- Release year: 2025
- Director: Kenichi Ugana.
Synopsis: a man tries extreme methods to create a unique chair.
Shotgun Commentary: gory satire for perfectly twisted horror lovers.
Review
Incomplete Chairs is a horror comedy that comments on the hypocrisy of social media and the art sphere. Through the actions of a serial killer, it showcases how ridiculous it is to pretend someone you are not. A message accompanied by a good amount of guts and gore, of course, just to keep things light.
The offal discourse
The idea is clear: a man who wants to make a chair kills people in order to get parts for it. What people? Well, “people who like chairs or sitting in them”. His words, not mine. With this premise, you can already imagine the sort of nonsense that this film will present you with. A completely surreal narrative that has never even whiffed the concept of logic and wants nothing more than to make you laugh and possible reflect on your social behaviour.
One of the highlights of the film is, as expected, the gore. This aspect of the feature is taken to the extreme for the sake of comedy, placing it more in the realm of a slasher than of your average thriller. Much like its premise, you will find out the level of violence this piece likes to play with from the very beginning, when you watch the main character hammer a person repeatedly for, like… a LONG time. It is long enough for it to be funny, and to stop being funny again.
Still, the film is more than just things like grating the mailman (although, I can understand the feeling, we’ve all had our terrible mail experiences). It also keeps it awkward and quirky enough to make you laugh despite the bloodbath.
Fashionable nonsense
On top of the comedic shenanigans, you will find your usual horror nonsense. Details that almost every horror movie has and that the genre has sadly still not got rid of. Details like not calling the police when you have ample time and motives to do so, or watching the bad guy kill the only person who can save you and not moving a finger to help, are some of the moments that horror, and cinema in general, should’ve grown out from. Still, audiences are still forced to sit through that nonsense, with the depressing knowledge that the film could be so much better without it and hasn’t been given the chance.
On a lighter note, it is worth commenting on the cinematography of the film. It is not often common to see a movie of this kind which also manages to keep it tidy, clean and…dare I say, beautiful? Usually, slashers tend to be grimy, dark, and overall nasty to look at most of the time. However, Incomplete Chairs is absolutely breathtaking. Even the murders and their aftermath looks stylish. Maybe not to Hannibal (2013-2015) standards, but pretty damn close.
The star
The acting is noteworthy too. Particularly, Ryu Ichinose’s performance as Shinsuke Kujo. Kujo, the psychopath who kills people to make a chair, is mostly reserved, but due to his deadly nature, every single conversation he has is charged with hidden meanings. As such, it takes a lot of skill to find the right balance to hint at a veiled turmoil without making the character look cartoonish. Ichinose not only finds that balance, but thrives on it. His performance is way above what you would expect for a slasher. He carries the narrative and elevates the final product with elegance and finesse.
All in all, Incomplete Chairs is an unhinged horror movie that you can recommend to any fan of the genre who appreciates a bit of insanity in their lives and just wants to have a good time. In fact, people at the cinema were laughing nonstop, so it is safe to say that it does appeal to a pretty wide range of horror lovers.
Incomplete Chairs is now screening at Leiden International Film Festival in the Netherlands! Screening on October the 13th, 14th, and 15th. Find all the info here!
Advice to take from this movie:
- Don’t sit in chairs, I guess?
- Crazy people don’t need you to save them, they need therapy and professional help.
- Selling art is more about confidence than it is about real meaning.
What’s your take? Have you watched Incomplete Chairs? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀