienating cinematic pleasure, should feel free to get excited because he’s back in his horror hat at long last.” Fangoria
