Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman | Long Term Parental Abuse

Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman is a 2007 movie about the popular Japanese urban legend of Kuchisake-Onna. If not known by name, there’s a good chance you would have have seen her image around the internet or in popular entertainment. This sight of a woman holding a large pair of scissors with her mouth cut from ear to ear has grown beyond basic folklore, appearing in anime like Jujutsu Kaisen and Mob Psycho 100 while also inspiring enemies in games like World of Horror and Ghostwire: Tokyo. This is the first movie in the Kuchisake-Onna series and Director Koji Shiraishi’s first attempt at tackling this character. He would later revisit Kuchisake-Onna in his mockumentary horror series Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi.

The legend of Kuchisake-Onna has her approaching unsuspecting victims with a mask covering her scars, asking them if they believe she is pretty. If answered yes, she reveals the scars and asks once more. Saying “no” to either question will doom you, but saying yes to both will have her cut your mouth to match hers. Variations on the story provide different escape options and altered fates but all versions that I have found begin with this simple request.

So colour me surprised when Carved doesn’t tackle any of that. Instead, Carvedbuilds its own lore behind the image that ties in closely with the topic of mothers that abuse their children. No longer asking unsuspecting strangers about her looks, the slit mouthed woman instead is kidnapping and murdering children.

Shiraishi is best known for his found footage film making, a place where he seems most at home and has received large critical success. My expectations were that his found footage version of this character in the Kowasugi series would be largely similar to this movie. Instead, Carved and Kowasugi couldn’t be further apart as Kowasugi was the start of a fun horror franchise about documentary film makers getting in over their heads while Carved attempts to tell a singular (though flawed) story about child abuse.

This spin on the Slit-Mouthed woman has likely come from late 70’s Japan where she became a fascination among youth and spread like wildfire due to the proliferation of modern media formats. No longer would a legend be basic word of mouth, it would be on the radio, TV and in newspapers. In the book Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai, author Michael Dylan Foster writes that by 1979 reports of Kuchisake sightings grew and children began to become scared of walking home alone. Police patrols came into effect and kids were warned to not approach anyone wearing a mask.

This growth of the legend among the youth is a likely catalyst for the lore set out in Carved, where she now specifically targets children and plays into more universal fears of abusive parents. The Slit-Mouthed woman is no longer just a creepy story, she’s a physical embodiment of a parent that would lay their hands on a child in rage.

Carved focuses on two teachers attempting to rescue their students from the Slit-Mouthed Woman as they both come to terms with their part in what is happening. Kyoko Yamishita is a mother who no longer has custody of her daughter due to being physically abusive and Noboru Matsuzaki is the son of an abusive mother that he believes is the woman kidnapping these children. The strongest move this film makes it pairing these two characters together and having his abused past clash against her self image and highlight the negative of her abusive nature.

Early in the movie a child is kidnapped, leading the legend to spread and the school to arrange for teachers to escort students home safely in groups. One student, Mika, is reluctant to go home and opens up to Kyoko about the abuse she receives at home from her mother. Kyoko tries to encourage Mika, insisting that her mother loves her. As Mika insists that her mother doesn’t love her, Kyoko becomes defensive. As a child abuser herself, Kyoko is certain that she loves her own child but refuses to engage the idea that her actions might have caused pain.

Her defensiveness and refusal to recognise her own flaws causes her to shout at Mika. Mika runs off with Kyoko close behind, encouraging her to come back. Turning a corner, Kyoko sees that her refusal to grow has lead Mika into the hands of the Slit-Mouthed woman, functioning as the embodiment of her own unchecked rage. Mika is kidnapped, with Kyoko unable to do anything to stop it.

Further into the movie, Noboru reveals that the Slit-Mouth woman is his own mother, who previously used to beat him and his siblings. He reveals that as a child his mother eventually killed his siblings and in a final attempt to stop her own actions, she encourages Noboru to decapitate her to stop the rage. Noboru didn’t decapitate her, but he did have to kill her in self defence. Hiding her body in a cupboard, Noboru blames himself for the current events as he did not complete the task to be rid of her.

The film struggles to find a landing for what this is all trying to say though. Later into the movie we discover that the Slit-Mouthed woman is a possessing entity that takes over the bodies of women, making it near impossible to kill her. Defending a child, Noboru stabs the Slit-Mouthed woman before she turns back into the mother of the child he was protecting, with the Slit-Mouthed woman still alive and able return in the body of someone else.

The pairing of an adult victim of child abuse with an active child abuser is bubbling with possibility but Carved becomes all too interested in the lore of Kuchisake-Onna to dive too deeply. Instead of focusing on Kyoko’s risk of becoming the slit-mouthed woman, the film instead dives more into Noboru’s guilt having not completed the killing of his own mother in the way that she asked for. 

While it’s a strong idea to focus on victims and the lasting effects of their trauma, Koyoko’s actions remain unchecked and Noboru’s worries that he made a mistake are seemingly confirmed when he finally decapitates his mother in the final act and seemingly puts an end to Kuchisake-Onna. Though the film doesn’t actively blame Noboru the way he blames himself, there is slight concern that the film doesn’t go out of its way to confirm to Noboru that he isn’t the one responsible for the events happening either.

For Koyoko and the tackling of abusive mothers, her insistence to Mika that her own mother loves her is rewarded. Mika’s mother is present in the final act and goes out of her way to try and save and protect Mika. This isn’t unrealistic, emotions are complicated and people are three dimensional but Kyoko nor Mika’s mother seem to learn from their mistakes as parents.

Carved isn’t a terrible movie and it feels like it has something to say but there just isn’t enough meat on these bones to say definitively where it lands on the topic of parental abuse. The only hint we have is at the end when Kyoko is finally reunited with her daughter and becomes the Slit-mouthed woman herself.

There’s no conformation on if this is a dream or reality but neither matters overall. Some might see this as the film definitively saying that Kyoko’s own actions and beliefs have gone unchallenged, leaving the path open for her to become a monstrous parent. Some may say this is a nightmare of Kyoko's as she realises herself and fears becoming the Slit-Mouthed woman. Others might just say this is a standard shock ending for a horror movie. Neither feels incorrect. Carved is filled with things it could be saying but chooses not to and that’s the saddest part of movies like this. They’ve collected all the pieces of a strong message but put them together poorly, leading this to largely be just a fun early 2000s slasher.