A young man commits suicide, and leaves his three friends wondering why he did it. They start to investigate his death which leads them to horrible and strange things they never thought possible. At the same time, Kawashima decides to try to use the so-called internet that everyone seems to be talking about. When he, for the first time, connects to it, a strange website appears, asking him if he wants to encounter a real ghost. He shuts the computer off, but it keeps turning itself on, and always opening that strange ghostly website. Naturally the guy is freaked out, and since he doesn't understand anything when it comes to computers, he seeks help from a girl at his school who seems to know more about the phenomenon called the internet. All of a sudden, more and more people starts disappearing all over Japan. And the more Kawashima and the other young people starts digging into what's behind it all, the more strange and horrible things they find.
While waiting for the remake (which can't possibly be as good as the original), I thought I'd write a review of one of the better Japanese horror films out there. This movie, together with Ringu, set a new standard for what scary (Japanese) horror really is all about. Kairo is different from anything you've seen before, and if you're reading this and have not yet seen the movie; Do yourself a favor and check it out, and don't just wait for the remake, as you should know where it came from.
It deals with the internet that we all know by now, with ghosts, loneliness and fear and joy of death. Kairo has a lot of different interpretations in it, and has something to say, a meaning, but you can also skip all that if you're not in the mood and just see it as a scary movie. Because this truly is a scary movie, something that is quite hard to find these days if you've been watching a lot of horror. I saw this movie long ago, I don't remember when, and since then I've been watching tons of mostly non-effective Western and Eastern horror movies. But now when I sat down to watch Kairo again, I still found it to be quite a scary flick, and if you haven't seen that many scary Asian movies, you're in for a real treat.
 
It might seem slow to very slow at times, but those who wait for something good...
It starts off right away, and keeps building the movie throughout. Still, there are a lot of scares to be found every now and then, and all of them are not delivered towards the end like with some movies. The best thing about Kairo, I think, is that it has a really creepy atmosphere, and unsettling is a good word to describe the movie with. It tends to be more of a psychological horror, and the more you think about everything that you see and hear on screen, the more freaky it becomes.
Another thing is that it never feel that unrealistic. It's easy to get caught up in the story, and since it deals with freaky stuff on the internet, it hits a spot we're all familiar with. When they use computers in some movies, it doesn't look like it would look on the screen in your home, but Kairo actually does, and that makes it feel more realistic. We've all visited freaky websites (I guess) and since it deals with the internet in this day of age, it hits close to home.
There's no gore, but gore is on the other hand not at all needed here. And there are really no sudden scares, but they all comes creeping, and like I said before, it's more psychological and sticks in your head, rather than make you jump. Visually it looks great, and is overall very strange and most of all, eerie as hell. It looks gloomy and dark, and creates a very unsettling kind of mood. The horror grows the longer you watch it and is constantly there to make the viewer feel uneasy. Even if it might feel too slow at times, just sit through it, because it is a rewarding movie, and a landmark when it comes to Japanese horror.
Kairo is a chilling flick that has a creepy atmosphere that never lets go. It might feel a bit slow at times, but like most stuff when it comes to Eastern cinema, it's rewarding in the end, so you try and sit through it. There are really no sudden scares that'll make you jump and spill your coffee, but rather psychological and has a very unsettling feel to it. Highly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Pulse
MOVIE YEAR: 2001
DIRECTOR: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
WRITING CREDITS: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Aso, Masatoshi Matsuo
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 119 min
RATING: 10/10
Kairo Website/IMDB Click here
Kairo Trailer Click here
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