Last night Jayne and I watched a film called The Tattooist.  It was another freebie DVD from Amazon’s ‘Vine’ program, and a film I had not heard of before and knew nothing about, except that it was probably horror-related.  I don’t know why, but I sort of assumed it was one of those Far-East films, Korean or Japanese, but it is actually further East than that – its a New Zealand film.

This what I said about it:

There are some very positive things to say about this film. For a start its largely set in New Zealand (the film is a Singapore/NZ co-production) but shows another side to the country from the usual one. You would assume from most media exposure that New Zealand was all stunning scenery and sheep farmers, but this shows the urban street culture, and specifically the Samoan slice of that culture.

There are also some great tattoos – as you might expect – and some great effects when certain of the tattoos go spectacularly wrong. (Including a particularly nasty eyeball scene. If you are as squeamish about eyeballs as I am, be warned!) The concept of the film is also a good one, depending on the importance Samoan culture gives to its ritual tattoos.

Unfortunately neither I nor my wife could work out what the hell was going on until at least halfway through the film. It is only because specific incidents were interesting and that it is a well-shot, good-looking film that we stuck with it.

By the end we were glad we did stick with it. Everything fell into place and there was a big “oh thats what it all means” moment. We liked the explanation behind all the events, but just wish it was a bit clearer a bit sooner.

Quite often with thriller/horror-type films there is an element of omniscience for he viewer, where as an audience we are shown clues the characters aren’t and can understand what is happening. Sometimes that appears clumsy and by-the-numbers, but there is an established language of film – like when a character reaches for a telephone and the picture cuts away to a shot of some severed wires. This film doesn’t use those established techniques. You could argue that it makes it purer – we know no more than the characters – but it also means we are as much in the dark as the characters.

Overall its worth watching though, and its a refreshing change from the normal tourist board view of NZ.

What was very strange for us, was seeing people go into the parlour to ask for a tattoo and the bloke just start doing it.  He didn’t ask what they wanted or where they wanted it.  Most people getting one done have very clear ideas about what they want.