(2004)
Dir - Tsurata Norio
Overall: MEH
Modern-day J-horror has had a well defined trademark of the utilization of technology and/or appliances themselves going all evil and haunted like. A VHS tape in Ringu, computers in Kairo, everything in a bathroom in the Silent Hill video game series,etc. Switching premises merely to the printed word, Yogen is based on the magna Kyoufu Shinbun, which translates to "Newspaper of Terror". Somewhat silly on paper then, (har, har), a few moments become unintentionally humorous in an over-the-top fashion as well. By and large though, the film is largely uninteresting until the finale when the roller coaster of psychological torment befalls the main character. The end result is both detrimentally bombastic and effectively so, but the whole thing leans heavier in the mediocre department unfortunately.
(2005)
Dir - Takishi Shimizu
Overall: GOOD
The sole J Horror Theater entry by Ju-on creator and filmmaker Takishi Shimizu, Rinne, (Reincarnation), fittingly features such familiar supernatural and narrative tropes. Creepy little girls with their long-haired heads hanging down move at a snails pace and spastically twitch their limbs very loudly on the soundtrack, pale faced,-wide-eyed ghosts pop up everywhere in general, and mostly female protagonists are the ones getting swept up in the middle of it all. These kind of genre-pandering attributes are more amusing than scary, but the film manages to be enjoyable do to its borderline avant-garde structure. This is essentially Shimizu's quasi-version of The Shining, with a "film within a film within another film" tag thrown into the mix to help differentiate it more. The editing is highly unique, utilizing dream, flashback, and present sequences that morph seamlessly together. Certainly ambitious from a stylistic standpoint, it manages to elevate its somewhat silly and would-be stale ingredients to become memorable enough in its own right.
(2010)
Dir
- Hiroshi
Takahashi
Overall: MEH
As the final entry in the J-Horror Theater series, Hiroshi Takahashi's Kyōfu is also easily one of the strangest. This is not so much in a typical “Japanese movies are inherently weird” way, but more in an odd, “the filmmakers do not appear to even be trying” way. Head-scratching oddities clutter up the story at a ridiculous rate. A girl appears as a ghost even though she is not really dead (kind of), people walk into each other's dreams (maybe?), two sisters run into their mother once they are grown and maybe they had not seen her in years or something, one sister is into suicide and dated some doctor who was in on some sort of experiments, and that same sister turns into another actress as does another character who eats raw meat from a bowl and gives birth to the afterlife. This happens even though there are repeated monologues about how there is no afterlife and that is why vampires scream a certain way. So, whatever that is all about. The tone and atmosphere stay right on track, maintaining typically solid, ghost story-like suspense. The performances are an interesting combination of dream-like and intense as well, but the end result is undoubtedly messy and far too hilariously nonsensical to take all that seriously.
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