Watashi no Kao

Watashi no Kao is a hauntingly cool (yet sadly, very short) work by the (in)famous Keita Kurosaka.

Right off the bat, the story is not the focus, as there is very little.

What is of focus is the incredible art style that Kurosaka employs. A twisted, surreal depiction of humanity that embodies the grotesque, creating a style that is oddly part-realistic and part-surrealistic. This style is often seen in his works, and speaks to the unique nature of his artistry. I love it.

The sound design is very good, and backs up the intense imagery with an equal dose of intense sounds. It feels demented, out ... of this world, and engrosses you into the images therein.

I greatly enjoyed this short animation, and would recommend it highly to open-minded animation fans and Kurosaka devotees (all of which seem to be only me so far).

5/10/8/7/9/8

Watashi No Kao is a 3 minute horror film that basically shows a series of surreal shapes on a little girl's face. There is no story or dialogue besides "Here is my face" and "I am ready."

For what it is, it does a decent job. The animation and art style is unnerving, and the faces are seriously creepy. It definitely has that dark, surreal kind of demonic horror vibe that is seen in a lot of psychological horrors. Definitely worth a watch if you want to see something really weird and creepy, it's not mind blowing but it does its job as a 3 minute ... horror movie just fine.

Pay no attention to the people saying this is deep, it's not. It's just a girls face morphing into different faces for a few minutes. An old man's face, or a demonic face, and everything in-between as it stretches, squeezes, and growls quite loudly. That is mostly it.
I liked the way the different faces melded together and stretched as they were changing in a psychedelic nightmare of an lsd trip that this short was. The wall of nightmare sounds (demonic growling and a metal pole being hit with a stick?) added another level of uncomfortable surrealism. Overall though it was ... pretty pointless. I appreciate the amount of effort went into the art though. Making complex scribbles into animation takes a different effort than drawing standard in-between frames.
Eventually you see her real face, which was probably already spoiled for you. She looks at the camera and says a short phrase, then it ends, leaving you wondering why this exists.
It is what it is, a short art piece with little meaning or point other than displaying the grotesque. 3/10