Noroi is one of those rare examples of title that not only understands dread, but aspires to present it’s horror in a way that subverts the stale punch line of traditional scares. Directed by Koji Shiraishi, and adopting a found footage style seen in western counterparts such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, Noroi manages to break away from its contemporaries by weaving a multi layered back story steeped in ancient Japanese folklore and archival footage.

This is a film that is not afraid to experiment. With a narrative presented through archival footage, newsreels and ancient texts. This is a story that is in no rush to reach it’s climax. Presented in the style of a made for TV programme, documentary filmmaker Masafumi Kobayashi attempts to uncover the kinds of supernatural occurrences often seen at midnight on The Discovery Channel, as a meandering investigation quickly gathers momentum thanks to the disappearance of a girl and the introduction of an eccentric psychic.

Every found footage horror lives or dies by its cast, and I’m pleased to report that Noroi does not disappoint. Masafumi Kobayashi, the film’s protagonist presents plausibility in his actions by his measured approach to his investigation. This is a man that loves what he does and is willing to risk his life for the sake of Journalistic integrity (a feat that even trumps the often absurd premise of why people would film such events in the first place). Special mention must be given to the performance of Satoru Jutsunashi in the role of Mitsuo Hori, the aforementioned eccentric psychic. Jutsunashi-san is faced with the difficult task of not only playing a role that is the films main point of exposition, but also its emotional core.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A5VNsEeAMY

As you may of noticed I am carefully tip toeing around the actual events of the film as I feel to do otherwise would be a disservice to the reader. Suffice it to say this is a title that isn’t afraid to go for broke in it’s finale in order to leave its audience with mouths firmly agape. Fair warning though, Noroi is a film that doesn’t pander to its audience through cheap jump scares or a finite ending. However for those of you looking for a similarly rewarding experience akin to the likes of Pulse or A Tale of Two Sisters, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

With all this talk of ‘credit crunch’ and price inflation nowadays it seems we are all pinching our pennies to find the best deal we can when it comes buying new cars, TVs or renting a new place to live. Ok, so it might be on the 13th floor and there might be a weird smell and thumping noises coming from the other room, but hey, it’s super cheap, trendy, my loveable pooch Samantha can stay and it even has a pool! And for this price? Surely it must be perfectly safe and I’d be an idiot not to say yes immediately without properly checking it out, right? Wrong!

The film starts with apartment 1303’s newest resident happily unpacking all of her stuff into her new dwelling. She’s all alone as her boyfriend is (rather appropriately) attending a funeral when she hears a thud and obviously, being all alone in a strange new apartment which is now making unexplainable noises, she goes to explore. Hmm, there’s a strange smell? It’s odd that it wasn’t noticed when I first went to view the place? And look, a spare room that I’ve never been into, that’s probably where the smell is coming from. Back downstairs her boyfriend is returning home while a little girl and her mother are walking out of the apartment block. The little girl grabs him and pulls him toward the pool (the mother seems unconcerned by the whole ordeal) and in what is the most remarkable use of special effects seen in this lifetime (there is a great need for a sarcasm font) he witnesses his girlfriend throwing herself from the 13th floor balcony.

Some time later we have a new resident of apartment 1303, Sayaka, who’s having an ‘unpacking party’, complete with moving in schedule, what jolly fun. She realises that she’s lost her little doggy Samantha in the flat somewhere (did alarm bells not start ringing when she was told she would be allowed a dog in an apartment on the 13th floor?) She makes her way to the smelly bedroom, returns to the party a few moments later donning a helmet (“Well, I don’t wanna get my face all smashed up”) and jumps from the balcony. The rest of the film revolves around Sayaka’s sister Mariko, who is convinced the death wasn’t suicide as she finds strong factual evidence in the apartment such as an earring that Sayaka didn’t own. Eventually Mariko discovers that the apartment has a long history of death and it all began with a mother/daughter incident years ago, mainly because someone had written a book about it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foEy-H82Fbw

This movie provokes many thoughts such as, why on earth would a landlord rent out an apartment from which people are killing themselves? If the circumstances were concerning enough to deem a book, why has it not yet been turned into storage space? If any of the above sounds like it could interest you into viewing, put it down to my entertaining writing ability. It is one of the most humdrum ghost films ever made (except for maybe ‘Ghost’, that was pretty crap!)

The plot is suitably bizarre, a revenge supernatural mystery with a time travel twist. How the man behind Ju-On: The Grudge could make such an awful movie is the only mystery I could make a connection with. As for the 3Dness, it’s about as subtle as a brick. In all honesty, I could just end the review at that and tell you to pass on this film but I will try to delve deeper into what makes this film so awful. A movie that starts off quite nicely. But as it progresses and with more riddles and things happening out of nowhere, you will loose focus of the movie and it’s main characters after awhile. And although it has a good idea as it’s stronghold, it still is too long, for it’s own good. It feels as if the running time, is twice as long, as it actually is. While not much is happening and you still loose the plot/focus of the story, it’s hard to find many good things in this.

The narrative changes time and location more times then I care to count. I tried watching the more intense scenes in 3D only to find that they were even less effective as, though there is added depth, everyone is a weird shade of green. I still liked the cinematography overall (not the 3-D effect mind you) and some story beats it took. But as many people here, I was expecting much more of this. I can put aside my annoyances about a poor plot if the resolution at least answers my questions. But, I found the ending to be too vague, and unclear about what happened to who, and what was even the point of the hour and some I sat through watching this.

As far as acting goes, the child actors go very well and capture how a combination few childish mistakes can end in tragedy but the adult cast is for the most part hopeless. The one who does hold her water just so happens to disappear from the screen all too soon. There is much walking about in ill lit corridors and even if the deliberately cheesy set is unsettling at first it becomes tiresome all too soon. Good horror manages to increase the tension with each repetition but bad horror cannot help but flounder when employing such a tactic. The seasoned foreign horror buff will not find anything new here, only disappointment. After skipping about madly as if in search of closure the plot settles for the never missing twist. It is disappointing that a director that has already shown how he can inject innovation into J-horror should produce such a dispirited movie.\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYQCG7F5fUI

Shock Labyrinth is rarely if at all scary. When seeing a horror film, that is, for me at least, the most important element. No scares? Failure. To confuse things further Ken, the lead character keeps getting an unexplained pain in his head, and Rin, a blind girl, periodically gets her sight back! What!? I wish Takashi had stuck with the children and the far more compelling story. After establishing the basic premise of the story, it gets stuck in a pattern of repeating the same things over and over. Oh, and there’s a ghostly bunny that flies through walls. So in conclusion, let me put it this way, if you’re scared of plush rabbit toys, this is the horror film for you. Everyone else, stay away.

There are very few films that you can be fully involved in from the opening scene, but when it came to Cure I don’t think I blinked throughout the whole of it. Now upon reading others’ opinions regarding this movie marvel, I seemed to find a lot of people slightly unimpressed; “It’s boring!” “There’s not enough blood!” Blah, blah, blah. Do the words psychological thriller not mean anything anymore?! However all was not lost as it was frequently compared to the likes of Se7en by those who did enjoy it, and to those people I say a jovial hurrah. (Obviously if you didn’t see Se7en for the masterpiece that it was then please stop reading and take your shtick elsewhere).

It may be argued that the ‘good-guy cop with vague understanding/fascination of psychopathic killer’ thing has been done, but not like this. A series of bizarre murders are occurring in urban Japan and though the victims are all killed in different ways, afterwards the perpetrator of each murder slices a giant X into their throats. In each case the killer is an ordinary, stable, tax-paying citizen with no motive or want to kill his or her victim. After wards they express feeling of confusion and though voluntarily admitting to the murders, they are baffled and remorseful of doing so.

After some plausible deductive skills from Police Detective Takabe they are led to a young vagabond named Mamiya who just happened to be at the scene of every crime before the murders occurred. Mamiya has the memory span of an intelligent goldfish, that is to say his amnesia reaches frustrating levels. He doesn’t know who he is, where he is, who he’s talking to, thus making interrogation quite an endeavour. He likes to ask people about themselves, what they do and their experiences but has very little desire to actually find out who he is, answering questions with more questions, which is a bit odd for someone who is literally unaware of what’s going on all of the time. Detective Takabe’s wife is going through a very similar identity crisis which intrigues him even more to uncover the secrets of Mamiya’s hypnotic mind and expose his spiel; is he the one causing people to kill? How can someone who’s probably forgotten how to tie their own shoe laces manage to reveal the darker side happy people?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayyP1ELch0c

The atmosphere of Cure is quite a bleak, dreary one which is very typical of detective thrillers, but at no point did I find myself shouting at the screen for something to happen. The murders in comparison are very abrupt, one minute someone is struggling with the mundane task of asking Mamiya questions about himself and the next, BAM! someone jumps out of the window! Koji Yakusho who plays the glum detective was as usual brilliant while the character of Mamiya irritated me to no end, though I guess that’s just a sign of decent acting. The real winner here however is the storyline, absorbing and challenging from start to finish and original to the detective thriller genre. A definite must see for anyone who’s a bit bored of severed heads and a bit more interested in stimulating the brain.

Directors Wong Jing and Patrick Kong are working together for the first time to bring a ghost horror Hong Kong movie. The 2-part horror stories starts with the spooky and unexplained incidents in a school and the second story is about the ghostly encounter of a group of friend on vacation. Admittedly, our horror section of the site has been a bit slow to review films, but it isn’t intentionally our fault. It’s true, there hasn’t been a horror movie from Hong Kong in some time! It stars Jennifer Tse (Nicolas Tse’s sister making her acting debut) as Miss Yip, who saw some of her students going for compensated dates. Her offers to help them were met with threats and acts of defiance from her students. Things are not what they seemed and it’s twist galore with this segment.

So, is the film particular good? Well, yes and no. If it’s any consolation to make this film trip worthwhile, it’ll be Jennifer Tse starring in her very first role in a Hong Kong film, and from what’s been seen so far, she has a promising career ahead of her. The major flow is the direction, as the directors sloppiness shouldn’t be a surprise to those who have followed Wong Jing’s numerous works through the years- but this may just be his worst. I don’t want to give details on the plots of any of them because I think that viewers need to experience them for themselves with no preconceptions going in.

These directors use powerful cinematic storytelling elements in exploring their genres. This is not an ordinary horror film with a ghost or a slasher/killer with a knife but a combination of people who are capable of psychotic behavior. While all of the films are not perfect and contain some mildly dull aspects, watching both films will leave you intrigued with the art and approach of the horror genre utilized in various countries Asia. Comparing these two segments, Patrick Kong’s Classroom was much more entertaining to sit through. However, Classroom and Travel are as scary as Hong Kong comedic horror goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-tZ5usFFvE

Quite frankly, I am just glad that horror is starting to trickle in as it has been a slow period for films in general. Each story has very different qualities and gave the viewer something to enjoy. Not American style, scream queen, psychobabble laden horror films. More intellectual and artistic as the characters are made to look good rather than deviant. Shorts were you can turn off the subtitles and still understand the plot are hard to come by, but these fit the bill. I wish I could speak the languages of the films because the English translation detracted from the emotional content and context. If you like slasher movies and jump out of your seat scary, pass on these. Otherwise, strap in, and enjoy!

Often I find that the scariest breed of film is that which could be real. It doesn’t necessarily need to be overly grotesque or feature a mammoth hockey-mask-wearing psychopath; Suicide Club doesn’t actually have a clear, identifiable antagonist at all. The most shocking element is that Suicide Club is, in a very roundabout way, based on true events. I say ‘roundabout’ because it isn’t based on any true event at all, however, it does bring to light Japan’s attitude towards suicide, having one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

The now notorious opening scene of Suicide Club features a mass suicide. Who’d have guessed? In fact, given the title of the film you do find yourself watching it thinking ‘Well, he/she is obviously going to kill him/herself now’ at pretty much every character that looks slightly dodgy. 54 school-girls casually stroll up to the side of a train platform, laughing and joking; they all line up, hold hands and then throw themselves in front of oncoming train. Just like that. It’s the indifference of the act that makes it so disturbing. It’s a rather grim aftermath; limbs fly through train windows, spectators are covered in guts and the blood literally forms a river on the train line. All that remains on the scene is a white bag, containing sewn together strips of skin.

Japan erupts into pandemonium. School children are throwing themselves off buildings under the impression that it’s some sort of new fad, nurses are jumping out of windows, one young woman chops off her hand and another puts her head into the oven, all in the most casual manner. There are a number of peculiar could-be explanations given, including a wannabe detective who calls herself ‘The Bat’, a website predicting the suicides via coloured dots and the most bizarre being some sort of ‘Clockwork Orange’ torture gang featuring a singing cross-dresser. In the background of all the anarchy and somehow linked to it, is Japan’s latest pop-sensation; a girl-group interchangeably named Desert, Dessert or Dessret (obviously there were some disagreements when coming up with the band name.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyV3VD3pBiU

Suicide Club draws attention to Japan’s fixation for fads, treating the suicide trend as a ridiculous new craze that all the cool kids are doing. The opening scene is certainly the most powerful, but the copycat suicides and wannabe antagonists are alarmingly familiar to real events in our past. Combining this with Japan’s love for consumerism and the media in addition to its high suicide rate, and we practically have ourselves a would-be true story. Except for the transsexual torture gang bit, that’s just weird.

Based upon the novel by Otsuichi, GOTH is about two morbid high school students who share a fascination with murder. Kamiyama (Hongo Kanata) is an outwardly friendly and popular boy who hides his potentially sociopathic nature with a carefree, happy attitude. Loner Morino (Takanashi Rin), on the other hand, does little to hide her strange nature; she never smiles, doesn’t interact with her classmates, and wears a long-sleeved, black school uniform even during the middle of summer. While these two seem to share little in common and do not interact with each other in front of their peers, their shared interest in death and murder has turned them into an unusual duo. Initially happy to exchange books on morbid subjects, a series of recent murders spark their interest and they begin investigating the killer. This serial killer has a fondness for cheerful young women and, after severing their left hand as a trophy, displays their dead bodies in public locations to be discovered. After Morino discovers the killer’s notebook in a local café, the two use it to see the corpses for themselves before discovery and attempt to discern his identity. Obviously, the closer they get to discovering him, the more danger they are in.

While the premise can easily sound like a standard horror flick, GOTH is much more than it appears to be. The film is rarely gruesome and is not a horror film in the sense that it attempts to scare or sicken the audience. Like the serial killer and the protagonists, GOTH is interested in death and the act of murder as an aesthetic philosophy and the result is an extremely intriguing film. Directed by Takahashi Gen (working with cinematographer Ishikura Ryuji) has created a beautiful, thoughtful movie that unfolds in the typical Japanese ‘slice-of-life’ fashion; the slow moving plot is uninterested in rushed revelations and most of the film takes place in empty classrooms, an eccentric café, and quiet bedrooms. Working with cinematographer Ishikura Ryuji, Takahashi also gives GOTH a surreal look with an emphasis on light and shade. The overexposed white gives the characters a ghostly appearance, particularly the strikingly beautiful Takanashi Rin. Like the character’s fascination, the atmosphere of the film is filled with death. While people tend to repress thoughts of mortality and murder, the serial killer’s fascination with displaying dead bodies in public locations demonstrates just so quickly and subtly death can creep into our lives. In one of the first scenes, a breezy summer day in a park is slowly tainted when two old women discover that the lovely woman seated in the center of the camera frame has been dead all along; her corpse unnoticed by the people seated so close to her. A beautiful walk through the lushly green foliage of a Japanese countryside is interrupted by the body of a dead woman seated on a red armchair. Despite her unnatural placement, the girl appears to have simply fallen asleep while reading. The soundtrack reinforces this sinister air with an impressively ambient quality that highlights the innocence of the protagonists and the threat looming around them; the innocence of the murder victims and the fate they encountered.

Personally, I found the threat of the serial killer to be one of the less intriguing aspects of the film. A much more pressing concern is the relationship between Kamiyama and Morino. While Morino’s obsession with death can be connected back to the accidental hanging of her sister, Kamiyama appears much more sinister. Both characters are uninterested in right, wrong, and morality, but Kamiyama displays several characteristics of a sociopath – a lack of empathy towards others, a lack of emotion, the ability to easily deceive people, etc. As it becomes clear that Morino fantasizes about being murdered, Kamiyama clearly fantasizes about murdering people. This creates a tense ambiguity between the two characters and forces the audience to wonder if Kamiyama would kill Morino if the opportunity ever presented itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGXf7KI0n4c

The film can drag on a bit and the conclusion of GOTH emphasizes a cathartic revelation about the protagonists rather than a narrative resolution about the serial killer. Obviously the plot device that allows Morino to just coincidentally discover the serial killer’s notebook feels forced and several characters seem superfluous. However, the performances delivered by Hongo Kanata and Takanashi Rin are truly top notch. GOTH isn’t a film for the standard consumer of J-horror, but it is a thoughtful and intriguing meditation on death and mortality. In short, GOTH is a film that is much more than it appears to be and one of the more impressive Japanese films I’ve seen this year. You can currently stream this film via JapanFlix.com.

Uzumaki is a little reminder that pretty much anything goes when it comes to Japanese horror. I first watched this film about 10 years ago when I just a young impressionable girl, not knowing that the world was full of things more terrifying than ghosts and Leatherface, so here I am to warn you about the abstract concept of…Killer spirals! Ok, who am I kidding here really? I doubt many of you are losing sleep at night from contemplating the likelihood of a vortex opening under your bed and swallowing you whole, so what are the odds that this film is actually frightening?

Uzumaki begins at quite a dreamy pace in the sleepy town of Kurouzucho. Teenagers and potential love interests, Kirie and Shuichi, are a bit worried about Shuichi’s father’s eyebrow-raising obsession with spirals; filming snail shells, creating whirlpools in his miso soup and building himself a little garage/fun house where he keeps all of his spiral related objects. Eventually his fascination spirals out of control (see what I did there) and soon enough he’s climbing into the washing machine to get a ‘point of view’ spiral shot. Needless to say he doesn’t survive and the outcome is a tad grotesque. But this is just the beginning, as a teenager’s hair becomes oddly curly it begins to take over her brain (weird) some guy becomes so fixated with the vortex that he twists his body in the most disturbing way to form a spiral shape (weirder) and then of course, people start turning into snails (What?)

This is one freakin’ outlandish film. And not only is it the bizarre goings on but the filming too is a bit odd; shots are flipped and tilted sideways, there is a strange green tint when you know that something freaky is about to occur, random cuts of people walking but played in reverse, and quite frankly sinister, distorted close ups of peoples’ faces (reminiscent of Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun’) in which bulging eyes spin in opposite directions. Gross. What starts as a slow beginning soon escalates to frantic proportions until everyone (except for the teenage couple and a journalist who seem unexplainably immune) goes totally round the bend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDUD8IAKQ7A

So, back to the previous question, is it actually scary? No… Hmm well, yes. Sort of, but not really. To be honest it’s just weird in a thoroughly creepy way. It gave me a few chills while watching it, though they were down to the unpleasant and quite often sudden imagery, it’s the kind that tickles the back your neck when you find yourself staring at the screen in disbelief. I myself wouldn’t consider it a horror, maybe somewhere along the lines of a fantasy/thriller with a little bit of romance thrown in? The insanity never really gets explained, nobody really knows where this sudden vortex inclination came from, and the ambiguous ending might leave you baffled, but then what plausible reason could be given for events of this nature? Exactly. So, if you’d like to watch a film which makes sense then you should perhaps give it a miss (though, if that’s what you’re after you are almost certainly on the wrong website.) The cinematography is intense, the creativity is marvellous and there are plenty ‘What the hell?’ moments. It is wonderfully, disturbingly surreal and for that reason I think everyone needs to see it at least once.

“I only like it if it hurts.“

Masumara’s purveyance of the neorealist aesthetic to accomplish this unique fantasy/horror film is not only notable for its historical significance but also for its fearlessness. However, despite its controversial content, the film is ultimately about the artist and his art: the fixation, the obsession, and the funeral. We, the audience, are presented with these exaggerated characters and encouraged to reflect upon the global meanings which affect and are affected by humanity.

An obsessive blind man named Michio and his domineering mother abduct a fashion model named Aki Shima. His intention is to prove to the world that a new genre of art exists; a genre by and for the blind, only to be truly appreciated by touch. Before her abduction, Aki witnesses Michio at an art gallery, fondling a statue in her image. She cannot comprehend how this could cause her pleasure, but this elixir of repulsion and egotism is a strange but common brew. Later, he poses as a masseuse and caresses her sensually before capturing her and bringing her to his lair. He is a sculptor himself, having molded all the body parts in his grotesque warehouse over the course of six years. The body parts were modeled (from memory no less) after all the women he had caressed during his former stint as a masseuse. His father’s inheritance assisted with this construction. The oedipal connections in this film are numerous and certainly not subtle (are the enormous body parts in his studio a reflection of his original touch of a woman: his mother?) but they can also be brought into the discussion of art. Art, beheld by the artist, is larger than life; a sensuous experience gripping the very soul of the creator until one of them dies. Indeed, Masumara implies that the male-driven significance of Michio as the artist suggests that the violence inherent in the act of creation (be it by god, big bang, or sex) is a male attribute. The masculine drive is derived, executed, and justified through violent and selfish means (war has been instigated and perpetrated throughout history by men). This also lends the film a symbolic criticism beyond merely art but to the very nature of man himself.

The acting in the film is impeccable. Eiji Funakoshi’s performance as Michio is flawless and entirely convincing. Not once does he look directly at anyone and yet his “gaze” is intense. He is villainous yet oddly sympathetic, not because of his ocular handicap necessarily but for the inescapable prison he has made for himself (enabled by his mother of course) – quite the antithesis of Fini Straubinger in Herzog’s masterpiece, Land of Silence and Darkness. Mako Midori as Aki is equally convincing, but her behavior becomes more believable as the film progresses. The audience is essentially taking this journey with Aki and will become slowly desensitized to the impending violence. Noriko Sengoku plays the mother with just the right amount of obsessive protectionism (and yes, I’m referring to the economic policy) and heart-felt conviction. The character of the mother is a typical Freudian formula. Aki uses this as a weapon throughout the film and it ultimately results in death. The music is typical horror film fare, but there are also tense moments of silence which are very effective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG34PFaQJgE

Aki narrates the film but it is apparent early on that she is unreliable (my favourite type of narrator). There are numerous questions that arise throughout the film. Why was she at the gallery? Her voyeuristic tendencies are nearly as advanced as Michio; indeed, by the end, her inhibitions are expunged and her inner nature is revealed. The ending of the film is entirely logical within the deranged mind of this obsessive artist; it is after all, merely intensifying the climatic abstraction of the artistic endeavour. It is shocking for a reason. The end of a work of art for the artist is a funeral; a celebration and a mourning from which there is nothing wholesome or civilised, only methods of self-indulgence.

“This is a tale of things not of this world.”

Directed by the masterful Nobuo Nakagawa (The Ghost of Yotsuya), Jigoku is a simple tale of bad luck. As surreal as a dream yet rooted in real-world mechanics and consequences, the film is a horrific vision of hellish implications. The last production by Shintoho Studio, Jigoku is a horror masterpiece. The first half of the film takes place in the physical world; the world we are living in now, in relative harmony. The second half of the film takes place in hell, where sinners must suffer anguish forever; dying and being reborn, from one form of pain to another. It is a dark place, where one can be engulfed in flames whilst hanging upside down with a spike through the throat and still be able to carry on a conversation. There, the dead are unforgiving and ever-accusing; here, they are silent.

Shiro is a theology student who has just recently announced his engagement to Yukiko, the daughter of his professor, Mr. Yajima. Tamura (played by the wonderful, Yoichi Numata) is a fellow student and is not highly regarded by Yukiko’s parents (there are hints that Tamura was once a spurned suitor). One night, Shiro and Tamura are driving home. Shiro asks Tamura to take a side street. A drunken man (Kyoichi) stumbles into the road and is run over and dies. Tamura speeds off; Shiro imploring him to turn around and help the man, neither of them aware that Kyoichi’s mother witnessed the entire incident. Kyoichi turns out to be Yakuzza. Tamura uses this as support for his argument that they should feel no remorse for the occurrence and even blames Shiro for suggesting an unfamiliar road. Shiro, however, feels desperately guilty. He confides in Yukiko about the event and they decide to go to the police station and confess everything. She prefers to walk but Shiro insists on taking a taxi. The cab driver loses control and Yukiko is killed in the accident. Shiro descends into depression and meets Yoko at a strip bar who has plotted with Kyoichi’s mother, to revenge Kyoichi’s death. Shiro moves to the country to care for his ailing mother, Ito. He meets his mother’s nurse, Sachiko, who looks frighteningly similar to Yukiko (both played by Utako Mitsuya). There’s a certain real-world menace to the tenants of the retirement community Ito has been housed in. Her husband is openly having an affair, a criminal painter works labouriously on a rendition of hell (then burns it of course), a doctor who refuses to admit his inaccurate diagnoses, and others of dubious nature. In fact, there’s so much corruption, selfishness, and greed that the only characters depicted in soft light are Yukiko and Sachiko. All of the others have something to hide, murder is frequent and quickly forgotten, and everyone exploits everyone else. Ito dies and, only coincidentally, everyone is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the community. The prelude to the “hell section” of the film is an absurd bloodbath that is just as terrifying as anything in the following section.

The final forty minutes of the film is a continuous succession of madness and mayhem wherein these characters are tortured. The torment is relentless and mocking; it is hell, or rather, a series of hells strung across, one may presume, eternity. Shiro does seem to be an innocent though (or, at the very least, naive): fate’s whipping boy. “The blood flowing in these hands are cursed!” he declares, and he’s probably right. He discovers Yukiko was pregnant with a girl (Yukiko names her Harumi) and begins searching hell for her. There are definite similarities to Dante’s Inferno (theatricality included) throughout the film and indeed, it plays out like some twisted fable; as long as one feels guilt for an action, they are held responsible by Lord Enma of the Eight Realms of Hell – not a very understanding being.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z45fCTOxci8

The entire film is driven by Shiro’s unfortunate decisions and chance. These decisions are not born of selfishness or even premeditation, but are seemingly trivial common choices all of us make everyday. This heightens the horrific aspect of the film because it grounds all of these occurrences in reality – all great horror films require this. “Everything hinges on fate,” one of the characters in the film says. All horror films rely on this principle: fear is inescapable.