Furueru shita (1980) Writhing Tongue

Directed by Yoshitaro Nomura

Starring Tsunehiko Watase, Yukiyo Toake, Mayuko Wakamori

Masako, a five-year-old girl starts acting strangely, she wont open her mouth, then one day has a spasm and bites her tongue. Her parents take her to a hospital to be fobbed off with reasons like she has a cold or its probably psychological. After taking her to another hospital and undergoing numerous tests, they find out she has Tetanus caused by the infection getting into a tiny scratch on her finger. 

Her parents stay with her in the hospital as the staff do their best to save Masakos life, the pressure builds moment to moment, day by day as it looks like she could die. You breathe in the anxiety, the suffering of the child is traumatic to say the least and yet the tension keeps building.

Absolutely marvelous acting, incredibly realistic in every way. Im sure any parent who has been in a similar situation will feel sympathetic/empathetic towards the parents, the child and the hospital staff. This could have slipped so easily into melodramatics but thankfully it doesnt. If this film does bring a tear to your eye itll be for all the right reasons. 

IMDB have this listed as a horror, the horror in this film is all too real and Tetanus continues to kill many each year.

Not the sort of film many would pick for a nights entertainment but if you want to see quality acting and a well made film (as well as one that will guarantee that you ensure your tetanus injection is up to date) you cant go wrong with this. It certainly gets my recommendation.

Cheers Trev.

No BBFC rating but at least a 15.

Region 3 ntsc DVD available from several retailers.