You may have trouble believing it, but Mizuno Miki (32) is one of Japan’s more attractive actresses. The special makeup she’s wearing is for her role in the horror movie, “Kuchisake Onna”. The title literally means “slit-mouth woman” and is reminiscent of the gruesome ghosts of Japanese folklore. The movie is based on a famous urban legend from the late 1970s, in which a masked woman would terrorize young children on their way home from school. Removing the mask, she’d ask them, “Am I beautiful?” If they answered “No”, she would slit their throats on the spot. If they told her she was beautiful, she would take them to their home and kill them there. The only way to avoid death was to answer “Not bad” or “Normal”. Mizuno was originally offered the part of one of the children’s mother, but asked for the more “interesting” role. “The director (Shiraishi Koji) told me to be the incarnation of violence. So in my acting I tried to make 100% use of the little bit of evil that lives in the heart of everyone. It was fun.” She added, “I even scared myself in that makeup!” The movie, which opens on March 17, also stars Sato Eriko (25) and Kato Haruhiko (31).