Original subtitles

It was a time when people still held the virtue of stupidity.

A time when the world was free of modern frictions...

To enliven the merrymaking of feudal lords and wealthy merchants...

and to guarantee the continued laughter of courtesans and prostitutes,

it was a time languid enough to accommodate...

the luxurious habits of gregarious tea monks and male courtiers.

Lady Sadakuro...

Lady Jiraiya...

Lady Narukami.

Even in the playhouses and pictorials of the day...

beauty was power... and ugliness was weakness.

This obsession with beauty gave rise to...

a new artistic paradigm where the body was seen as a canvas.

Vivid, dreamlike lines and colors...

danced upon those people's skins.

Production Manager: Jyunichi Matsuhita

Executive Producers: Toji Katou & Ken Takeuchi

Producers: Asayuki Imai, Hideki Kozutsu & Yohiaki Satou

Original Story By Jyunichiiro Tanizaki

Written By Shiro Yumeno

Music By Takashi Nakagawa

Rei Yoshii

Tomohisa Yuge

Directed by Hisayasu Sato

In the heart of the young tattoo artist...

lurked an unknown hedonism and ambition.

As his needle pierced the skin of his subjects...

unable to endure the stinging ache of ink and blood...

in their swollen flesh, most would groan with agony.

As their moaning intensified...

mysteriously...

so too did the unspeakable pleasure of the artist.

Who are you?

Kurusu, my chiropractor?

Seizo.

I think I've heard of you...

Have you?

Yes... but...

You can't remember.

Where are we?

We're in a submarine.

A submarine?

Yes. Listen...

Can you hear the sonar?

It's proof that we're navigating the abyss.

How deep are we?

An unheard-of depth.

You're a woodblock print specialist...

recognized for your sense of color.

Do I know you from school?

From graduate school?

Guess again.

- There's something else you do. - What?

A long time ago...

there was a chiropractic lecture...

at the pool, on my way home from the gym...

I saw a mermaid.

Was it a dream?

Maybe... maybe it was a dream.

Suddenly, a white leg emerged from the water.

She called me...

urging me into the water.

- Was it my leg you saw? - No!

It was a mermaid's leg...

covered in scales.

Scales?

However, she vanished.

A phantom mermaid...

One year later...

the phantom reappeared unexpectedly.

"Beauty Without Mercy"...

A gory exhibition of woodblock prints.

I took the catalogue photos.

Are you a photographer?

I restore paintings.

You restore paintings?

Some time ago...

while restoring a temple painting...

someone fell from the scaffolding.

"Kurusu..."

I thought, that name is like "crucifix".

Does that make me the Messiah?

I'll settle for photographer.

What do you want?

Human flesh is amusing.

Binding it tightly and loosely distorts it in different ways.

Each expression is unique.

Both the painful contortions...

and the delightful ones reveal the depths of your heart.

When wrapped in a transparent membrane, it warps in an odd way.

Depending on the light...

it can look enticing or revolting.

Turn it off.

You just want it to stay fresh...

so you can have a fresh body, right?

You think I wrapped you...

to keep you from spoiling?

I'm afraid not.

I wanted to wrap you...

in something as smooth as your skin.

I wanted to do it with sense.

What do you mean... "with sense?"

Sense?

As in, sensibility?

Taste.

Can bastards who abduct women have taste?

In ancient China, the tyrant King Chu reigned.

This was his concubine's portrait.

Her tiara weighted with pink coral and lapis lazuli...

Her plump, formless body leaned lazily against a railing...

Her fine silk robe cascaded across her body...

From the way the concubine tilted a glass in her hand...

to her gaze towards the man in the garden waiting to be sacrificed.

Chained to a bronze pillar... silently awaiting his death,

Bowing his head to the concubine...

with eyes closed, his face the color of death.

Everything was depicted with amazing detail.

The young maiden revelled in this grotesque world...

And unbeknownst to her,

she became extremely excited.

Her face began to resemble that of the concubine.

She felt as if her true self hidden within was awakening.

This is your true self.

Just like the woman in this story.

She enjoys the blood.

He unrolled another picture...

entitled, "Manure".

In the middle of the picture,

a young woman leans against the trunk of a cherry tree,

looking down at the ground...

where there are heaps of dead males.

A flock of birds sings a victory song above her.

We can see her eyes full of pride and joy.

Was it the aftermath of a battle or...

a view of the spring flower garden?

The maiden who witnessed this...

felt she had found that depth in her soul...

which she had always sought.

After graduating from high school...

you attended industrial art school.

Your major was Japanese Pictorals.

After graduating with honors, you moved on to post-graduate school...

and became a research student.

Stop this!

You are a Gemini.

Your future is mixed.

Changing environments leave you ever restless.

Rather than pursue change yourself...

you find that going with the flow works better.

As her chiropractor, when I touched her skin...

I knew I had found the girl...

I'd been searching for.

One with firm white skin...

that breathes when it is moderately moistened.

I have found her.

At last, here she is!

I've learned everything about her...

from her birth until this very moment.

With my own hand, I must...

tattoo her skin.

"Tattoo"?

Very moist...

perfect for ink.

Tattoo?

Is this about tattoos?

That's right.

Your graduate theses...

"The Reality of Color and Ideology of Contrast in the Art of Tattooing"...

and "The Setting Sun of the Equinox"...

marked you out as a great commentator.

Under your professor's recommendation...

you were published for the first time.

Who are you?

You weren't aware that your skin...

was perfect for tattooing.

Isn't that right?

Men are so stupid.

Women aren't such oblivious animals.

We know our bodies intimately.

The skin absorbs the ink and brings out the color.

I've known this since childhood.

That's why I took care of my skin.

Swimming...

especially, synchronized swimming.

It�s painful. Overcoming it...

brings a rush of adrenaline.

It tones the skin.

I did it all for an invisible future.

"Future"?

Were you expecting this?

Just that my metamorphosis would come.

Into a mermaid?

That's your fantasy.

What do you want to become?

I don't know... but...

I want to transform.

Do you want to forget this life, and become a monster?

To devour men?

Yes...

because this world is so boring.

I'll become a huntress...

butchering men with all sorts of weapons.

Do you detest men?

I'll kill them because I love them.

You have demonic blood in your veins.

Are you planning to draw a demon on my skin?

The tattoo of a demon...

that could work.

You seem interested now.

Before that, I want something to eat.

I said, I want something to eat!

This is good for your skin.

Drink it slowly, and it should satiate you.

I need something I can chew.

When the stomach is full, the skin becomes slack.

- Does it affect the design? - Yes.

You'll be fine with minimal nutrition.

I won't let you take control.

I'm the artist!

I'm the art!

I have to respect the artistic medium.

Of course.

If you hadn't seen me...

you�d still be restoring paintings.

You know the mysterious power of tattooing, right?

It's magic...

there's something special about it.

It's a devil.

A picture that houses a devil.

Shall I leave the design up to you?

I've got it...

I want a silk spider.

A spider that consumes souls. A silk spider.

It's perfect.

A silk spider...

- It's wrong! - Why?

It clashes with your complexion.

You don't have to make it match.

My skin will bring out the color.

The silk spider is dead.

Want to see?

It needs to be bigger.

So that the legs almost reach my breasts.

Do you long to be embraced by this spider?

Yes.

I'll feel the embrace...

...and spit a red thread.

There was once a tattoo artist named Horisei.

He searched for the perfect skin for years.

When he found it, at last...

he gave the woman a silk spider tattoo.

Once completed...

it was like she herself became the spider.

Hungering for the soul of the artist,

she conceived his child.

10 months and 10 days later, the child was born.

It was a boy.

And the boy is you, right? What an anti-climactic story.

Anti-climactic?

To the boy it wasn't.

The silk spider on her back...

stretched its legs...

until the tips touched her breasts.

I was raised by a spider.

What a boring story.

Her fluids were my nourishment.

I still have nightmares...

of it crawling all over my body.

That spider wasn't your mother.

She was just a female.

"A female"?

A woman.

What do you mean?

A female species.

The artist,

learning the horror of what he'd created...

gouged his eyes out with a needle bathed in blue ink...

and threw himself into a river.

Are you sure she didn't kill him?

Is that what you would do?

It's true...

there were rumors that, blind and worthless...

he was murdered by his woman.

Occasionally, there is truth in rumors.

Many lamented his death.

His superior skill and sense as an artist...

were worthy of lament.

The Silk Spider Woman...

sucked the souls of man after man...

and died suddenly one day.

At the same time he finished the tattoo...

his fear that he'd given birth to a monster...

- disturbed him. - Yes.

He buried a needle...

that, after years of movement, would exhibit its lethal nature.

Another rumor.

Do you believe it?

I've also heard stories of a forgotten needle...

that surfaced years after an operation.

So all things transform?

A water demon...

Do you mean The Water Demon Princess?

Yes... that's what I want.

But, nothing traditional...

It has to be your very own.

Demonic transformation...

Demons of the rivers and mountains...

Draw your masterpiece.

Why don't you turn on the lights?

Because, you can't see the actual color.

Can't see the actual color?

But, in this dimness...

I am one with the light and shadows.

The flickering flame...

is the essence of my mind.

"The eulogy of light and darkness."

Shortly thereafter, he took a paintbrush...

curiously into the fingers of his left hand.

Laying it upon her back,

he stabbed with the needle in his right hand.

The spirit of the young artist...

blended with the ink, bled into her skin.

He tattooed the burnt orange mixed with alcohol into her skin,

every drop a part of his life force.

He saw the color of his own soul.

Afternoon became evening...

and the young spring day faded away.

He continued, unfazed...

and the maiden's dream remained undisturbed.

Every brush stroke... was an epic labor.

Every prick of the needle felt as if...

his own heart was being stabbed.

From his needle came...

the form of a giant spider.

As the night was burned away again by the day,

it spread its eight legs...

and rooted itself to her back.

In the spring night...

the echoes from a riverboat�s oars could be heard.

As its sails were impregnated by the morning wind...

the tip of the mast cut through the mist.

The rising sun glistened against the roof tiles.

At last, he put down his paintbrush and...

gazed at the spider's form in the young maiden's back.

This tattoo was the culmination of his entire life.

After completing his masterpiece, the artist's heart...

was hollow.

How long have I been asleep?

Don't know.

The sun rose... and set.

The moon and stars shone.

The wind blew... and rain fell.

Again sunrise.

I barely remember it at all.

I... awoke for an instant...

and saw many people with tattoos.

"Princess Yaegaki..."

"Gyoran Kanzen Bosatsu..." The giant toad, "Jiraiya."

It was like the prints had come to life.

Then there was a hot mist.

I remember nothing after that.

What was that?

I apply steam to improve the tattoo's color.

The traditional method is to bathe in hot water...

but, steam is my method to prolong the color.

Where did those people go?

They returned to their world.

Is it finished?

Let me see it. Take this off me.

Before that...

you need to listen to me.

You are Horisei's daughter.

We are brother and sister, born of different mothers.

- What? - Shut up and listen.

Your superior sense of color and contrast comes from our father.

It helped you in your graduate research.

But, at the same time...

you've inherited the kind of cruelty...

needed to use human skin as a canvas.

Your pursuit of this genre...

has brought you to our father's work.

It is alive...

an animated picture.

His slumbering spirit awoke within you.

You wanted possession of all his work...

as a collector.

And, Tattoo was born.

You're lying...

He's not my father.

- Buddha Stick. - Buddha?

I want to be one with the colors...

see inside them...

taste their scent...

That's why I used it.

Buddha?

- Opium. - Opium?

I smoked it in a pipe.

Drugs...

When I took it...

my personality split.

When I wear these, I become someone else.

I can go to a different world.

You went there, only to return.

Tattoo thought...

about the consequences of Horisei's work dying with its carrier.

How it would be reduced to ashes in a crematorium.

All those beautiful paintings would be lost forever.

As an artist who never used rough sketches...

the ink he put in the skin was everything.

They must be preserved... they must be gathered.

I agreed.

Tattoo's thoughts aren't strange.

Could it be?

Those people aren't phantoms...

they really exist.

What do you mean?

Look... over there.

Want to see?

What is this?

Cyber Spider.

Turn it on, and it moves.

I won't play to your fantasy.

This is the inside of your submarine?

The sonar sound was fake.

It's a submarine if I believe it is.

An uncharted region... of the ocean.

You live in a dream.

As I restored the paintings at the temple,

I felt the urge to destroy everything.

Fighting those urges... made my head spin...

and I fell from the scaffolding.

This ceiling used to be a mosaic.

I would gaze at it every day.

Did you feel the need to destroy it also?

No...

I wanted to tattoo this.

I converted this place into a restoration site...

and tattooed while fighting the urge to destroy it.

But...

The Silk Spider appeared to do just that.

Your mother didn't love you.

My mother?

I don't have a mother!

You have a female spider though.

You wanted revenge.

Revenge?

You wanted to kill the Silk Spider...

with your own hands.

Could it be?

So, you quit restoring paintings...

and returned to the world...

- of tattoos within you. - No!

I was searching for your skin.

To be the next Great Horisei?

Maybe...

maybe you're right.

It's instinct.

Was it awakened by the opium?

My instinct...

Is Tattoo.

I...

feel like I've heard that word repeated somewhere...

That's it... I was tired after swimming.

As I was getting a massage, I heard a voice say "I can endure your pain."

Then a pipe appeared before me.

That was you, wasn't it?

I gave birth to Tattoo...

is that what you're saying?

Yes.

I haven't killed anyone.

Just collected them?

If you've stalked behind and witnessed Tattoo's crimes...

you are Tattoo as well.

Me?

There were two hunters.

Tattoo wouldn't have existed if either had faltered.

Are you going to devour me?

You planned to skin me and preserve it for your collection.

Translation courtesy of JAPAN FLICKS Transcription by Kentai Films, Timing by Lord Retsudo