Carved 2: The Scissors Massacre
Carved 2 is a 2008 Japanese horror film. It's the prequel to the movie Carved. It was released on March 22, 2008, and was directed by Kotaro Terauchi. It is based on a legend and some actual events that occurred in Japan. It deals with the origins of the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
Sixteen-year-old actress Rin Asuka takes the lead as high school girl Mayumi, whose face is disfigured by an attack with sulfuric acid. As more unfortunate events occur, it eventually leads her to becoming a supernatural mass [...].
Plot
The setting is Japan in 1978, from March to May. Mayumi Sawada lives a positive life in a small town in Gifu. She is the fastest runner on her track team. Her family runs a farming business that is a success. Her sisters are doing well, too. The eldest, Sachiko, is AbOUT to become married, and Yukie does great business at the hair salon. She is also able to form a small friendship with the track team's captain, and her crush, Seiji Moriyama, even though he's about to leave for college in Tokyo. A few days before he leaves, Seiji takes Mayumi to an area where the track team used to train. He tells Mayumi that he likes the area because it provides a nice view of the whole town, and that he wanted to see the view one last time with her. He then gives Mayumi a button from his gakuran jacket, telling her that he wants her to have it, which sends Mayumi into a complete bliss.
However, that happiness soon ends. One night, when Sachiko and Yukie leave town to go to Tokyo, Mayumi decides to sleep in Sachiko's room. Unfortunately, Sachiko's ex-boyfriend breaks into the Sawada house, quietly enters Sachiko's room and, thinking that it was Sachiko in bed, pours a small bottle filled with sulfuric acid on Mayumi's face. Soon after, he kills her mother – stabbing her in the mouth – before being shot in the head by Mr. Sawada. Mayumi is subsequently rushed to the hospital. The doctors are able to save Mayumi's life, but note that since the acid penetrated through most of her bone, any further surgery would've put Mayumi's life in danger.
Meanwhile, rumors of what happened that night begin spreading around town. Mayumi's two best friends, Junko and Kaoru try to visit her the next day, but Mayumi doesn't want to see anyone. Mayumi later receives a phone call from Seiji, who asks her how she's feeling, and if he can come see her. Mayumi declines, not wanting him to see her face. Knowing that he's leaving for Tokyo the next day, Mayumi and Seiji agree to write letters to each other. Before he hangs up, Seiji tells Mayumi to cheer up, and that "[He] always liked her smile", which lifts Mayumi's spirit slightly. Upon her return to school, other students spread rumors about her and call her a "mutant girl", since she covers her face with a surgery mask. However, Mayumi still has her family, friends, and she and Seiji continue to write letters to each other. One day, Mayumi notices a woman in a red coat standing outside her house, but before Mayumi can fully identify the woman, she disappears.
Things only become worse when her father commits [...], as a way of saving the family's debts with his life insurance. While sitting on the swings near her house one day, Mayumi sees the woman in the red coat again, but in the blink of an eye, she vanishes once more. Due to the rumors surrounding Mayumi and her family, Kaoru and Junko begin to distance themselves from Mayumi, admitting to another student that they "wouldn't say [they were] best friends..." and ignoring her in class. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Seiji now has his own girlfriend, and has been ignoring Mayumi's letters and stopped writing to her altogether.
Later that night, Mayumi is home alone, in her room examining the left side of her face, which had been burned when she suddenly sees the reflection of the woman in the red coat in her mirror. When Mayumi turns around, the woman is once again gone. Frightened, Mayumi calls Yukie and begs her to come home. After the phone conversation, she locks all the doors and when Mayumi sees what she thinks to be the red coat woman at the front door, she panics and hides in the kitchen when the red coat woman appears once again. The woman makes it to the kitchen, but as Mayumi screams, it turns out to be Sachiko, who just got home.
The next day during breakfast, a news report on the TV announces that two high school students from the Gifu Prefecture were killed by a woman wielding a pair of scissors. The two students are revealed to be Mayumi's friends, Kaoru and Junko. Despite how they treated her, she goes to their funeral to mourn. There, she meets Seiji, who was back in town until the next day. Mayumi wants to spend time with him one last time before he goes back to Tokyo again, so he promises to take her to "their view" of the town the next morning.
Later that night, Mayumi goes to Yoshizawa Hair Salon and asks Yukie if she could have a hair cut, so she would look nice for Seiji. Eventually, Yukie is able to slide her in for one, but they were moved to the other side of the room.
The next morning at the view, Seiji briefly discusses the homicides of Kaoru and Junko, and then begins to talk with Mayumi about the rumors that he heard of him and her "going out". He tells Mayumi that the only reason he gave her the button from his gakuran jacket is because Junko asked him to, and tells Mayumi that he's never really been into her that way, and that he's always seen her as a little sister. She assumes it is because of her face. Seiji denies this, but when she asks again, she takes her off her mask, revealing to him the disfigured left side of her face. Hesitant, he tells her that he's already seeing someone. On the walk back, Seiji he ignores Mayumi. The scene suddenly cuts to a blood-covered Mayumi frantically cleaning a pair of bloody scissors with water. A flashback shows Seiji walking when all of the sudden, the red coat woman runs up behind him and stabs Seiji to death, [...] him. The flashback also shows the bloody corpses of Kaoru and Junko. It is revealed that the red coat woman is Mayumi, as some sort of alter ego.
With Mayumi's friends' murders, Seiji's going missing, and Mayumi's odd behavior, Yukie begins to become suspicious of her. While Mayumi is in school, Yukie comes home from work early and searches her room. To her dismay, her suspicions come true when she discovers the bloody dress Mayumi had word when she saw Seiji, hanging in her closet. She tells Sachiko about this, but with what's going on in their lives right now – with Sachiko's marriage and Yukie's great business – Sachiko didn't want to act on anything just yet. Soon, Mayumi realizes that her secret has been uncovered.
In the dining room, all three sisters sit quietly at the table. Mayumi hides the scissors behind her, and she unmasks herself before taking a drink of her orange juice. However, Sachiko had poisoned her drink with rat poisoning. Mayumi coughs up blood and eventually dies. To cover her up, Sachiko places a beige trench coat over her body. Yukie, shocked at what just happened, reluctantly helps her clean the mess up. The two sisters stuff Mayumi in their car trunk and drive out into the middle of the woods, where they bury her body.
The next day, the two resume their normal lives. Though Yukie has more trouble coping, Sachiko stays home and cleans, thinking about her upcoming days with her husband and her yet-to-be-born child. However, Mayumi mysteriously returns from the grave. She goes to the hair salon, [...] Yukie and her employer. It isn't too long before she returns home. Sachiko begins to run, but returns to the kitchen to grab a knife. She successfully stabs Mayumi, so she runs away. She searches for help before seeing a market of people just ahead of her. Relief was soon taken from her as Mayumi stabs her repeatedly with her scissors. Before falling to the ground, Mayumi asks her, "Am I... pretty...?"
As it begins to rain, Mayumi looks up at the sky. Then, she sees a young boy look at her in horror. She stares back at him for a moment before going after him with an abnormally crazed face. The left side of her face slit all the way up to her ear.
Ending notes
These are the facts that appear before the ending credits begin.
On May 18, 1978, a serial killer claimed thirteen lives and injured 52. Police found evidence linking them to murders of two other high school girls. A witness at Yoshizawa Hair Salon identified Mayumi Sawada as a suspect. A knife and large quantities of blood were discovered in the Sawada residence. Prints on the knife matched those of Sachiko Sawada, but not the blood type. The blood type matched Mayumi Sawada but due to lack of advanced DNA testing, conclusive links were never made and the case remains unsolved. Seiji Moriyama's body was never found. Mayumi Sawada's whereabouts are still unknown...
Cast
- Rin Asuka – Mayumi Sawada
- Yukie Kawamura – Sachiko Sawada
- Mayuko Iwasa – Yukie Sawada
- Yosuka Saito – Mr. Sawada
- Akihiro Mayama – Seiji Moriyama