(1991)
Dir - Shinya Tsukamoto
Overall: MEH
For his follow-up to the career-making, cyberpunk fever dream Tetsuo: The Iron Man, filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto adapted Daijiro Morohoshi's manga Yōkai Hunter, here titled Hiruko the Goblin, (Yōkai Hantā: Hiruko). Comparatively more user-friendly than his previous movie, (which can be said about nearly every other movie), it has a fittingly wacky tone where a school hosts an underground lair of spider creatures with the heads of their victims attached to them. Said spider goblin things also stick out their nasty, fat purple tongues which cause people to hallucinate sunny, pleasant memories of their loved ones, making it easier for them to commit violent suicide under such a spell. The movie is ridiculously violent at times and the set pieces are inventively wacky, all of which is played for laughs as Kenji Sawada and Masaki Kudou run around like a bumbling, screaming Abbot and Costello duo. Pacing wise, it loses momentum at several intervals and eventually runs in circles until the climax which offers more of the same instead of upping the stakes as was probably intended. Such issues could be attributed to Tsukamoto apparently going over-budget and having issues with his cast during shooting as this was a considerably bigger production than his earlier, DIY freak-outs.
(1997)
Dir - Takahisa Zeze
Overall: MEH
A rare work in ethereal horror from prominent pink filmmaker Takahisa Zeze, Kokkuri-san takes its stylistic cue from the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa in its deliberate pacing and emphasis on foreboding chills instead of aggressive jump scares and hacky genre tropes. In this respect, the movie is atmospherically a triumph, even if the screenplay by Zeze and frequent collaborator Kishu Izuchi is too self-absorbed to properly grasp. It concerns three teenagers who play the Ouija board style game of the title after being instructed to do so by a clandestine radio personality who hosts a strange, call-in show where people share sexual encounters and whatnot. Things remain vague throughout as far as the both the plotting and the supernatural occurrences go, which bypass the usual vengeful spirit motif and instead offer up a world where these young women's parents are almost nowhere to be found and manipulation via past versions of oneself bring about repressed sexual anxieties. While it deserves points for being narratively unique, it becomes frustratingly impenetrable like a cumbersome dream, which is likely intentional yet not as engaging as would be preferred.
(1999)
Dir - Shunichi Nagasaki
Overall: MEH
While it is overlong and stumbles through a clunky ending, Shunichi Nagasaki's Shikoku, (Land of the Dead), is impressive in its ambition and has a more profoundly thematic agenda than typical jump-scare-ridden J-horror. Both Kunimi Manda and Takenori Sendo were first time screenwriters, adapting a story from author Masako Bandō which concerns a teenage girl who drowns at the age of sixteen with unfinished life goals and unrequited love beckoning her back, along with her Shinto priestess mother that concocts a long scheme to raise her from the dead. All of the camera work appears to be handheld which is a unique juxtaposition to the otherwise conventional presentation that indulges in soaring, romantic music just as much as it lingers on deliberately downplayed moments. The atmosphere is mostly thick and chilling as director Nagasaki only bothers with a few standard scare tactics and mostly lets things play out with intimate patience. This unfortunately becomes a detriment in the final, sluggish act which makes some curious missteps such as one character spontaneously appearing in an unintentionally goofy manner and another one exhibiting absolutely no emotion whatsoever as her childhood friend and current love interest succumbs to his doom.
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