Would you kill the one you love because of love?
Sometimes, the correct answer is YES!
Ever since I watched Ga-rei Zero, this question is always lingering on my mind and when I watch a movie that tackles that dilemma, I can’t help but think of that anime! But unfortunately, unlike Yomi, others don’t get the chance to come back to life! But even that be as it may, these movies always leave me screaming…
REPLACE is no exception! Movies like it make me feel good inside because they remind me that despite everything, art is not dead! It is rare but it is not dead! There are still people fighting to keep the passion alive!
Be it visually, conceptually or through presentation, there are movies that not only still make you feel alive by watching them, but they leave you thinking and questioning life! REPLACE is one of those movies!
To tell you the truth I was really surprised by it! For some reason I was expecting some B-rate horror movie, at the very least JENNIFER’S BODY level of good! Let’s be honest, that movie was just…good enough! It was a good flick, that was all!
This one though, no, this one is much more! Not only did it surprise me at how well it was presented at both ends of the technical aspects (cinematography and soundtrack), but the concept and story really hit me!
I have to be honest, I have seen a lot of movies but I have not yet come across one that tackled the fear that should be way more talked about than it actually is – the fear of aging! Actually, maybe it is so taboo that writers and story tellers just don’t have the guts to approach it?! I mean, it is kind of surprising that there aren’t a lot of movies or stories about this one thing that every human has to face!
Maybe there are stories out there and I just haven’t come across them! But even then, I doubt they went head on with the subject as unapologetic as REPLACE! The whole movie is based around this subject! Yeah, just like real life, there is no happy end here!
Speaking of ending, that was the only negative I had about this movie, the ending was as sudden as death itself! Maybe that was the intention? I doubt it, it seemed like such a regular fuck up with movies! Especially Japanese and Korean movies, they do suffer from that sudden ending syndrome!
But logic states that it being such a single thing, it shouldn’t take away from the rest of the movie and it doesn’t! I love this movie!
I have never come across this story or theme as I have said and that feeling of ‘first time’ always leaves me wide awake in the night after watching said movie! It is the same with this one! I just can’t forget about it! Really, I am ashamed that I am only coming across it in the middle of frikkin 2020! The movie came out in 2017 FFS!!
Long story short, our main girl Kira, well, calling her girl is rude, very rude, as you see, she is actually in her late 60s! That’s right, the main character is actually an almost 70-year-old in the body of a 20 something woman! Confused? Hang in there while I Sherlock Holmes this!
We are dumped in the middle of Kira’s (played by Rebecca Forsythe) chaotic life and we are as confused as she is! She seems to have gaps in her memories and these turn out to be side effects of what is going on with her body, physically! We find out later that she underwent a medical experiment to de-age her and on the day after her 64th birthday, she starts to return back in age, well, her physiology does!
But as with all miracles that aren’t from the one true God, there is always a catch and in Kira’s case, her skins ages at an accelerated rate and she had to do something at least every few days! The only working solution she has at the moment is to assimilate other people’s skin! But dead people won’t do so she has to find living people, cut them up and wear their skin, literally!
No, I am not making this up!
I have seen a lot of horror movies but even I found myself turning my face away in some scenes in this movie! Like, Jesus! 30% into the movie and we were already in horror territory but not only that, 20% in and we were already in gay territory too so as you can imagine, being a fan of both, I was in heaven!
With the gay comes a partner and the partner in question is one sexy-accented Sophia (played by Lucie Aron), Kira’s mysterious neighbour! Mysterious because she seems way to familiar with Kira, despite them two being strangers! And no, it’s not that Kira had forgotten about her because of her amnesia thingy, no, when we see them meet is their first meeting.
We find out again later that she was indeed sent by the organisation that operated on Kira to watch her! But as these things go, stupid feelings always get in the way and they do so here because Sophia ends up falling for Kira and in the end goes against her boss to save Kira! Well, she did end up killing her soon after but eh, it’s the thought that counts, right?
Oops, sorry for the spoiler!
See? This is why I said that the ending was so sudden! They hadn’t even left the damn Evil Lair (hospital), and Sophia is killing Kira, the one she just risked her life to save! Like, WTF!?! And as it that wasn’t bad enough, the movie ends right there on the trigger pull! Like, FFS, at least give us a scene of Sophia’s pain at having had to do what she did! Jesus!!
Anyway, the stupid ending on the side, and really, it was the right thing to do even if it was done poorly seeing as Kira was really turning villainous real fast, the rest of their scenes and the movie were A-frikkin-plus!
First off, the fact that Sophia still loved Kira despite what she knew, that Kira was at least 2x older than her, and was even willing to be with her were she to not go looking for new skin but rather decide to live out the rest of her natural life, that was just tear-jerking a move!
Another interesting fact is that Kira seemed to be such a boy-crazy girl and even seemed to dislike other women so for her to find enough love for Sophia, that was praise-worthy on her part too! Like, she must have loved a lot already! For crying out loud, she was married once, had a daughter and by the time of the movie, she was a grandmother! And really, we don’t know how long a time had passed since she got the surgery! How many men had she slept with before each memory loss (life change)?
Really, no matter which way you slice it, their love was a miracle! And even when Sophia came clean, after she had drugged Kira BTW, Kira still had feelings for her and she is the only lover she remembered during her time of re-life at the lab, according to the Doctor!
Isn’t it interesting that the person that she finally found to fulfilled her life of emptiness that kept her running away from death was the one that lead her to death?!
Like I said – ART!
Sadly, while we did get a lot of kissing scenes with them, there wasn’t any love-making scenes! I think they did do it though, right before Kira got drugged but we don’t see it! Oh well, I don’t mind! You know me, I would take hand-holding and eye sex over actual sex scenes! But I know others will be disappointed!
And anyway, the both of them confessed their love to each other so there was no need for more! Kind of a dick move though that Kira got a bullet right when she finally spoke her feelings for Sophia and decided that she wanted to leave the rest of her life with her!
Goddamn that ending, it is hard to forget about it!
No, I won’t let it ruin this for me! I love this movie and truly recommend it! It’s a NETFLIX original so you know what to do!
Ja
~
百合 Goggles 