Movie trailers and TV commercials both exist to sell, but unlike ads for toothpaste or instant ramen, trailers offer a direct experience, however manipulated, with the actual product. So websites that post links to trailers are not just shilling for distributors, but also offering their visitors, always hungry for tidbits about upcoming films, a wanted service — one I take advantage of myself.
And some trailers, such as the one for Hajime Ohata's zero-budget shocker "Henge," are minor works of art, with a life almost independent of the films they are plugging. The trailer for "Henge" ("Metamorphosis") is a procession of quick cuts showing characters in the grip of panic and terror, accompanied by driving, slashing music that could have been lifted from a "Godzilla" movie, but with no dialogue — and only fleeting glimpses at what is scaring these folks half to death. The first time I saw this trailer, what movie marketers called my "want to see" zoomed skyward. (Others, perhaps more sensible, will slam shut their laptops to ward off nightmares.)
Having seen "Henge" — and come back to Earth — I have to report that it is not the one-of-kind of experience I was expecting. Instead it's the latest in a long line of Japanese films about henshin: metamorphosis from human to robot or, as the title suggests, monster. The film reference that leaps first to mind, though, is Shinya Tsukamoto's demented 1989 classic "Tetsuo (Tetsuo: The Iron Man)," in which a businessman is transformed into an ambulant pile of metallic junk.