Voice has the most lavish budget in the Whispering Corridors series, delivering a stylish, bloody ghost story.

This is the most accessible film in this successful series of South Korean ghost stories, and the one most likely to please horror fans. You also don't have to watch the first three films to enjoy it, because they're all linked by themes rather than by ongoing characters. Each film is set in a high school 'with a history', and involves suicide, lesbian relationships, and schoolgirls haunted by their dead friends. Whispering Corridors (1998) got the series off to a reasonable start. Memento Mori (1999) is more like an intense drama with splashes of horror. It's a good film, but not an essential horror. The Wishing Stairs (2003) then fell back on Ring (1998) for horror ideas and failed for me as a drama, due to poorer performances. By then other films, like Bunshinsaba (2004), were already using similar story ideas to greater, scarier effect.

Voice then provided a giant leap forwards for the series, with fresh new ideas on scares, ghosts and twists. There's also enough money for some unique visual FX flourishes, like when the ghost tries to piece together her memories. The cinematography is stylish and beautifully realised, adding rich colour to some scenes, defying the muted colours of the school. The cast is fantastic and very watchable. The depiction of school life isn't as realistic as Memento Mori, but Voice succeeds admirably as a ghost story, with the added slant of having the ghost taking centre stage.

There are some startling death scenes and some extensive FX to depict the various complications of being dead, for instance, the ghost girl being confined to the school. These are ambitiously and imaginatively done, but look more scientific than spiritual, as if the afterlife were a natural phenomenon.

It all helps the story take some startling turns and makes for a very different and eventful modern ghost story. The film falters a little towards the end, as the climax is a little drawn out. But if you're after horror, this is the main film in the series to recommend. But as yet, this impressive film isn't widely accessible.

The Thai DVD release (pictured above) is very reasonably priced, but at the expense of the film's extensive sound design. Music and voices are central to the plot, but unfortunately the original Korean mix is only available in stereo. It would certainly be worth getting a version with the 5.1 Korean mix if you have the right audio equipment. Only the Thai dub is in 5.1 on this release. If that's not a problem, and you're not expecting any extras, this is a well produced DVD, with great picture quality and well-translated and presented English subtitles. Strangely, a couple of scenes, of a schoolgirl smoking, has been digitally blurred out. It's not crucial to the film, but it is annoying.

The Korean region 3 DVD set looks more tempting, boasting DTS sound, English subtitles, and a second DVD full of extras (but not subbed). Singapore, has also released a version with English subtitles, calling it Voice Letter.

Good haunting! I mean, good hunting! Forbidden Siren
(2006, Japan, Sairen)

Region 3 Singapore DVD (Innoform Media)

If you hear the siren, don't go outside...

Usually, when you see a trailer for a film from the US, you get to see it a couple of months later. With Japanese films, the wait can be over a year, until a US or UK distributor picks up the title, and releases a translated DVD. English subtitles are rare on Japanese releases, not everything gets released in Hong Kong or Korea, and only half of Thai DVDs have English subtitles on. So searching further and wider to Singapore gave me my first opportunity to watch, with an English translation, Forbidden Siren and Dorm (also 2006), for example. Of course, after a long build up, it doesn't mean to say the film is going to be any good...

Forbidden Siren is based on the PS2 video game of the same name, that was released in 2003 and has already spawned a sequel game. You don't need to have played the game to watch the film, but if you have, I suspect the film won't have any further surprises in store.

The film opens promisingly enough, with a prologue alluding to sudden mass disappearances like on the Marie Celeste. We then see an atmospheric incident on 'Yamijima Island' in 1976, where rescuers cannot find any islanders to evacuate during a rainstorm.

Flash forward to modern day, where a small family is leaving Tokyo to come and stay on the island for health reasons. A widower and his teenage daughter and young son discover the island to be full of unfriendly locals, where the standard of living looks exceedingly like a boot sale. I mean, who buys Barbra Streisand on vinyl anymore?

As they explore the island, mysteries appear by the bucketload, a bizarre insect, a disappearing pet, locals warning about mermaids, sirens, danger in the forest and a mysterious figure clothed in red. The actual siren itself is atop a tower of steel pylons, swathed in rags - an ominous landmark of an almost Wicker Man stature.

All of this fired my imagination nicely, but the actual story turned out to be very disappointing and underwritten. I was expecting mermaids, or a supernatural solution to the Marie Celeste, all sorts of outcomes, but no.

The story wasn't helped by the director using tricksy speed-ups and slow-downs, making some sesquences look more like a trailer for a US comedy.

Some imaginative and disorientating wide-angle shots were very welcome. But he was also fond of fast jump-cutting during some scenes. Why use one shot when you can use ten?

Things got worse by the climax where there's a good twenty minutes of lightning flashes to assault the eyes. You know when you're in a cinema watching a long night scene and it suddenly cuts to daytime? Your eyes are almost forced to close - well there's a long, long period where the inter-cutting between light and dark tries very hard to close your eyes.

The climax is preceded by a very long and stupid episode where someone is chased around a house by a man randomly waving a shovel. What would you do if you were in a house with a killer? Well, I'd leave, personally. It takes ages before the heroine figures it out. It's a very frustrating and pointless moment. The climax is unexciting, confusing, drawn out, lacking in surprises and with a really feeble final payoff.

To cap it all, the horror and violence never cranks up beyond mild. It's so tame in fact, it could almost be a 12 certificate or even a PG. To succeed its promise, it should have aimed for far weightier scares.

At least the film doesn't fall back on a Sadako-type horror cliches, but instead uses a more recent cliche which is becoming over-familiar...

The music score was good, but became over-dramatic compared to the action onscreen. The cast were good but not sufficiently stretched.

I was surprised to see that director Yukihiko Tsutsumi had also made 2LDK (2002) - an amusing and bloody flatmate-from-hell movie. Shockingly, he's just had a big hit in Japan with Memories of Tomorrow (Ashita no kioku) that has actor Ken Watanabe struggling with a bad onset of Alzheimer's disease (this is not to be confused with a 2004 movie from New Zealand with the same name). I had been looking forward to it, but am now wary of films from the same director!

Fans of the PS2 game may be curious about the film, but I can't honestly recommend it to horror fans, unless they want something to watch that a 12-year old can also endure.

The Japanese and Thai DVD releases have no English subtitles on them. But this Singapore release has well-translated well-timed English subs, clear multi-channel audio, a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer, and three trailers too. Dorm
(2006, Thailand, Dek Hor)

An enjoyable, but hard to classify, creepy ghost story school drama...

I really enjoyed Ring when it first came out, and immediately started digging around for other horror films from the East. I was surprised to discover they weren't all Japanese. South Korea was also in the Asian horror boom from the start, and other countries have then joined in the hunt for international success.

But I was initially disappointed by the horror films from Thailand. 999-9999 and Garuda had made me very wary... great posters but poor movies. Then along came Shutter (2004), a slick, creepy horror film loaded with successful shock moments.

Next came Dorm (2006), which I luckily saw in Thailand when it was released, and have been trying to spread the word about it ever since. Because of the poster and the initial premise, I was prepared for a full-on horror film, but Dorm is a well-rounded ghost story that's almost family fare. But it has atmosphere and scares and surprises, and contains elements that may not be considered suitable for children everywhere.

The film is set in the 1980's, and is about a Thai boy called Chatree (Charlie Trairat) being sent away to a boarding school in the country. He's very angry at his father, and his life is made more miserable because he's joining the school halfway through term. All the schoolboys sleep in one huge dormitory. A gang of four misfits pick on the new kid by telling him ghost stories on his first night, giving him as much to worry about in his new surroundings as possible.

They tell him that the school, the dorm, the teacher that's looking after him, even the very bed he's sleeping in all have a haunted history. He gets so scared, that rather than face the haunted lavatory in the middle of the night, he ends up wetting the bed. But during the weeks that follow, he discovers that some of the ghost stories might actually be true...

Dorm is part drama, part ghost story. In terms of tone, the best comparison I can think of is the marvellous Stand By Me. The cast is mainly children, but the situations they have to deal with are adult.

Dorm is beautifully shot, with fantastic performances. I'd love to hear just how much of the film was based on actual events in writer/director Songyos Sugmakanan's own childhood. It's also fascinating to see how similar and how different school can be in other countries.

Like one scene where the boys have an an outdoor night-time movie night, watching something which looked like the Hong Kong comedy/horror classic Mr Vampire (1985). It turned out to be a specially-shot pastiche using lookalikes (the whole uninterrupted homage is included on the Thai special edition DVD set).

Dorm eventually got a wide international release on DVD. In the UK and the US it was released by Tartan Asia Extreme, (which is misleading, because it's far from extreme). But apparently these have an audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a making-of featurette. The Hong Kong region 3 release has English subtitles, but the Thai DVDs don't. The Wig
2005, South Korea, Gabal

Full-strength horror film, cursed with a silly title...

American action-horror films like the Final Destination series, that combine chills with gore, also have release mechanisms where humour can relieve the suspense and horror. The good Japanese and South Korean horrors rarely let you off the hook so easily... On top of that, The Wig also gives you a raw taste of the emotional impact of, say, a nasty car crash.

The Wig is a dark, gut-wrenching, deeply emotional chiller, that injects more than its fair share of shock moments and visceral horror. I was expecting the chills, based on the scary effects that Sadako's long black hair have in the RING movies. What I also got was an emotionally intense drama comparable to A Tale of Two Sisters (also from South Korea), yet much faster paced. There were also violent moments I'd expect in Oldboy but not here. So basically my expectations were way off, because The Wig delivers on creepy chills, but much more.

The film demands to be taken seriously from the outset. Soo-Hyun is in hospital, having completed a treatment for cancer. She's lost all her hair as a result. Her sister arrives to collect her from hospital, and hears from the doctor that the treatment has been unsuccessful. But once she puts on a wig, a mysterious gift, she begins to feel miraculously better. But of course, there's always a catch...

The high quality of directing, cinematography and acting defy the basically silly premise of a haunted wig. I would even recommend that the movie be renamed to give the film a better chance in the western market (which hasn't happened as yet). Imagine if Ring had originally been called The Videotape, how unsexy does that sound? So far the only alternate English title has been the even worse Scary Hair, which makes this excellent film sound like a Troma flick.

The Special Edition DVD from Korea is region 3 NTSC, with the film's 1.85 aspect ratio anamorphically presented. The beautifully mixed audio is also included in an extremely effective DTS track, if you want to jump that little bit higher during the shock moments. The English subtitles are well translated, though probably don't do justice to the subtleties of the script. Signs, headlines and other written text are translated too.

A generous amount of extras includes extensive behind-the-scenes footage of the film's many FX sequences and the actors enduring their most emotional scenes. THIS FOOTAGE CONTAINS MANY STORY SPOILERS so please don't watch it before seeing the film. There's also footage of the photo-shoot for the posters and publicity art. These beautiful photos are faithful to the gloomy and colourful look of the final film. Thankfully the action in the featurettes is self-explanatory because none of the extras are subtitled. There is also a 2002 short film from the director, also unsubtitled, and 2 trailers.

The film is also more cheaply available on a region 3 Hong Kong DVD, also with English subtitles and DTS audio. Brutal River
(2005, Thailand)

A warning to the curious...

In Thailand, they're still trying to rip off JAWS. This movie supposedly recounts the true story of a giant croc that went on a killing spree in the 1960's. First picking on a few isolated villagers deep in the rainforest, the croc went on to defy the best efforts of both holy men and the police force.

The publicity departments delivers some great posters, but while it may be a good idea to make a low-budget monster movie to cut your movie-making teeth on - just don't let anybody see it until you've got something good.

THE BRUTAL RIVER is nicely shot, but completely lacking in suspense or excitement. Even during the 'action' scenes, there's a feeling that the story is treading water. For example, a man gets bitten by the croc - he thrashes around, people look horrified, he thrashes some more, no-one does anything, he keeps thrashing... The scene just doesn't develop. Cross-cutting between victim and monster isn't telling a story, it's more like watching tennis.

The characters and story are really basic: for example, how to establish a love story? - let's have a love song! Most of the cast only need to look scared, horrified, or scream in agony (at something offscreen). Okay, there's a little gore, lots of poor computer-generated monster croc, and no plot twists. I dare anyone to watch this without skipping forwards.

If anything, this is an excellent lesson in how not to make a monster movie. A few shots are copied from JAWS, but this only reminded me that I really should watch JAWS again.

So please, if you think you'll like this monster croc, please watch JAWS, JAWS 2, GRIZZLY, ALLIGATOR and PIRANHA first. Then and only then, watch THE BRUTAL RIVER.

The DVD hasn't surfaced in many countries as yet. You'll need to go shopping in Sweden or Thailand to bag a copy! Ju-on: The Curse
Ju-on: The Curse 2
(2000, Japan)

The rare early entries in THE GRUDGE series.

THE SHORT FILMS - SCHOOL GHOST STORIES (TV)
It's a testament to his skills that the writer/director, Takashi Shimizu, can generate scares in under four minutes flat. He made two short stories on video, the very first to feature the JU-ON characters Toshio, the little boy, and Kayako, his undead mother. The two segments were part of a live-action Japanese TV series called GAKKO NO KAIDAN (SCHOOL GHOST STORIES) in 1998.

Set round the back of a school building, they can even be considered part of THE GRUDGE timeline, and the events are mentioned in the first video film (a girl has to feed her rabbits). The segments are called 'Katasumi' and '4444444444' and have been included on the DVD release of THE GRUDGE - DIRECTOR'S CUT, an extended version of the American remake.

THE VIDEO MOVIES - JU-ON: THE CURSE (V-CINEMA)
Inspired by the success of RING (1998), Takashi Shimizu formulated a story that fed on his own childhood fears. Like RING, there's a vengeful ghost with long black hair. But I find JU-ON films to be much scarier.

The first two are hard to find. They're often referred to as "TV movies", because they were both made on video, but were actually released in Japanese cinemas where 'V-Cinema' films are quite commonplace.

Despite their low budgets, they have an excellent cast, great sound design, and a complex plot structure, where every single scene is filled with relevant details that help viewers fit the jigsaw of events together. The storytelling, through careful framing and editing, succeeds in building up many RING-strength scares.

The low-key opening scene, of a teacher talking with his pregnant wife over dinner, is filled with details that will be relevant later on. When I first watched it, my heart sank! I thought it was so mundane, and recoiled from the 'video' look. But as the teacher starts talking about a child missing from school, and we see a brief flashback of him talking to the child's mother, there's a creepy shot of him standing in the playground, with an out-of-focus figure in the background. The mother moves forward, but her face is still indistinct, partly covered by hair. I was starting to get creeped out, and hooked...

The scares continue, sometimes barnstorming shocks, sometimes subtle hints of horror that we don't really want to learn details of (like how Toshio got to look so battered). As the teacher visits Toshio's home to see why he's not at school, he becomes tainted by the tragedy that began in the house. The teacher's story continues to unfold in the two parts of JU-ON: THE CURSE. While Toshio, his dad Saeko and mum Kayako are at the centre of the curse, the teacher Kobayashi is the catalyst - the first visitor. The curse spreads to Kobayashi's apartment...

The challenging, disjointed storyline sometimes follows seemingly unconnected characters. The films are divided into 'chapters' separated by fades to black. A person's name then appears as a chapter heading, then we find out how they fit into the puzzle. The viewer is left to work out whether the events come earlier or later than the chapter before. An important clue can come from the nameplate outside on the house's brick gatepost (the family surname), and it's helpful that this is translated in the subtitles.

The first two v-movies show us events that are only talked about in the later versions. They also contain scares that are later recreated in the US remakes - for my money, the 'girl on the stairway' scene is handled more effectively the first time it was done. There are also scares which are unique to these films, like those in the school, where the children carry the curse to their schoolmates.

Famously, Chiaki Kuriyama (Go-Go in KILL BILL) appears in the very first JU-ON film, the same year she jogged and stabbed her way into our hearts in BATTLE ROYALE (2000). She's in a scene in a deserted schoolroom, which still makes me jump after repeated viewing. Pestered by scary mobile-phone calls, this predates the 'haunted celphone' plot that was expanded so successfully in Takashi Miike's ONE MISSED CALL films.

The rest of the cast is very strong. The teacher is played by Yurei Yanagi (also in the first RING), the second householder is the hauntingly beautiful Kaori Fujii (who later appeared in HAZE) and even the teenagers are good. I was surprised to see that the little boy was played by a different child in these first two films. But the actors playing his Mum and Dad, (Takako Fuji and Takashi Matsuyama), are now the only actors to have appeared in every single version. Stair-crawling Takako even appeared in one of the early short films.

In keeping with the tight budget, actual locations were used to save on costly studio time. The crew were challenged by camera angles and lighting because they were shooting in a real house (even in the attic), but again this all adds to the effect. Even the two Japanese films that followed, were shot in this same house. It wasn't until the US remake THE GRUDGE, that a replica was built on a soundstage. Incidentally the real house is in the suburbs of Tokyo, in the huge Saitama prefecture, though the producers remain vague about its actual location. I think it's regularly used for TV work.

Bizarrely, JU-ON: THE CURSE 2 repeats 30 minutes of material before showing anything new. The repeated scenes make the film understandable as a stand-alone, but cheats viewers who have already seen the first film. Each part is only 70 minutes long, so there would be little harm in releasing a joined-up 110 minute version.

Part 2 continues with the second unlucky household to move in after the tragic Saeki family. We also see the police investigations flounder, due to mental breakdowns and further disappearences. Crucially, we see one of (the husband) Takeo's original crimes, in a shocking and horrible scene, only hinted at in the first film.

JU-ON: THE CURSE on DVD
These two video films are quite rare, and were first released without any English subtitles in Japan (from Toei Video) and Korea. They are hard to get hold of with English subtitles and hard to locate because of the many similarly-named sequels.

The best so far are the Asian Vision DVD releases, titled simply JU-ON and JU-ON 2. They're intended for the Scandinavian market, but have English subtitles on them. I've only found them for sale on websites written in Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish or Danish.

They are European PAL releases and have been poorly converted from NTSC. The picture also seems to have been electronically 'graded' the colours have been tweaked to look more filmic and less like video, fairly succesfully - but this isn't how it was first seen in Japan. The video conversion is a little distracting but the English subtitles are very good. The only extra on both DVDs is a trailer.

Don't forget that the second DVD only contains 45 minutes of new scenes, making it little more than a 'short'.

THE CURSE CONTINUES TO SPREAD
The popularity of these made-on-video movies enabled Takashi Shimizu to make his next two JU-ON movies on film, both released in Japan in 2003. My take on them is that they are sequels rather than remakes. They actually add new events to the story, and often refer back to things that happen in the video movies. It was only when THE GRUDGE was made in English for America, that he started to recycle and remake parts of the story. It was shot totally in Japanese studios and locations.

JU-ON: THE CURSE (Japan 2000, video)
JU-ON: THE CURSE 2 (Japan 2000, video)
JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (Japan 2003, film)
JU-ON: THE GRUDGE 2 (Japan 2003, film)
THE GRUDGE (USA 2004, remake)
THE GRUDGE 2 (USA 2006, sequel)

Yep, six movies so far, with an alternate Director's Cut of THE GRUDGE (2004) also out on on DVD, and a third Japanese GRUDGE film on the way. This series is definitely not Google-friendly. Scared
(2005, Thailand)

A spirited slasher that might please gorehounds and collectors of horror movie cliches.

A busload of good-looking schoolkids on a school trip deep in a Thai rainforest get stranded by a spectacular accident. But then the survivors are picked off one by one in increasingly gruesome ways. So who is murdering them, and why?

A simple plot with a busload of characters. There are so many, that it's tough to work out who's who, and who means what to whom. Just when you think you are getting to know them a little, they're dead!

After some feeble initial 'shocks', the death scenes get more unexpected. The variable special effects are rather gory, but occasionally digital rather than prosthetic. Like FRIDAY THE 13th, the death scenes are the most entertaining thing in this film, with never the same murder weapon being used twice. In Thailand there's some neat new agricultural implements that we haven't seen before...

But there's little plot and the music (usually the backbone of atmosphere and suspense) is thin and uninvolving. I was disappointed to notice a boom microphone ducking into view a couple of times in an early scene - haven't seen that sort of error for a while - SHUTTER this isn't. It's not SCREAM either. Much of the action makes the characters seem stupid, because they blatantly ignore the basic rules of horror films. If only they'd all calmed down and stuck together...

The main disappointment is that the film doesn't look nearly as moody as the fantastic posters, nor do any of the events in the posters accurately appear in the film. Perhaps next time, they could get the person who makes the posters to shoot the film.

But I don't want to be too hard on SCARED. As the film opens, you get a unique look at some of the end of year Thai school festivities, which promises a film full of local traditions and superstitions. But instead we get a rip of western slasher films - blood, screaming and a high body count.

It's entertaining enough. The photography is nice, shot on what looks like high definition video. The locations are unusual, particularly the early rainforest scenes, making it vaguely reminiscent of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, especially with the plethora of stakes sticking out of the ground.

The ending is leftfield to say the least. It's the only scene that really needs subtitles. If the producers make SCARED 2, they're going to need an ingenious script to work around it. But no doubt they'll cross that bridge when they come to it...

The Thai DVD has no English subtitles. In the extras, there's a trailer and a brief behind-the-scenes segment. The image is 16:9 anamorphic, the audio is a clear 5.1 mix, and official Thailand DVDs are very reasonably priced. The film has also made it to DVD in Germany, but again with no English subtitles. The Matrimony
(2007, China, Xin zhong you gui)

This is being billed as one of the first horror movies to be made in China. Supernatural storylines in movies there, simply haven't been allowed until now. I've got a huge pictorial history book of movies from China, and the only ones in the fantasy genre are a dozen retellings of the story of MONKEY!

Even in Hong Kong, serious ghost stories are rare, comedy horror is plentiful - but THE MATRIMONY isn't played for laughs. While it doesn't provide any particularly new scares, it's still a beautifully made film.

It has the kind of budget only lavished on films destined for international success. The huge period sets recreating Shanghai in the 1930's are handsomely mounted. These opening scenes, that set up a tragic love affair, are only marred by a very poorly realised computer-generated road accident. The CGI effects throughout the rest of the story are used more subtly and effectively. It's really one particular shot that I wish wasn't in the film.

The opening titles, indeed the first half hour of the film, lay on spooky atmosphere and loud shock moments so thickly, that it detracts from the flow (and logic) of the story. Junchu (Leon Lai), loses his sweetheart in a car accident and is forced into an arranged marriage with Sansan (Rene Liu), a woman he simply doesn't love. But will he change his mind if the ghost of his sweetheart, Manli (Fan Bingbing), possesses the body of his wife?

Basically, it's a love triangle, with strong performances from the three leads. There's even a heavy nod to Hitchcock's REBECCA (1940), as a suitably spooky housekeeper prevents Sansan from entering a locked room in Junchu's huge mansion.

But it reminded me even more of Stanley Kwan's ROUGE (1987, Hong Kong), a similarly unrequited love story, which preferred to tone down the supernatural element and played successfully as a drama, where one of the characters just happens to be dead. Again, the ghost was very beautiful (Anita Mui), the setting was modern day, but with flashbacks to the 1930's. ROUGE worked well because it didn't treat the ghost as a scary monster.

THE MATRIMONY is torn between scaring an audience who've never seen a ghost story before, and telling the story. I enjoyed it for the lavish look, the colourful cinematography, and the cast, but not for the scares.

The no-frills Hong Kong DVD release (from Mei Ah Entertainment) has good English subtitles, an anamorphic widescreen picture, and an optional DTS audio track. Blood - The Last Vampire
(2000, Japan)

An influential anime to say the least…

Set near a US Air Force base in southern Japan in 1966, this is all about a schoolgirl called Saya. She's also a special operative who is uniquely able to vanquish huge vampiric bat-creatures who hide among us in human form!

At 48 minutes long, this stand-alone anime is too short to be called a feature and too long to be called a short. Animation powerhouse Production I.G made this entirely digitally, meaning that the hand-drawn sketches for each frame are scanned into computers to be inked and coloured, rather than the traditional hand-painted 'cel' method. The resulting High Definition video master was then used for screenings in digital cinemas.

This was the first project to be made this way in Japan. Production I.G took the opportunity to experiment with new techniques - like the mixing of 2D (characters) with 3D environments and vehicles. They emulated elaborate camera moves, giving point-of-view angles a handheld feel. These effects were then used extensively in the spectacular GHOST IN THE SHELL anime series they later produced.

Besides being a testing-ground, the film is exciting and rewatchable, despite a few shortcomings. The story is very dense and a little confusing, probably because it was designed as the middle act of three episodes.

The first scene makes us doubt whether Saya has killed a vampire creature (called "chiroptera") or a human by mistake. The closing scene points towards the Vietnam War, but this point didn't make any sense until the spin-off TV series BLOOD+ started five years later!

Saya's surly attitude, and the whodunnit aspect of who is actually the monster, keeps us interested. A Halloween costume party at Saya's school adds to the confusion. There's enough action in the short running time to flesh out a feature film. It's very, very bloody and the creature is exceptionally agile, large, and dangerous.

It's tour de force anime and the animation techniques still haven't dated. The storyline is also still running. A new incarnation of Saya emerged present day as BLOOD+, an epic 50 episode anime series. That in turn led to the current CHEVALIER D'EON anime, set in 18th century France.

Furthermore, a live-action version is being produced in Hong Kong, for a 2008 release.

BLOOD - THE LAST VAMPIRE is available from Manga Video on region 1 and region 2 DVDs, which also features an informative behind-the-scenes documentary. How do you think I know all this stuff? Azumi 2: Death or Love
(2005, Japan)

Spirited sequel has lots of fighting, but less plot

The first AZUMI was something of an epic. An epic story, epic length, epic finale! It was flashily directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, who gained instant fame when he made the low-budget gangsters vs zombies VERSUS (2000). Since then, he's been a busy boy, directing horror (ALIVE), the latest Godzilla (FINAL WARS), the amazing-looking action-romance LOVEDEATH, and the forthcoming Clive Barker adaption MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN - Kitamura's first American film.

AZUMI (2003) set up the character of a young female assassin, trained by samurai to swing the outcome of civil war in 17th century Japan. Her brutal training, initial missions and increasingly monumental tasks may not have needed a three hour running time, but the swordfights, and very nasty bad guy, made it impressive and memorable.

So, my expectations were rather high for the sequel. You don't have to watch the first film to understand it, there are enough flashbacks to see you through. Aya Ueto returns to the role of Azumi and the movie starts at a running pace, with a clifftop swordfight against a horde of seemingly indestructible warriors.

But as the tale progresses a pattern emerged - an unending series of small-scale fights with gimmicky opponents, rather than with expert swordsmiths (like in the first film). In fact, in two of the film's pivotal fights, her opponents hadn't yet demonstrated their sword skills at all - why should we think they stood a chance? In the first film, her main opponent was repeatedly shown to be an expert swordsman, and therefore a very great threat.

The numerous fights are outlandish, even with a little magic (or impossibly advanced inventions) being used. More than a hint of HOUSE OF THE FLYING DAGGERS can be seen in the FX work for the 'web-spinning' opponent, which looked a shade too computer-generated.

But I wasn't excited by the fights, and noticed some speed-ups, not used for style, but because the action wasn't fast enough! The director, Shusuke Kaneko, has made many effects-heavy movies before, notably the awesome 1990's GAMERA trilogy, but his recent drama-heavy films, like the two DEATH NOTE movies were similarly humourless.

The only plus for me was a substantial supporting role for Chiaki Kuriyama, (KILL BILL, BATTLE ROYALE) playing a naïve sidekick in Azumi's troupe of assassins - she's a good reason to watch, but she's not as iconic as her appearances usually are. They don't make the most of her character. But if it's blood you want - you got it!

So, non-stop action, not much story, a good-looking cast, lively fights and it's good to see Azumi in action again. But I wanted to be impressed, again.

While AZUMI has been released on DVD in the US, AZUMI 2: DEATH OR LOVE hasn't. DVDs have turned up in South Korea, Australia and the UK. I watched the region 2 PAL DVD from Optimum Asia, which also has a good, well-subtitled, documentary on it, with unpretentious interviews with the cast and crew. One Missed Call
(2003, Japan, Chakushin Ari)

Never mind the remake, see the original

Director Takashi Miike is unpredictable. He's the opposite of an 'auteur'. You could watch several of his films and not know it was by the same person. The only consistency is that he is prolific, in both TV and film. For example, he has directed episodes of ULTRAMAN in Japan, as well as the most extreme episode of MASTERS OF HORROR ('Imprint') in the US. Besides making his name with surreal low-budget movie shockers like ICHI THE KILLER, he has proved that he can also make crowd-pleasing box-office hits just as easily. But before the likeable ZEBRAMAN and THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, came this straightforward horror film that was so popular in Japan, it became a franchise.

ONE MISSED CALL has had two sequels in Japan, as well as a 10-hour TV series. It's now due for a US remake which will hit screens next year. All this from a story apparently inspired by the original RING (1998) - a phone call that brings death because of a long black-haired ghost. The Hollywood version is going to have to do something special to breathe life into a premise which has been thoroughly explored for over a decade.

It was daring even back in 2003, for a major film to re-use such a familiar theme. But the writers made a great effort to accelerate the pace, and give the premise a more realistic and cynical spin, for instance by having the curse brought into the media spotlight.

Miike had previously made the deceptive AUDITION (1999), which has a slow, dramatic pace that builds to an extreme climax. But here, Miike is in a commercial mode, intent on delivering a crowd-pleaser, while remaining inventive and slightly edgy. He still doesn't use humour, but rather genre in-jokes, taking elements of RING, but only to fool the audience. Some J-horror cliches are still there, but he executes the shocks effectively and often trumps the scares with further twists.

It's about a deadly curse that's transmitted by mobile phone - each victim gets a call from the future time and date that they'll die, as well as a sneak preview of what their final moments will sound like. After several shocking deaths, the press learn of the phenomenon and arrange live television coverage of the next victim's deadline! A TV producer tries bringing in an exorcist to hedge his bets, hoping to either cure the curse, or unmask it all as a hoax. Unfortunately, the curse is real and the exorcism doesn't work...

The scares aren't always logical, Miike is having fun with an all-out scary movie and adds extra frights to keep up the momentum. But the film is way more bloody than the RING films. Of course there's a ghost with long black hair, but this movie has something extra - a fast pace, again making it very different from AUDITION.

Some great fx work and icky special effects make-up mean this is one of the strongest and straightforward Japanese horror films of recent years. My only reservation is that tying up every single thread of the plot made the ending a little anti-climactic - but full marks for respecting the storyline and following it through to a logical end.

The able and attractive Kou Shibasaki heads the cast. She had previously appeared in the infamous BATTLE ROYALE (2000), and the scary scarecrow horror KAKASHI (2001), then went on to star in THE SINKING OF JAPAN (2006).

ONE MISSED CALL is now out on DVD in the US and in the UK, but I watched the region 3 release from Hong Kong which has great audio and excellent English subtitles. If you want to impress your friends with Japanese horror, ONE MISSED CALL will deliver more scares than the many RING rip-offs, or even the originals. Speed Grapher
(2005, Japan)

A debauched and bloody, bold and entertaining anime series

Many anime series start with a bang - a mind-blowing action-packed first episode, with a premise full of promise - but then the subsequent installments never match up to it. DEATH NOTE, for instance, has a great start, but I soon got bored of the endless mind games, lack of humour or action.

Another problem in anime can be how to sustain the story over the length of the series. The Japanese TV I've seen seems to be planned as a 'stand-alone' project where the story is brought to a satisfying conclusion (as opposed to US series which are designed to run and run). The spin-off series from BLOOD - THE LAST VAMPIRE, called BLOOD+, was excellent animation with an epic storyline, but not good enough to sustain 50 episodes without some lengthy lulls, where the characters waited for their next assignment.

So, finding a Japanese animated series to recommend enthusiastically without reservation is tough. But SPEED GRAPHER fits the bill. It starts with an intriguing premise, and builds on it, adding gruesome new characters, plot twists and more surprises as it continues. 24 episodes may sound long for one story, but it always feels like it's moving forwards, while still delivering action and humour.

It's set in a smart and impressive near-future Tokyo, where governments and corporations are allies in corruption, hiring brutal assassins to do their dirty work while the senior staff live in obscene luxury. The richest of the rich fulfil their wildest desires by actual mutation - talk about living the dream...

In Japan, SPEED GRAPHER had Duran Duran's single 'Girls on Film' as its theme tune, recalling the atmosphere of sexy excess from the 1980's, (even though the story is set in the near future). Unfortunately, the DVD releases in the US and UK have had to drop this completely suitable music because of licensing issues, but try and catch the original on YouTube.

The series starts with an orgiastic scenario straight out of EYES WIDE SHUT, when freelance photographer Saiga infiltrates a top secret club for the super-rich, and discovers everything is for sale - sex, pain and more... By accident, he discovers an inner sanctum and witnesses the ritual of 'the Goddess', a young girl whose kiss makes dreams come true. He shouldn't be in there and suddenly everyone wants him dead, because he rescues her from the club...

Kinky, blood-spattered, debauched - with a fast-paced story and some killer characters (you won't see many female detectives dressed like Ginza), this has very original action scenes and a wicked sense of humour!

The imaginative and genuinely scary, genetically self-mutated assassins in SPEED GRAPHER make X-MEN look about as imaginative as DENNIS THE MENACE. My favourite was the dentist who turns into a giant spider-thing with each of his legs sporting a different dentistry drill...

I guess the series title is a badly-translated spin on Saiga's reputation as a fast-shooting photographer. The extra twist is that his camera can kill.

Premier Japanese animation house, Gonzo, makes the future look sexy and the baddies demonic. The whole series is available on DVD in the US, and was made in widescreen 16:9. THE SUICIDE MANUAL & THE SUICIDE MANUAL - INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
(2003, Japan)

Suicide isn't painless...

Obviously this is a touchy subject. So much so, that these two Japanese films aren't currently available in the USA. The first even had a title change in the UK before a DVD release as THE MANUAL.

They are nothing to do with the film SUICIDE CIRCLE (a.k.a. SUICIDE CLUB). Instead the films take their inspiration from an actual book, The Complete Manual of Suicide, that was published in Japan in 1993. Unlike most books about suicide, that attempt to counsel people out of attempting self-harm, the manual was a comprehensive how-to-do-it guide! The book wasn't banned but was widely criticised for not presenting any context, or any options for self-help. I'd have thought that Japan was the last country to allow this, considering their high suicide rate. Anyhow, ten years later and film-makers were still interested in it.

I didn't have my hopes set particularly high for THE SUICIDE MANUAL but I was still disappointed by it. It's directed by Osamu Fukutani, who also brought us two far creepier but slightly silly horror films called THE LOCKER (SHIBUYA KAIDAN in Japan). THE SUICIDE MANUAL was similarly made on video, but released in cinemas in Japan.

The first film is about a struggling reporter who investigates a link between a string of suicides and a mysterious black DVD that all the victims owned. The DVD turns out to be a video version of the suicide manual.

The film looks very low budget, except for when we get to see the DVD playing. If suicide ever became legal, and there was a seductive promotional film made, it would probably look like this. Filmed mostly against black and hosted by 'Rickie', a woman in a black evening dress, viewers are presented with the pros and cons of each method of suicide, and shown footage of a few of the successful attempts. This footage from the fictional manual looks far better made than the rest of the film. I even mused that just the 'DVD manual' might have been made first, but the producers chickened out of releasing it and built a story around it instead - that's just a guess.

The plot and its approach is far too simplistic. Like the book, there's no help or self-help for either real-life viewers or any characters in the film. Anyone who could be suicidal is shouted at and told 'not to talk like that'. This strikes me as dangerous for the audience - to attract people with a title like this and show distraught characters receiving no offer of hope.

Besides being morbid and depressing, the most obvious drawback is that it's dull. I was bored by the lack of invention in the story, considering the potential of the subject matter.

THE SUICIDE MANUAL: INTERMEDIATE LEVEL is the sequel. This was again made on video, and released straight to video, but has far better production values, a larger cast, and a better story. Best of all, you can even watch it without having to watch the first one.

Yosuke is helping investigate the 'serial suicides'. He has a personal interest in the case - his girlfriend Megumi is regularly attempting self-harm. The mysterious DVDs are still being linked to the case, and on closer inspection may be actually hypnotising their victims… A real-life woman in black is also glimpsed by the owners of the manuals...

At least in the sequel Yosuke is seen to seek professional help, and there's more of a mystery and a possible supernatural subplot to interest the viewer.

It's also a more emotional affair than the first film, for instance the moment of respect the police and surgeons pay the deceased before every autopsy, and Yosuke's relationship with his troubled partner.

Better shot, with more shocks, and more plot, but it's still not that great. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL is more interesting than the first, but also more confusing than creepy.

Both films are out on region 2 PAL DVDs in the UK, from Terra, but be warned that they are also quite short, only about 80 minutes each.

Lastly, please, don't try this at home. Ghost Actress / Don't Look Up
(1996, Japan, as JOYU-REI)

Hideo Nakata ghost directing before RING...

RING / RINGU (1998) launched a Japanese horror movie invasion across the globe. It was based on Koji Suzuki's novels about the tormented Sadako wreaking psychic revenge through cursed videotapes. Although the story had already been dramatised as a Japanese TV movie in 1995 (RINGU: KANZENBAN), it was Hideo Nakata who directed the successful movie version. But why was he picked by the producers to direct RING? It was largely to do with him having already directed GHOST ACTRESS.

That film centres about the making of a wartime drama at an old movie studio. The director starts running into trouble when the ghost of a young woman starts appearing in the rafters above the movie set, and even on film. As the cast and crew get spooked, accidents start to happen on the set...

RING wasn't just effortlessly scary - it didn't come out of nowhere. Hideo Nakata had already been trying to scare audiences with a ghost girl in GHOST ACTRESS, which makes it an interesting watch, though not really a frightening one. The ghost is seen many more times than in RING. Here she's more active, more vocal and more hands on! This later affected the decisions Nakata made about Sadako's appearances in RING. To make her more scary, he showed her less clearly, and less frequently.

There are other parallels, besides the basic appearance of the ghost (long black hair, long white dress). It's mentioned that the very celluloid itself might be haunted - a parallel to the cursed videotape. The basic structure of a story within a story is similar to that of RING 0: BIRTHDAY - the 3rd Japanese RING movie - where a young (live) Sadako rehearses for a play in an old theatre.

GHOST ACTRESS is well-acted, atmospheric, occasionally creepy, but a little too brief at 73 minutes. I was left wanting more story, including a better reason for the haunting. But it's a lively precursor to the terrifying RING-cycle, and I'm surprised it's not been released on DVD. I have only seen it available on DVD in South Korea, and that was without English subtitles.

Hideo Nakata went on to direct RING, RING 2, DARK WATER, and the US version of THE RING TWO. This year he's remade the short story ghost classic KWAIDAN (as KAIDAN), and may next be working on a RING 3. Rumours keep resurfacing about GHOST ACTRESS being remade in the west.

Lastly, a special mention of the leading actor who plays the movie director - Yûrei Yanagi. Nakata uses him in most of his films - like the pivotal role of the reporter in RING and RING 2. Takashi Shimizu then hired his as the unlucky schoolteacher in the original two v-cinema movies of JU-ON: THE GRUDGE, in homage to RING. That must make Yanagi one of the most scared actors in Japan! Perhaps in GHOST ACTRESS we're witnessing him perfect his falling-over-backwards-to-the-ground-cos-he's-so-scared manoeuvre! He also later appeared in the vision-of-hell movie KIDAN (2005), as well as CARVED - THE SLIT-MOUTHED WOMAN (2006). He usually plays policemen, and is obviously now established as a lucky charm for horror film directors. Carved - The Slit-Mouthed Woman
(2006, Japan, Kuchisake-onna)

Monster movie that's the wrong sort of monstrous…

I was looking forward to this. A unique urban legend that couldn't possibly fail to frighten. A murderer with her face slashed open (echoing THE MAN WHO LAUGHS and MR SARDONICUS) with a huge pair of scissors to inflict a similar fate on her victims.

But instead of gory fun, we get a series of rather realistic child beatings. I'd previously imagined that any children in the story were just going to be frightened by her hideous appearance, but never actually harmed. The violence is hardly bloody, but the suffering of the adults is far less fearsome than the extent of the child cruelty.

This makes the film nasty rather than entertaining - the issue of child abuse is worth exploring and explaining, but not as a subplot in a horror film, where the problem is shown without any realistic resolution.

Also, the central story is very weak in places. There's a kidnap victim who suddenly spots some broken glass to cut their bonds with, after it's been sitting in front of them for days. Also, the neighbourhood children have an endless supply of accurate information about the slit-mouthed woman, while the police don't have a clue. Even the mystery of the monster is wrapped up more simply than a SCOOBY DOO episode, with the viewers at least half an hour ahead.

The movie's strong point is of course the monster, usually the sort of yokai that you see in traditional Japanese ghost stories, but apparently there were a wave of 'sightings' near schools in the 1980's. The plot exploits that incident and ignores the older legends.

While it's cool to see an ancient yokai monster portrayed realistically, she's unveiled very early on in the film, and many shots are so close up, that you can see exactly how the effects have been done - there's no mystery, no subtlety, no scares - just shocks. The director could have learned something from some of the poster art, that at least has her face defocussed behind the scissors in the foreground.

The monster also has an unusual array of powers, more complicated than necessary, and mostly unexplained. Her backstory is comparitively feeble, explaining little more than the way she's dressed. Such a fearsome character deserves a sequel, with a better origin story and more adult victims, please.

So, too much kicking and stabbing of helpless victims, and not enough plot. It's watchable enough for the performances and the bizarre title character, but I wanted it to have been much better.

Director Koji Shiraishi has previously delivered JUREI - THE UNCANNY and NOROI - THE CURSE.

Eriko Sato, the mischievous star of the recent live-action CUTIE HONEY - THE MOVIE, is almost unrecognisable in this, as a harrassed, mousey schoolteacher.

The English subtitles are a little awkward in places, and the American title of CARVED is a misleading one, making the film sound more like it's from the HOSTEL genre, rather than a yokai story.

Tartan Asia Extreme have released this in the US, but I fear this film might be too touchy for a release in the UK. I wouldn't be surprised if the British censor only passed this with extensive cuts, particularly with so many child murders in the headlines at the moment. HELL - JIGOKU - NAROK
(1960 Japan, 1999 Japan, 2005 Thailand)

Cinematic visions of the underworld...

I'm fascinated by depictions of afterlife. Having seen some spectacular photos, I hunted down the Hollywood versions of DANTE'S INFERNO. Both the 1924 silent movie and the 1935 Spencer Tracy drama included tours of the seven levels of christian hell according to the writer Dante. They took inspiration from the intricate engravings of Gustav Dore, which lent themselves perfectly to black and white film. The 1935 version is worth seeking out for the five minute journey through hell, which used huge sets, cavernous models, matte paintings and dozens of half-naked extras...

Since then, Hollywood has usually depicted hell in comedies, but rarely seriously, though the Keanu Reeves horror CONSTANTINE (2005) included an imaginative attempt.

Meanwhile, there have been many more movies which visited hell, made in Japan. But a different sort of hell, the one described in Buddhism...

JIGOKU (1960, Japan)
Jigoku is of course the Japanese word for hell. It's also a classic Japanese drama heralded as an arthouse classic due to its expressionistic underworld sets and earnest acting talent. The first hour of the film sets up a dozen sinners in a rural town, specifically a young man being lead into murderous temptation by an old school friend.

The second half demonstrates how each sin will be punished in the afterlife - a guided tour is provided by the ruler, Lord Enma. The various domains of hell are depicted by large apparently wall-less sets (the edges disappear into darkness) and dozens of extras playing the doomed. The strictest of punishments involve being sawn in half while laying face down, or worse still, being flayed alive all the way down to the bone. These bloody make-up effects would have been very strong stuff for 1960 (especially since they're in colour), but now they look stagey.

One scene shows dozens of people buried up to their necks, leaving only a garden of heads visible - this reminded me of the similar tableau in WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (1998). I'd highly recommend this Vincent Ward film for its strong story, as well as it's spectacular visions of hell, and even rarer visions of heaven! Based on the novel by Richard Matheson (also author of I AM LEGEND), the story was an attempt at explaining his research and beliefs in reincarnation.

The 1960 JIGOKU is interesting, but not convincing. Despite its excesses, hell here looks more stressful than frightening. JIGOKU has been released on DVD in the US by Criterion.

JIGOKU (1999, Japan)
I've not seen the 1979 Japanese remake, but I suspect that the 1960 one had the biggest budget. The JIGOKU made in 1999 verges on trashy. Directed by the late Teruo Ishii (HORROR OF MALFORMED MEN), it primarily deals with the perpetrators of the real-life deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway! We see the cultists plotting and executing the attack, then suffering for their deeds by various punishments, including the customary flaying.

The film is held together by Lord Enma (here played by a woman) approaching a young cultist and warning her of what could happen to her if she joins in the attack. We quickly move to hell early in the film - but it's portrayed by a tiny set with painted walls, a handful of extras, and only a few demons with inexpressive masks on. The monsters look more like rejected villains from ULTRAMAN. Also, the gore looks unconvincing and home-made. The film seems more preoccupied in showing topless girls and unconvincing sex scenes. It's also a sly way of restaging and exploiting the sarin gas attack.

HELL (2005, Thailand)
Yet another loose remake of JIGOKU was made in Thailand, where hell is called NAROK. Obviously it's an ambitious project and no budget can do hell full justice, but it's certainly closer to depicting somewhere you really don't want to go - and that, I thought, was the whole point.

A minibus crash sends a group of reporters into the afterlife. Through flashbacks we see what sins they've committed, then we see how they are to be punished. Like all the other hells, some of the sins don't seem to warrant the outrageous tortures meted out! Like Japan, Thailand is almost totally a nation of Buddhists.

This time hell initially looks like a wasteland of torture - endless bodies being physically set upon by barbaric demons armed with a variety of simple weapons. Again there's the sawing in half, but here the flaying looks almost real... people being bludgeoned with large wooden mallets, stabbed with spears... the punishments seem to be everywhere.

Instead of sets, outdoor locations are used, but with digitally altered skies. This is a less subterranean vision than the previous films, but it's still claustrophobic, because the pain is everywhere - even when the group try to escape they only encounter more torture.

The demons who police the suffering are almost-human barbarians. They look pretty convincing and obviously enjoy their work. The special make-up effects are successfully gory and mostly work, except for a couple of digital dismemberments. Other visual effects like the "dimension gates" - huge tornadoes that carry people from one plane of existence to the next - look digital and fakey, but are spectacularly imagined.

All in all, I found this Thai HELL the most compelling. The tone was consistently grim (reminding me somewhat of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST - where the characters were also documentary makers) until a little unwelcome comedy relief breaks the mood halfway through the film. The ending feels a little rushed and the movie obviously wants a bigger budget.

NAROK also slots neatly into the wave of Thai films, like SCARED and ART OF THE DEVIL, which attempt to match the new brutality of Hollywood horror. NAROK has been released on DVD in the UK, and round Europe, as HELL.

Meanwhile, back in Japan, the fascination by the subject has evolved. The movie KIDAN or INFERNO (2005) depicts a remote village cursed with a portal into the underworld. Better still, there's the hugely successful HELL GIRL (JIGOKU SHOJO) is finally reaching the US. There are two 26-episode anime series that show us glimpses of hell and the vengeful punishments meted out by young Enma Ai who sits in a scarlet-skied limbo waiting to be summoned on the internet! This beautiful and gripping series has already transmuted into a live action TV series. I'll give a more detailed report on KIDAN and HELL GIRL very soon...

Visions of hell - take your pick! Hell Girl
(Japan, Jigoku Shoujo)

A recommended horror anime franchise

While GHOST HUNT, MOKKE, SCHOOL GHOST STORIES and many other ghostly anime are only really scary for children, there are very few true 'horror anime' to be found. DEATH NOTE is a recent exception, but I found that story rather heavy on detective work, light on fright. While HELL GIRL, power-dressed in a black kimono, packs more of a punch.

Every downbeat episode has HELL GIRL summoned to take revenge for someone desperate enough to pay her terrible price...

The first anime series was made in 2005. In a typical episode, we meet someone being victimised, usually by bullying or blackmail. After the victim hears of an internet site only accessible at midnight (the 'hotline to hell'), they contract Hell Girl to promptly remove the cause of their suffering, by literally removing the agressor to the depths of hell.

Hell Girl's house looks very picturesque, forever bathed in a blood-red sunset. She is a young girl called Ai Enma (you may recall that the Lord of Buddhist Hell is called Enma), who lives with her scary grandmother in a nice little house by the river (presumably the Sanzu, the Japaneses equivalent of the Styx). She has a cute little Hell PC and a handy Hell mobile phone.

Three sinister sidekicks are always around to check out every case at close quarters, but in disguise. They can also transform into the small straw dolls that are given to each victim. To trigger the revenge, they untie the red string of fate from around its neck. Ai then immediately travels to the land of the living, and drags the baddies through a swift, awful payback, then down the river to their final destination...

This is enjoyable enough, with nasty people getting supernatural rough justice. The catch is that whoever summons Ai has to pay with their soul being damned for eternity, when they too eventually die. It's hard to believe that anyone would actually use this solution considering the awful price! The ultimate example of modern instant gratification. But it's satisfying to see bad karma going around so quickly, though it's hardly a happy ending - more of a hollow victory.

As the series progresses and we learn more about Ai, the stories of revenge get less clear cut. I started asking myself what punishments fit what crimes! Should every case warrant such severe, eternal torture? Usually, I just relaxed and enjoyed its dark charms.

The music is beautiful and eerie with very strong recurrent themes. The atmosphere is creepy and the punishments varied and nightmarish. The backgorund layouts are lushly colourful and ably conjure up an otherworldly feel.

The first dozen episodes are repetitive cases of Hell Girl's instant justice, until the story arc emerges, when a journalist starts tracing her demonic activities, aided by his daughter who is mysteriously linked to Ai.

The first HELL GIRL series has finally reached the US and UK on DVD, after a wait of two years. A manga, written and produced after the series, is also being translated and released in early 2008. HELL GIRL was so successful in Japan that there was a second anime series, called JIGOKU SHOUJO FUTAKOMORI (which translates as 'Hell Girl - Second Cage') and is also 26 episodes long.

A live action TV series of 12 episodes of HELL GIRL was also produced in Japan in 2006. This is basically a remake of the first anime. But they were harder-edged and more adult, with scarier visual effects. While actress Sayuri Iwata couldn't possibly have eyes as haunting as the anime character, she retains the necessary eerie blankness of someone destined for such a hellish task. Her three sidekicks are engagingly brought to life, especially Aya Sugimoto as the sleazy 'Bone Woman' Hone-Onna. Crucially, the live series retains the main musical themes from the anime, making it a successful crossover.

Both anime series were made 16:9 widescreen, but I've not yet seen the US DVDs to confirm they are being released this way. Many online sites list the DVDs as being 1.33.

In Japan, their DVDs were released widescreen but without English subtitles. There is also a Nintendo DS game available, carefully dressed replica figures, four CD soundtracks, and various artbooks for the anime.

Three whole series in two years - that's a lot of success in a short period of time. There's no stopping Hell Girl! It's very Japanese but also very accessible for us overseas viewers. Hopefully even the live TV series will eventually get a subtitled release.

P.S. I don't know how the second series title will be translated if it's sold on DVD in the west. Therefore the title of the article is generic. The series covered in the article are actually...

JIGOKU SHOUJO (anime series, 2005)
JIGOKU SHOUJO FUTAKOMORI (anime series, 2006)
JIGOKU SHOUJO (live action TV series, 2006) Godzilla Final Wars
(2004, Japan)

Fast-paced, fun, futuristic monster movie

This was released to mark the 50th Anniversary of Godzilla films in Japan. It got a bigger budget than usual, an action director, Ryuhei Kitamura, and was presented as the last Godzilla film for at least 8 years! After releasing a film every year since 1999, the producers have so far kept their promise.

Because of its anniversary status, the film tried to include plot elements and characters from as many Godzilla films as possible, all 27 of them! Also throwing in elements from other Toho Studio sci-fi special effects movies, like the flying submarine Atragon, that opens the film. Many actors from previous Toho fantasies have roles in the film - like the iconic and glamorous Kumi Mizuno, from MONSTER ZERO (1965) and ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE. It's also wonderful to see Masato Ibu in menacing wraparound sunglasses again, as the alien leader.

Ah yes, the plot - alien humanoids arrive in a giant spaceship and attempt to double-cross Earth's politicians, they unleash their secret weapon to gain control of the planet by directing a dozen giant monsters to destroy the capital cities of the world.

The homage factor almost goes off the scale as Toho Studio's back catalogue of giant villains is cherry-picked for a monster rally that rivals the beloved DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968), some reappearing after forty years in offscreen exile. The director is obviously a fan of the 1960's and 1970's films, as these seem to be from where many of the monsters and sub-plots have been mined.

Despite all the anniversary retro, the action and visual effects are cutting edge, for Japan anyway. Yes, there are still men in suits playing the monsters, yes, there's a lot of model work, but these are occasionally supplemented by CGI for the impossible stuff. I read that the director preferred to keep as many of the special effects as possible physical, rather than CGI, because he doesn't like the CG look. The action sequences however are seriously mounted, maybe a little more over-the-top than usual. Some of the aerial dogfight sequences are awesome, reminding me of STAR WARS when it was good.

It's a higher budget than usual, with noticeably bigger explosions, a bigger cast, a high number of monsters (a whopping 15), and action-packed non-monster scenes. On the futuristic premise of a superhuman defence force made up of human mutants capable of impossible strength (like X-MEN meet THE MATRIX), besides fighting each other, we finally get spectacular scenes of humans in hand-to-hand combat with giant monsters! Makes a change from toy tanks. The actors seem to be doing much of the stuntwork as well.

Despite upsetting many purists, by sending itself up, I thought it was totally entertaining. It's an outrageous, epic monster movie, in keeping with other films from cult director Ryuhei Kitamura (VERSUS, AZUMI, LOVEDEATH, MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN). The nearest movie comparison I can make is Tim Burton's MARS ATTACKS!, where the director obviously wanted to include all his favourite ingredients, destroy the world, and keep it darkly humorous rather than grisly.

What's harder to accept is that everything that usually detracts from these admittedly family films, such as cute animals, cute monsters, a surfeit of professors, silly plotlines, and non-professional western actors... have also been included! It wouldn't be a Godzilla film without some of these elements, but it repeatedly spoils the fun. Minya, Godzilla's widely-hated 'son' who acts more like Barney than the prince of the monsters, gets a lion's share of comedy scenes.

I suspect the toughest hurdle to audiences in the west will be the use of American stereotypes, particularly the scene with the New York Cop and the pimpmobile! But at least it gives us a taste of our own medicine - goodness knows how many cross-cultural errors are in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, for instance. Another problem is the use of apparently non-acting actors for the non-Japanese characters. A major role has been given to Don Frye, ex-boxer, ex-pro-wrestler - he looks the part, but it's painful when he gets dialogue. All of the above adds to the unique, mad, pumped-up, fun atmosphere of the film.

Overall, I was thrilled by the film. I loved the epic scale, the outrageous action scenes, the homage, the monsters... but will someone please open an English-speaking acting school in Tokyo?

The film had a decent DVD release in the US in 2005, with optional English subtitles. Kidan
(2005, Japan)

A Japanese mystery horror drenched in Christianity

The international title for KIDAN is INFERNO, which makes it sound like a firefighter action movie. But perhaps 'Hellfire' would be a better translation.

I saw the surprising trailer for this two years ago, and have been itching to see it ever since. (Though, having seen the film, I must warn you that the trailer is full of spoilers and will ruin the climax).

Tired of waiting for a subtitled edition to get released, I bought the Hong Kong DVD release (by Geneon) which only has Chinese subtitles, and therefore my plot description is rather approximate.

It starts like a very traditional Japanese mystery. A shy research student, Satomi (Ema Fujisawa), travels north into the mountains on the trail of ancient Christian relics that may have ended up hidden in Japan.

She is sent to a small village in Hokkaido, where centuries ago these precious relics are supposed to have triggered a massacre and a mass crucifixion. Satomi finds herself drawn to a more recent mystery, where two children went missing on the same site.

She teams up with another investigator (Hiroshi Abe) in a small church where the priest is expert on the village's history. They also seek the help of two local people, who strongly resemble the anime characters of HELL GIRL and her grandma!

Then a murdered man is found crucified on a nearby mountain, his eyes pecked out. But with the village cut off by a sudden landslide, outside help can't get through. Before the local policeman can investigate, the body disappears! Satomi and the priest begin to believe that the religious significance of the murder could rock the very foundations of Christianity!

The eventual climax reminded me more of PHANTASM, rather than actual religious events - it has the creepy old lady with her grand-daughter, dwarf acolytes, and a gateway to another dimension...

Director Takashi Komatsu (PERSONA) builds the atmosphere in the village up very nicely, but the staging of the climax is rather literal and the set is rather stark, saved only by the startling visual effects.

The trailer had given away the climax, but missed out on the unusual atmosphere. The film builds gradually but keeps you on edge with a steady time-release of shocks.

The cast are earnest but likeable, if a little underwhelmed by the magnitude of the unfolding events. Wide-eyed Hiroshi Abe seems to get called into films whenever the unbelievable needs more realism. I've enjoyed him in many fantasy films, particularly in the recent sci-fi comedy BUBBLE FICTION, and bellowing Godzilla's name in the face of doom, in GODZILLA 2000.

The story of KIDAN, based on a supposedly unfilmable manga, is a rare story in Japan, based on the supernatural aspects of Christianity, rather than Buddhist or Shintoist beliefs. I'd love to see this subtitled, to find out exactly what the story infers. But it looks about as close to THE OMEN sub-genre that I've seen in a Japanese film.

As an aside, I've seen many other crucifixion scenes in Japanese TV - it's obviously a fascinating image. For example, several TV episodes through the decades where giant superhero ULTRAMAN gets crucified!

KIDAN has so far not been picked up for release in the west, despite being from the prolific horror producer Takashige Ichise (JU-ON, RING), who normally gets international interest in his projects. Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles on the Japanese or Hong Kong DVD releases. Into the Mirror
(2003, South Korea)

Time to reflect on this unusual horror/thriller

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie with a split-personality - half detective thriller, half horror movie. I wasn't the only one, because this Korean film is about to get an American remake, directed by no less than Alexandre Aja (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE), under the title MIRRORS and starring Kiefer Sutherland.

The original INTO THE MIRROR (called GEOUL SOKEURO in South Korea ) begins very much like a typical ghostly Asian horror, in a huge department store after closing hours. The last employee to leave does some last minute shoplifting, before getting spooked and dying in a bathroom, her throat cut. Next day, the head of security doesn't think it's suicide and is about to start an investigation when a second mysterious death occurs...

Ji-tae Yu stars as the store's security chief, who's resigned from the police after a hostage situation went horribly wrong (that may sound a little corny, but be assured that they've added plenty of twists). This handsome young actor is one of South Korea's biggest stars. He was suitably sinister in the superb OLDBOY and also starred in the futuristic police actioner NATURAL CITY (2003). You might also have seen him in smaller roles in LADY VENGEANCE and the teen slasher NIGHTMARE (2000).

Once the supernatural elements are established, the film veers into the detective movie genre, treating the murder strictly realistically. The likeable cast all play it suitably seriously. Ji-tae Yu is so convincing as a character who steadfastly refuses to believe that ghosts are involved, that I was unsure whether the story was going to end with a rational explanation or a supernatural one.

One or two of the mirror effects are a little cheesey, but for the most part they're quite startling. The direction is imaginative and whenever the story starts getting a little too familiar, there's always another twist. Director Sung-ho Kim also wrote this slick and exciting thriller, and the remake will have to be quite remarkable to be any better.

I can't fully recommend INTO THE MIRROR to those expecting full-on horror. Instead it's for audiences who don't mind mixing up their genres and trying out films that are harder to categorise.

The original film is currently available on DVD in the UK, region 2 on the Tartan Asia Extreme label, and it was also released as a 2-disc set back in 2005. Uzumaki
(2000, Japan)

Creepy, shocking, surreal and it's in my top ten Japanese horror films! UZUMAKI was one of the first in the 'new wave' of horror films from Japan that I saw.

UZUMAKI translates as spiral or vortex. It begins in a remote coastal village where schoolgirl Kirie discovers that everyone around her is going spiral-crazy. The father of Kirie's best friend becomes obsessed with collecting spirals wherever he finds them. A girl at school trains her hair into spiral curls with lives of their own. Another pupil becomes fatally interested in the school's spiral staircase… an indicator of what is happening all over town. As the spiralling incidents become more extreme, Kirie finds herself in deepening danger.

From a bizarre but simple premise, this unique and horrific tale is styled somewhere between David Lynch and Tim Burton. I've chased up the director's other works, but Higuchinsky easily excelled himself with this surreal masterpiece. His unusual chosen name represens his Russian and Japanese heritage).

Kirie is played by Eriko Hatsune, who perfectly anchors the film emotionally - her affection for schoolfriend Shuichi (played by Fhi Fan), contrasts with the horrific events surrounding them. Hatsune previously starred in Higuchinsky's LONG DREAM, another Junji Ito adaption OSHIHIRI. She recently headed the cast in a new horror, APARTMENT 1303. The young actress seems destined for genre pics!

Sadao Abe makes a memorable appearance as Kirie's unwanted admirer. Abe starred as the Kappa sprite in THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, but here plays a ludicrous no-hope love interest, with a D.A. hairstyle that could take your eye out. Rubber-faced Abe is a creative chameleon who seems to maximize the potential of any of the surreal roles he's given.

Incidentally, the schoolgirl with the living Uzumaki hair is played by Hinako Saeki. It's a small part that makes a big impression. She also played the RING fiend Sadako in the first ever RING sequel, coincidentally called SPIRAL (or RASEN). Hinako also appeared in the cult schoolgirl zombie-fest STACY.

UZUMAKI is unique by virtue of, well, practically everything about it. The cast are magical, effortlessly portraying fantastical events as if they're totally real. The atmosphere is aided by a pervading, surreal greenish aura and wide-angle photography.

The special visual effects, particularly the make-up, are suitably horrifying and increasingly spectacular - one bizarre and gory death scene even had to be toned down for it's original release! A couple of the subtle 'morphs' thrown in as details have dated a little, looking too digital against the organic prosthetic effects and intensely filmic look.

UZUMAKI was based on an epic manga story by artist and writer Junji Ito. His over-riding influence has been the manga artist Kazuo Umezu. To me, his manga are the scariest horror comics I've ever encountered.

Watching the film before reading the manga is the way to go. The film might be an anti-climax if you see it after the incredible images in the manga. If you watch UZUMAKI and then want to see how the story develops, the whole series has happily been translated and published in America as three graphic novels. The film takes great pains in attempting to faithfully translate Ito's illustrations into moving images, but only a huge budget could realise the entire epic tale.

Other Junji Ito manga have been adapted into Japanese horror films, such as the scarecrow movie KAKASHI (2001) and the many TOMIE films. So far there have been 7 films inspired by Ito's infamous femme fatale. The many manga stories have also been translated into English, (and recently republished under the title Museum of Horror), but are among Junji Ito's earliest work and not as accomplished as his beautiful UZUMAKI artwork, or the ghastly story of GYO.

Ito has written so many different stories around the awful powers of TOMIE, that the movies keep on coming. I'm looking forward to the forthcoming TOMIE X TOMIE (X in Japan is used as an equivalent to VS).

UZUMAKI was available on DVD in region 1 US (from Elite), region 2 UK (Artsmagic), and region 3 (Universe and Toei) releases, but may now be out of print. Meanwhile, the graphic novels keep getting republished in the US. Zee-Oui The Man Eater
(2004, Thailand)

The true story of a serial-murderer who roamed Thailand

Li Hui, a Chinese farmer, arrived in Thailand in 1946 and was promptly renamed 'Zee-Oui' by a short-tempered immigration official. His uncle found him a job, but the new name had to stick because it matched his work visa. Zee-Oui soon discovered that being a foreigner meant getting bullied by everyone, even children. He worked hard, but suffered poor health - a constant cough that he thought was asthma, was actually tuberculosis. After continuing bad luck in finding steady work, and as we see more of his former, harrowing life in China, he turns to murder… and worse.

The subject matter here is problematic to say the least - a serial child-murderer who eats the hearts of his victims! It's especially tricky for western audiences to enter the fray with this particular version of an infamous true-life murder case. It's apparently been portrayed several times before in Thailand, but this version is more revisionist, showing the murderer in a more sympathetic light.

Zee Oui has apparently become more of a boogey man in Thailand - his trademark cough and cannibalistic traits make him a monstrous figure to threaten naughty kids with. It's also used as a justification for xenophobes to fear foreigners. Presumably, the two directors were trying to redress the balance. His crimes don't make us very sympathetic, but perhaps they are trying to remind everyone that it wasn't a supernatural monster who committed the murders, but a man.

As someone completely unfamiliar with the case, and very few facts availaible, I was disappointed that the opening scene gives away the conclusion to the case, before telling the whole tale in flashback. Thai people may all be familiar with the case, but how could the rest of us know? Also, without a good grasp of local history (like the war between China and Thailand) and geography, I was at a disadvantage in following the fractured timeline of the plot - not always realising when the story had shifted in time. This is something that other films manage successfully, despite cultural differences (I'm thinking of the backwards-and-forwards structure of the Japanese JU-ON films, for example).

Crucially, a brilliant scene where bullies cause Zee-Oui to visibly 'crack' is positioned after we've already seen some murder victims. Whether I misunderstood the order of events, or whether the directors were saying that he was being blamed for murders he did not commit, I'm uncertain.

Another handicap to the structure of the story is the inclusion of several scenes interspersed among the end credits, that crucially fill us in with more details of Li Hui's upbringing. To introduce this information after the film has finished skews the narrative.

Lead actor, Long Duan, almost succeeds in an impossible role, to make us sympathise for this man, but we're obviously constantly distanced from him by the brutality of his onscreen crimes. The directors intend for us to better understand his motivations - but besides listing the possible causes of his serial killings, many other more political points are clumsily made about racism, sexism and government cover-ups around the investigation. Overall, the naive script undermines any points they wanted to make.

While this may be award-winning material in Thailand, it's a difficult film to recommend to an international audience. The tone veers between over-the-top depictions of child murder and simplistic drama. The performances are sincere enough, but are undermined by sloppy plotting. Shortcuts taken by the script keep the story moving by using unbelievable coincidences. Slowing down the detective side of the story could have made for more intrigue and suspense, which are lacking. MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003), about South Korea's first serial killer, is far better.

Without a strong story, and with glimpses of gore at the murder scenes, this can only really be placed in a horror category. Presumably on a shelf with other real-life murder cases that were turned into crass horror films.

But despite the sensationalist subject, I didn't find the film as shocking as it could have been. The crimes in THE UNTOLD STORY (Hong Kong, 1993) also managed to produce sympathy for a cannibalistic child-murderer, but were far more effectively portrayed, and with a much lower budget.

Technically, the film looks very good, with a large scale that convinces us of the many locations and periods depicted. If anything, the film looks too good - for instance Li Hui's early job slaughtering chickens takes place in a beautifully lit, vibrantly colourful back yard, sending out mixed messages about what's occurring - is he in a good or a bad place? If it's such a nasty job, why does the place look so picturesque?

The Thai DVD I watched was a sharp anamorphic transfer that showed off the film's crisp and colourful cinematography. There's a solid 5.1 audio track in the original Thai language, with optional English subtitles (that are well-translated and only occasionally misspelled).

There are some brief extras, like a trailer and two short items, presumably prepared for TV publicity. These include extra shots that aren't in the film, and some grainy, grisly real-life photos of the original case. However this material is all untranslated.

Released as THE MAN EATER in the US on DVD, this is an interesting film, entertaining even, and certainly not dull. Technically, it's one of the best movies I've seen from Thailand, and isn't aiming for an obvious 'horror film' formula like many other Thai films. But it doesn't succeed as a drama or a reliable version of what really happened. I'd hesitate to recommend it to fans of Asian cinema or Asian horror - it's too gory to be taken seriously, but not horrific enough to be frightening.

Finally, the real Zee Oui now resides (in a mummified state) on display in Bangkok's Museum of Forensic Medicine.

Nightmare Detective
(2007, Japan)

The films of director Shinya Tsukamoto are always interesting, but usually challenging. His two TETSUO: IRON MAN were extreme and disorientating, HAZE was short and experimental, HIRUKO THE GOBLIN and GEMINI bizarre and surreal.

So NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE appears to be his most mainstream, high profile project. A short plot summary looks accessible enough - a psychic who can enter other people's dreams and does battle with a nightmare killer. This sounds familiar, in the vein of the many NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREETs, but appearances can be deceptive...

Detective Keiko Kirishima (played by pop star, Hitomi) arrives on the scene of a suicide, but is suspicious that all is not as it appears. When the case is linked to another violent and bloody death, her colleagues are astonished when she insists that it's not only a murder case, but is also in need of a psychic to help solve it.

But her contact is a tortured suicidal soul who only works for his friends. He hates diving into peoples dreams for mere money. But when the unseen, ferocious and terrifying killer claims more victims, all of the detectives find themselves in danger.

The result is a dark, disorientating descent into a world of suicide and psychosis.

The cast are uniformly excellent. Although Ryuhei Matsuda has the title role, the majority of the film is shouldered by Hitomi, giving an impressive, wide-ranging peformance. This is only her second film. Actually, both their characters could be called the NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE of the title, one in the police force, one in dreamland. Youthful-looking Matsuda attracts many difficult roles, like his first in TABOO (a.k.a. GOHATTO), though he recently had a welcome break from angst in the comedy OTAKUS IN LOVE.

I failed to recognise Masanobu Ando as Detective Wakamiya. He was enjoyable as the star of the RED SHADOW (aka AKAKAGE) remake, one of the many schoolboy victims in the infamous BATTLE ROYALE, and is in the soon-to-be-cult-classic SAKURAN.

Shinya Tsukamoto, the writer/director also makes an appearance. Is there anything he can't do?

For the many nightmare scenes, the Hollywood answer would be to build dreamscapes from scratch on soundstages, like they did for THE CELL. Instead, beautifully crisp location photography uses the skyscrapers of the business district of Shinjuku, together with underwater footage, to evoke a disorientating unreal world, bathed in blue.

The 'style' of camera shake and machine-gun editing was too much for me over the entire length of the TETSUO feature films. But here it's an apt method only used for the frightening instances when the killer attacks in a frenzy. Anyone at all can wave a camera around and edit fast, but Tsukamoto has perfected the method, enabling the viewer to still follow the action.

Altogether this is an ambitious and involving experience. Though I was a little disorientated towards the climax, when I started to lose track of the rules of the dream logic. I was even wandering at one point if the story was going to revert to the claustrophoic scenario of HAZE, his previous project.

The ever-present theme of suicide haunts most of the film, and may be too dark and downbeat for some. This isn't a non-stop gorefest type of horror, but one that aims to delve a little deeper.

Japan is currently spoilt for talented directors who can deliver original, stylish, effective horror films on relatively limited budgets. Together with Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sion Sono, Higuchinsky... (to name a few), all have proved that there's more to J-horror than long black hair.

NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE has already been a success and a sequel is already on the way - ironic considering how much the hero hates to use his abilities.

NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE is out on DVD in the US in February. Though there are already releases in Italy (PAL region 2, from RaroVideo) and Singapore, both with English subtitles, and both with better cover artwork than the US!

RING: KANZENBAN
(1995, Japanese TV movie)

A trip down Sadako's very first well...

Koji Suzuki's original books RING, SPIRAL and LOOP explore a mythos rich with possibilities. They've inspired many scriptwriters to take the ideas in new directions, which is why each filmed version of the first RING story is different. It's also astonishing how often this modern ghost story was remade in only ten years.

Before Gore Verbinski's THE RING (2002), the book had already been filmed four times! In Japan, as a TV movie RING: KANZENBAN (1995), as the movie RING (1998), as a twelve-hour TV series RING: THE FINAL CHAPTER, and as a South Korean remake RING VIRUS (1999). Added to this was a TV series and a movie of the novel SPIRAL (or RASEN), which was the original sequel to Sadako's story. But the movie sequels RING TWO and RING 0: BIRTHDAY took an alternate timeline, leaving the story of SPIRAL as a fascinating but forgotten dead end.

These were all before the Hollywood version arrived.

Guided by the excellent website, RingWorld, and Denis Meikle's exhaustive guidebook THE RING COMPANION, I've been trying to hunt down and understand better the many and varied incarnations. Now even Koji Suzuki's novels are being gradually translated.

So what I really wanted to talk about was the very first adaption of RING - the TV movie made in 1995, three years before the international hit Japanese movie. RING: KANZENBAN was shown on Fuji TV as a movie of the week, then later released in a slightly more soft-porn version on videotape (how apt). I'm confused as to whether 'Kanzenban' (which translates as 'The Complete Edition') refers to the TV movie being 'complete' as in faithful to the novel (which it pretty much is), or to the complete, uncut, sexed-up version released on VHS.

I've seen very scathing reviews, which lead me to think this was very low budget, but it's really quite impressive, with a wide range of location filming and some cleverly faked flashback footage, and an intricate attempt at the cursed video itself...

It starts with the very familiar first death scene, of a schoolgirl alone at home, dying in a locked room. (But in this version, there's no phone ringing). A news reporter, Asakawa, witnesses a motorcyclist keel over in the street and die (as in the book). By coincidence, he realises that this was one of four mysterious deaths that have happened all at the same time. He soon traces the four victims' movements back to a remote holiday lodge in the mountains, where he learns that they all watched a videotape exactly a week before they died. He finds and watches that tape and begins to wish he hadn't...

RING: KANZENBAN is quite faithful to the plot of the novel, but has a huge problem with its cliched approach. It's fascinating to watch one of the greatest ever ghost stories being shot like a bad horror movie. Over-the-top camerawork, flashing lights, and exaggerated acting all demonstrate perfectly how not to film RING. Instead of subtlety, it relies on young, attractive stars and female nudity to get attention. This is from the well-worn FRIDAY THE 13TH school of horror, where young women dress only in t-shirts or nothing at all. The TV version that I saw has some nudity and an attempted rape, but apparently the video release version has more explicit sex scenes.

But it's not scary.

It works as a story, a mystery and a race against time, but imagine RING not being able to raise a chill!

We should thank RING: KANZENBAN for at least generating more interest in getting the novel filmed properly. And also demonstrating how not to do it! But at the time it was transmitted, the novel still wasn't a hit. Some of the ideas in this first script proved influential on the interpretations that followed - again, Meikle's book explains this all in detail. Every adaption has added to the legend of Sadako. It's interesting that some of her famous powers weren't in the book, but came from the adaptions, like for instance the scary warnings on the phone.

For RING fans, it's interesting to see very familiar scenes being filmed differently - particularly the playing of the cursed video (which is very close to the description of the book), where the images seem to invade the whole room, not just the mind of the person watching it.

Sadako's death scene involves another different murder weapon. Each version I've seen, she gets attacked by a different character, and gets killed in a different way - story elements that change the nature and motive of her revenge. The iconic well in this version is even square! This counters what I thought to be a possible 'ring' from the title, the shape of the well. Sadako herself is rendered far from scarily, by being young, beautiful and naked!

Historically interesting, not essential, and far from available. RING: KANZENBAN was only released on VHS and VideoCD in the East. It's a shame that it's not been officially subtitled anywhere, and hasn't yet been released on DVD. Don't they want to make money? The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch
(1968, Japan)

An early horror fantasy adaption of Kazuo Umezu's manga stories

In England in the seventies, I saw very few of the FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazines, which introduced so many children to horror films. Instead, I got hooked in the local library, where I found David Pirie's HERITAGE OF HORROR (which has just been republished) and Alan Frank's gorier HORROR MOVIES. Best of all was Denis Gifford's A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF HORROR MOVIES (1973) which covered the genre from silent days and from around the world.

Inside was an evocative photo of a skull-faced witch with long grey hair facing off against a girl with snakes for arms. Straightaway I wanted to see it, but it would take me over thirty years to find a copy. Even though this Japanese DVD release is without English subtitles, I'd waited long enough.

I was surprised to discover that the film was based on manga horror stories by Kazuo Umezu. As part of a fifty year anniversary of his work, there were a recent string of TV adaptions of his stories under the title KAZUO UMEZU'S HORROR THEATER which had a DVD release in the US. You might also know him from the SCARY BOOK translations of his manga, and as the main inspiration for the current king of manga horror, Junji Ito (TOMIE, UZUMAKI).

Umezu, nick-named KAZZ, began drawing and writing manga at school and was first published in 1955. The ones I've seen repeatedly centre around young girls, and take the form of very dark, present-day, gothic fairy-tales. Similar to the scary bits from SNOW WHITE or THE WIZARD OF OZ, but stretched out over a whole story. They're scarier than that, almost Hammer Horror scary… but presumably aimed at children! I think that while Umezu is nostalgically popular in Japan, his artwork today distances manga fans, with characters rendered with an almost ASTRO BOY cuteness. The children all have very big eyes, but are usually extremely stressed-out, scared or crying!

So, not only did I find a film that I thought I'd never see, but it renewed my interest in Umezu. I wasn't too impressed with the recent TV series, and movie adaptions of his work, like the very bad THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM (1987). Hopefully older works like this will finally find a wider audience - they certainly deserve it. While it's not classic Japanese cinema like KWAIDAN, it's a great mainstream example that still works today.

THE SNAKE-GIRL AND THE SILVER-HAIRED WITCH (1968) is also listed as HEBI MUSUME TO HAKUHATSUMA, and bear in mind that I've watched this without the benefit of any subtitles. As it opens, a housemaid goes down into the basement of a big house. There are dozens of snakes and scorpions in glass tanks. A figure hiding in the shadows takes out a snake and throws it at the maid. Its bite kills her instantly. Someone hears her scream, but the murderer is nowhere to be seen. It all looks like an accident with an escaped snake...

Meanwhile Sayuri, a young girl with a short boyish haircut, leaves the care of an orphanage to live with distant relatives. Things get off to a bad start when Sayori arrives at her new home, just as the dead maid is being carried out the front door on her way to the morgue! Her new found family consists of Mum, Dad and the surviving maid. Their house is large, almost a mansion. (There's an impressive shot from out of the front gate and across the street - the sky has been blotted out by a gigantic facade of scaffolding, a huge new slab of building being constructed).

Inside, Mum seems a little preoccupied, Dad is never around, and someone is peeping at Sayori through a hole in her bedroom ceiling. Worse still, she gets a live snake dropped on her while she asleep! She dreams of a snake-faced girl in her bedroom...

Sayori soon discovers that there's a conspiracy to conceal another girl in the house. Tamami is the cousin from hell. She's the rudest, cruellest, nastiest little girl you'd care to share a house with. Her cover blown, she moves in with Sayori. She has a strange waxy appearance, and when she sleeps, her hair falls away from her face revealing a crack down each side...

Eventually, Sayori is all but imprisoned in the loft (full of scary masks) which is haunted by a white-haired crone with a skeletal face and murder in mind. What the hell is going on? Are her nightmares coming to life? Will these creatures succeed in killing her?

To give you some idea of the tone of the movie, I'd compare this to one of Hammer Studios' 'psychological horrors', one of the black-and-white ones with the driving-the-heroine-mad-in-a-big-house plot (like TASTE OF FEAR, 1961), mixed up with the plot of THE REPTILE (1966), but for kids! It resembles one long children's nightmare, but that's like calling JAWS a fishing trip. It's bordering on full-on Japanese creepy horror.

It's also kept interesting by the blurring of Sayori's imagination. Much of the horror is in her dreams, but she also sees the snake-girl when she's awake. The movie is fast-paced and visually interesting, even sub-textually. The characters motivations keep you guessing and the dream sequences are full of effects that are probably also Freudian! Analyse that.

I found it entertaining and surprisingly violent, probably because I thought it was going to be for kids. Tamami's escalating cruelty fails to break the gutsy spirit of the young heroine, but provides us with many jaw-dropping moments - not least of which is when she tears Sayori's pet toad in half! Snake-girl's full of surprises like that.

There's another instance when Sayori catches Tamami looking at a natural history book, staring and mumbling at a page full of frogs. It reminded me of a similar scene when one of the villagers is obsessing over some newly found spirals in UZUMAKI.

Whilst the film isn't as lavish or sexual as the more famous sixties ghost stories like ONIBABA, this is certainly faster-paced and more eventful. Its atmosphere of nightmare and sadism are certainly unique.

It was directed by Noriaki Yuasa, who also helmed the original GAMERA movies. He must have been one of Daiei Studio's top directors of FX films. Sadly, Daiei went bust in 1970, relegating Yuasa to directing TV for the rest of his career (including some ULTRAMAN 80 episodes).

Despite his expertise, there's occasionally some obvious model work, and some fakey spiders and snakes. But that's countered by the imaginative scenarios and great make-up effects - Tamami's waxy mask is as eerie as the famous EYES WITHOUT A FACE, and there's a glimpse of the snake-girl's hinged jaw, with cheek-splitting action, just like in ICHI THE KILLER or CARVED - THE SLIT-MOUTHED WOMAN. The witch's face also looks effectively zombified.

The small cast are super, with the young actress Yachie Matsui as Sayuri, practically carrying the entire film. The parents are suitably twitchy in a classic horror movie dark-tortured-secret kind of way. The artist Kazuo Umezo even scores a cameo as the taxi driver.

This affordable Japanese DVD release is region 2 NTSC. It's anamorphically presented in 2.35 widescreen and a good-looking transfer. If only it had English subtitles it would be perfect. Included is an original trailer with some glimpses of scenes that aren't in the final film. There are also trailers for WARNING FROM SPACE (1956 - Japan's first colour sci-fi film), one for a historical tale about islanders hunting whales with spears, and another about an invisible samurai!!!

In other extras and in the foldout booklet, there are tantalising glimpses of Umezu's original manga illustrations for this story, that are even scarier than the film. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it's translation in the near future.

I still haven't seen all the movies Denis Gifford talked about in his book, but at least I've crossed another off my list. Ghost Game
(2006, Thailand)

The premise looked promising enough - 11 contestants locked inside a decommissioned wartime prison in Cambodia, where many prisoners were tortured and killed. If they stay in this supposedly haunted complex long enough, they stand to win a lot of money. How scared are they willing to get before they give up? If it really is haunted, are the ghosts dangerous? Whatever happens, everything is live on TV...

The film-makers ran into controversy because their sets looked very similar to the actual prison. The movie was banned in Cambodia for exploiting war atrocities for entertainment, despite explanations and apologies from the producers.

This also works against the film, because it apparently opens with photos of the war in Cambodia, from the time of the Khmer Rouge. These provide the kind of true horror that the ensuing funfair ghost-train level of scares can't hope to compete with.

In the story, the contestants are literally sent up the river to a remote jungle setting and told the rules. Each time they enter the prison, they will have a task to perform. If they disobey or ask to be released, they're out of the game. Soon after being locked inside the prison, ghosts appear. But I started struggling with the 'rules' of the haunting. The ghosts close in on people, touch them, scare them and then... leave. Sometimes everyone can see it, sometimes only one person can. What's the ghost up to? Surely it's not taking directions from the TV director?

As the rounds get harder, with the gamers strapped into torture devices, or lying in crates filled with skulls, this is a reality TV show that I'd certainly watch, as long as my least favourite celebrities were invited.

The scares build up effectively, but mostly because of ear-splitting sound-effects that guarantee a jolt. The ghosts get more violent, the show starts going wrong and the fact that it's on nationwide TV is quickly forgotten. As gamers start to die, the most gruesome action is edited around, almost like it's avoiding being too intense (perhaps this was toned down on the Thai DVD that I watched). After a tight opening volley of scares, the pace drops halfway through.

The saturated greenish hue and contrasty lighting certainly add to the morbid atmosphere, but when everything looks green, you can't easily see the colour of blood. Some scenes are too dark - there's one with a hanging corpse that you could easily miss in the shadows, the picture has been electronically darkened so much.

The trailer, included on this Thai DVD, is considerably brighter than the finished film. It looks more like the TV show it's supposed to be. Someone seems to have made everything look more 'filmic' in post-production, at the expense of the action being visible.

The cast are better actors than the usual Thai horrors, but the interesting premise is frittered away with too simple a story and too few scares, The atmosphere is constantly interrupted by the daylight scenes between rounds.

Perhaps unfairly to my understanding of the story, I watched the Thai DVD which has no English subtitles. Even though GHOST GAME is now being released on DVD in the UK, I'm not tempted to go out and buy it again. Junk
(2000, Japan)

I love zombie movies, but the recent reinvention of the genre has left it almost unrecognisable. I like my zombies slow, creepy, and hungry for the flesh of the living. I'm fed up with zombie comedies (like BIO-ZOMBIE), shot-on-video first-timers, and plots that fail to remember the rules (like UNDEAD, from Australia, forgetting that you have shoot them in the head).

These new fast-moving 'zombies' don't feel right to me, though I enjoyed the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake. But the 28 DAYS LATER genre should really be filed under RABID, not Zombie. David Cronenberg's RABID (1977) is an essential watch. It visualised a city full of rabies victims that were mindless psychopathic animals. An action-packed horror, but still not a zombie movie.

In short, the last slow-moving, staggering, flesh-eating zombie film that I enjoyed was from Japan. There they strictly stick to George Romero's original zombie rules. Japan's zombie movies are still a mixed bag, including many comedies, but JUNK is well-acted, professionally produced and faithfully recaptures the atmosphere of the classic seventies zombie genre.

It's given a gangster twist - when jewel thieves meet up with the yakuza to trade their stash for cash. Little do they know, the disused factory chosen for the rendezvous is the site of a military experiment that has gone very wrong. Soon there's a three-way stand off between the thieves, the gangsters and the living dead...

This is fairly low budget, but it looks good, and it's not shot by first-timers. The film-makers previously made the gangster actioners SCORE and SCORE 2. JUNK is expertly and energetically put together, with agile, taut photography, and a more than able cast, (apart from the American actors). Like Romero's films, a woman takes centrestage in the battle for survival.

The gory shootouts and zombie dinnertime scenes are on a par with the original classic ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (1979) and the original DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978). Indeed, many of the early scenes have been recreated from those movies almost shot-for-shot! For instance the first zombie incident is framed and blocked like the 'banquet scene' from ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS. Further into the film they get creative with some all-new zombie action. You won't forget Kyoko, queen of the zombies, in a hurry. There's also good ensemble zombie 'acting' and make-up, as well as grisly gore, and lively, splattery gunfights (albeit where no-one gets hit if they duck).

The opening robbery scene looks a little unimpressive, but the atmosphere is more convincing when the story moves to the abandoned factory. The only major drawback in the film are the scenes involving the American military - once again cast members have been recruited for their ability to speak English rather than any acting skills. The actor playing a Japanese scientist also joins in the conversations with some particularly cracked English.

VERSUS may have scored highly with critics, with a similar yazuka/zombie premise, but I enjoyed JUNK much much more.

The PAL region 2 UK DVD (from Artsmagic) is standards converted from NTSC so badly that it looks more like video than film. It's further compromised by a poor aspect ratio conversion (making a full-height anamorphic image out of a letterboxed original), even cropping off the base of the picture, and chopping the original Japanese subtitles in half! The DVD also stupidly subtitles the spoken English.

But DVDs of this are hard to find now. I'd still like to get a copy of the US release DVD, because it should look far better than the PAL one. Ironically the UK DVD is the only one still available, and at rather high prices.

I have no idea what the title of the film refers to exactly. It's been overused for recent film titles - there are seven different entries on IMDB - so be extra careful when you're DVD-hunting for this title.

Bon appetit!

Apartment 1303
(2007, Japan)

Jumpers. People committing suicide by leaping from tall buildings with a final bound, are a very common theme in South East Asian horror movies. There are some startling scenes in KAIRO, THE UNINVITED and THE EYE 2 to name but a very few. It means that there's some stiff competition out there, especially if you're going to base a whole film around it. APARTMENT 1303 tries very hard… but falls short.

A flat-warming party in a seafront apartment block goes horribly wrong as the hostess starts eating dog food, then dives out the window to her death. As her sister investigates, she discovers that the apartment has very creepy neighbours, and a curse. Something the estate agent failed to mention...

The mystery here is not why young women keep hurling themselves off the balcony of apartment 1303, but how director Ataru Oikawa went so wrong after TOMIE (1998). It's starting to stick out from his filmography as his only good film, and not many people agree on even that. His recent sequels TOMIE: REVENGE and TOMIE BEGINNING were far from good.

In an increasingly crowded sub-genre, South Korea produced a very effective haunted apartment movie in 2006 - APT. (or APARTMENT). So, why return to such an unoriginal premise?

On the plus side, the cast is very strong, and I was pleased to see Eriko Hatsune again, the star of UZUMAKI. The actress playing her distraught mother, convincingly conveyed uncontrollable grief and impending madness.

At the heart of the story, a tragedy flashback is dramatic enough, but we've seen this kind of haunting too many times before, and done far better. Ten years down the line, it's time to stop recycling RING and JU-ON. Especially when the scares don't even work. There's a couple of good ones, but 2 out of 20 isn't an acceptable average in modern horror.

Several of the fatal falls aren't gory or shocking, with some unconvincing green-screen work. The ghostly make-up also looks like make-up. The sets look like sets. But the rubber corpse does look like real rubber. The long black hair effects are overused and, yawn, reminiscent of the vine-attack from THE EVIL DEAD. There's even a scene straight out of CARRIE. Well at least they're stealing from the best.

I can't say I was bored by it, but I won't be returning to APARTMENT 1303. It's currently available on DVD in the UK and US.

Zebraman
(2004, Japan)

Having enjoyed superhero stuff for decades, recent Hollywood blockbusters throwing big money at the same old super-stories isn't really impressive any more. I'd rather see some more inventiveness in the genre. Which is why ZEBRAMAN is such rewarding fun, beautifully acted, an eccentrically mad plot, great visual gags, killer fight scenes... It's like an extended episode of ULTRAMAN or KAMEN RIDER, but for grown-ups who know that it takes more than a silly outfit to win the day.

It's 2010. ZEBRAMAN is a (fictional) forgotten seventies TV superhero. Shinichi is a Yokohama school teacher (Sho Aikawa, a regular Miike collaborator) with the usual problems at home and work. To escape he indulges a fascination with this old show and, unknown to his family, starts making his own Zebraman suit when no-one's around. His obsession leaps to another level when he ventures out into the streets at night, dressed as the superhero! It's not long before he runs into non-fictional trouble - the sort that he's completely unprepared for.

Meanwhile, masked men are committing a series of rapes and murders in his neighbourhood. Who can stop them? Only a masked superhero can stop masked villains...

The added twist is that this is a heartfelt feel-good movie from rogue director Takashi Miike, better known for proverbial Asian extreme cinema. The man who brought us the gory ICHI THE KILLER and the unforgettable AUDITION usually takes audiences to the very limits of their endurance. But with ZEBRAMAN, he was starting to flex his mainstream skills, between ONE MISSED CALL (2003) and THE GREAT YOKAI WAR (2005). He's so versatile a director, that his films are never predictable in tone or genre, extending even into atmospheric arthouse (BIG BANG LOVE - JUVENILE A). Though you still can't say that his bigger budget films aren't sellouts - you're never quite sure how far he's going to go in terms of plot twists or sexual or violent themes.

ZEBRAMAN is admittedly fairly restrained for Miike, which annoyed some of his regular fans, but that doesn't mean to say that the film would be rated less than an 'R' for violence and sexual content. On many occasions in the story, it still looks like it's going to get very dark, very quickly...

Generally, it's a ludicrous premise, but still realistically played as a well-observed comedy drama, er, superhero action film. Perfect for over-ambitious cos-players! Miike shows an obvious affection for the central character, his dilemma, and even his love of seventies TV. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he hasn't got a few costumes of his own at home. More recent Japanese portrayals of otaku (Japanese fanboy geeks) in film and TV have been far more stereotyped and derogatory. Miike knows that perfectly normal people, like you and I dear reader, enjoy this stuff as well.

Soon after making ZEBRAMAN, he effortlessly directed two superb TV episodes of ULTRAMAN MAX - demonstrating that he can excel with any given budget and timescale.

Long overdue on DVD everywhere. ZEBRAMAN has finally been released by Tokyo Shock in the US and is highly recommended.

The Eye 2
(2004, Hong Kong/Thailand)

While THE EYE remake has recently hit the US, there have already been two sequels to the 2002 original. I've only just caught up on THE EYE 2, but it has renewed my interest in the movies of the Pang Brothers. After really enjoying the sustained creepiness of their version of THE EYE, I cooled off after seeing BANGKOK HAUNTED and THE TESSERACT, both of which were far less gripping.

But THE EYE 2 succeeds as a well-conceived sequel, faithful to the premise of the original, without slavishly copying it. There's a new set of characters and a whole new haunting.

Reversing the locations of the first film, the story starts in Bangkok as Joey (Shu Qi) tries some shopping therapy to get over a messy relationship break-up. After her ex refuses her phone calls, she attempts suicide in her hotel room. But the resulting near-death experience activates her ability to see ghosts...

When she returns to her home in Hong Kong, she discovers she's not only pregnant, but haunted. When she gets trapped in a hospital lift, a terrifying incident convinces her that the ghost will try to kill her unborn baby...

This could actually be the worst film to watch if you're expectant parents. Shu Qi gives a sustained and emotional performance, spending much of the story terrified that she's going to lose her baby. It's difficult not to sympathise with her enduring this gruelling ordeal, despite some revelations about her character.

The various haunting scenes are imaginatively shot and cleverly conceived. Though I didn't find as many scares as creepy as the first film, there are some powerful and grisly shocks. The only real mis-step in the story was a couple of scenes with a rapist - his character looked more like a sitcom geek.

But considering that Oxide and Danny Pang started out in grading (tweaking the colours of film for a stylised look) and editing, they here avoid the current overblown trend for flashy editing and surreal colouring.

The Pangs are currently in the US, directing a remake of one of their earlier films (is that called re-directing?), BANGKOK DANGEROUS, now starring Nicolas Cage.

After such a rewarding experience with THE EYE 2, I've now to catch up on more past Pang product, like AB-NORMAL BEAUTY, OMEN and EYE INFINITY, the third of the EYEs.

THE EYE 2 is out on DVD in the US and UK, though I watched the Hong Kong disc, which has DTS sound and a (slightly) alternative ending.

Retribution (Sakebi)
(2006, Japan)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a notable director of J-horror. His unique visions mean I simply have to see his every film! His THE GUARD FROM THE UNDERGROUND, CURE, CHARISMA, SÉANCE and more recently LOFT are all genre movies. They sometimes feel like they're not just about the story, but the successful shocks and scares are never to be forgotten. KAIRO (2001) particularly creeped me out, dropped my jaw wide open, then completely confused me with the climax.

KAIRO (also called PULSE) is a good reference to compare his latest film with. RETRIBUTION (or SAKEBI) also uses mirrors, translucent curtains, stains and shadows, to deceive the eye and tell the story. In it, the background is as important as what's upfront.

Detective Yoshioki is working on a series of apparently motiveless murders. As the 18th victim is found, forcibly drowned in a puddle of saltwater, the stress of the case seems to be getting to him. There are even clues that implicate him. Worse than that, he thinks the latest victim, a woman in a red coat, is taking revenge by haunting him. Or is he dreaming? As the murders continue, he starts doubting his sanity and his memory...

Watching this, I was reminded of another story of mental deterioration, Roman Polanski's classic REPULSION (1965), which SAKEBI seems to visually quote when ghostly hands emerge from a fractured wall. The city backdrop of industrial dockside locations also underlines the theme of cyclical city-wide demolition and reconstruction, as well as the precarious reclamation of land from the sea.

While the visions of the ghost aren't as spine-tinglingly creepy as in KAIRO, they are traditionally Japanese. They float along, sometimes with arms outstretched in front - characteristics of the oldest drawings of vengeful spirits. But this sometimes makes her look alternately beautiful, scary or unintentionally comical. She's much more intrusive than the spectres of KAIRO, and her red coat reminding me of the child in DON'T LOOK NOW (1973, notably set in the waterlogged city of Venice).

Kurosawa is very preoccupied here with reflections, cleverly using mirrors to create very complex scenes. He also challenges the viewer with increasingly intricate possibilities, as each clue shifts suspicion around the suspects, both living and dead. Flashbacks and visions can't be trusted because they might each have been dreamt or imagined. There's also a growing degree of the surreal as the story unfolds, even the back projection used in the driving scenes gets less and less realistic, as do some of the ghostly antics...

Kurosawa favourite, Koji Yakusho anchors the film as the desperate detective - you might also have seen him in BABEL and MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. Joe Odagiri (MUSHISHI, SHINOBI) plays his worried therapist.

Plotwise, I enjoyed this as a complex murder mystery, and a ghost story. Of course I didn't understand everything in it, and like KAIRO the ending lost me. But it's a hypnotic, disorientating, dreamlike and rewarding tale.

The Hong Kong DVD I watched only has stereo audio, and the original 1.85 aspect has been slightly zoomed and cropped to fit 16:9. This is only a small change in the framing, but Kurosawa has carefully composed the whole frame, and the change was very noticeable. Hopefully the upcoming region 1 US DVD release of RETRIBUTION will be better presented.

Tomie
(1998, Japan)

Ten years of Tomie

1998 - TOMIE
1999 - TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE
2000 - TOMIE: REPLAY
2001 - TOMIE: REBIRTH
2002 - TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
2005 - TOMIE: REVENGE
2005 - TOMIE: BEGINNING
2007 - TOMIE VS TOMIE

These films, like the character of Tomie, just won't go away. With the latest, TOMIE VS TOMIE, imminent on DVD, I'll review the series so far. Some are much better than others... Each one has a stand-alone plot and don't follow an overall storyline, so you don't really need to see them in order.

Tomie keeps fascinating film-makers, thanks to the inventiveness of the artist/writer Junji Ito, who drew so many tales about Tomie that there are a mine of ideas to pick from.

Other Junji Ito manga have adapted into movies like the wonderful UZUMAKI and KAKASHI. I think he writes and draws the scariest horror comics I've ever seen. Read his UZUMAKI books or GYO, if you dare. Much of it would be very expensive to film properly, another reason Tomie is more popular for low-budget movies. Some of the original Tomie manga stories are also currently available in English in collections of Ito's work called Museum of Horror.

His stories are graphically horrifying, but not graphic sexually. In simple black and white, Ito invokes body horror in a new and terrible way, that the movie adaptions find hard to 'outgross'.

The first film, TOMIE, was one of the earliest Japanese horror films I bought after seeing RING. I wanted to find out what else Japan had to offer.

First time around, I liked TOMIE because of the queasy atmosphere and the obscure storyline - the idea of what was going on slowly dawned on me, and it was bizarre and horrible. The iconic cover art of the eye looking out of the carrier bag was a brilliant hook - a throwback to the premise of Frank Henenlotter's BASKET CASE movies - something small, horrible and portable.

But Tomie isn't just a living head in a bag, she's growing...

Kept in a box in a dingy flat and fed by her demented boyfriend, Tomie slowly regains her full stature. Meanwhile upstairs, former classmate Tsukiko has no idea that the horror that blanked out her memory three years earlier, is actually her new neighbour.

Tomie is a new monster - a kind we haven't seen before. She not only has ghastly physical powers, but a terrible psychological effect on those around her. This first film is a good introduction to her and her methods. TOMIE manages to capture the demented and violent world of the manga - squabbling teenagers and their violent, tangled love lives. Tomie is so beautiful that she entrances her boyfriends. But like an addiction, they come to hate their dependence on her and the murder she incites.

Actress Miho Kanno really looks like the manga Tomie, fleshing out the character with demented giggling, hairpin mood swings and an unearthly threatening stare.

The film may not be as grisly as the manga, but it succeeds at hinting at further horrors. It sometimes does this with subliminal 'shock cuts' of visceral make-up effects, rather than the less physical computer-aided FX which I'm sure would be used in any US remake.

Unfortunately, the carefully built-up tension, dissipates towards the climax. Her schoolmate Tsukiko doesn't react horrified, so much as inconvenienced. The film ends with a damp squib and introduces some unnecessary loose ends at the last minute. It's not a perfect film, but achieves an awful lot on a tiny budget.

TOMIE is an original horror concept, and not a wannabe RING. They were released the same year, and I'm sure if TOMIE had come out any later it would have been skewed to look more like RING. It's a film that I enjoy re-watching for the atmosphere of madness, and the scary soundtrack. Admittedly though, I understand the story better for having read the comics.

TOMIE is out on region 1 DVD, and also in a boxset of the first five TOMIE titles.

Tomie: Another Face
(1999, Japan)

Tomie's back - in three parts!

The second DVD about Tomie that emerged, doesn't look like it ever reached the cinema. I always include this in any list of Tomie films, because otherwise it gets confusing.

TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE is feature length, but is made up of 3 short stories, intended either for the direct-to-video market, or maybe even TV. They're shot on video, in fullscreen 4:3, and even appear to have ad breaks between the stories, though there's no form of linking device. But, imagine trying to pitch a weekly Tomie TV series!

The first story starts with a typical love triangle at school. But when Tomie is in the triangle and is already dead - it's not going to have a happy ending. Actress Luna Nagai certainly looks the right age and is very good at simpering, but she has a tough time in conveying the necessary malevolence. At least this story introduces Tomie's basic modus operandi, and features a convincing, shocking death scene.

The second story is about a photographer who searches for his childhood sweetheart and finds that, even ten years on, she hasn't aged. This has less surprises, and starts playing around with Tomie's appearance. Once she's covered in make-up and changes her hair, she doesn't look like the character any more. I liked the gloomy wall-to-wall music, if only because it reminded me of Massive Attack and TWIN PEAKS.

The last story managed to keep me guessing. A lovestruck salaryman is warned of Tomie's ex-boyfriends and her history of getting murdered (!). So how can she be stopped? There's some new twists here for the character, and this segment is the bloodiest, with a rousing finale.

This is all not as bad as many reviews say it is, but it's very unambitious, only skimming the potential of the manga, and hardly using any of Junji Ito's original visual ideas. TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE concentrates instead on her sexy schoolgirl allure and un-schoolgirl-like potty mouth. It reads more as a morality tale, warning off older men from dating young girls.

So this Tomie tale is really more for completists and certainly not a good way to enter the series. It's soapy rather than creepy, focussing on crimes of passion rather than extremes of madness.

TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE is out on DVD in the US, either as a single edition or in the boxset of the first five titles.

Here's the saga so far, but you don't have to see them in order...

1998 - TOMIE
1999 - TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE
2000 - TOMIE: REPLAY
2001 - TOMIE: REBIRTH
2002 - TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
2005 - TOMIE: REVENGE
2005 - TOMIE: BEGINNING
2007 - TOMIE VS TOMIE

Tomie: Replay
(2000, Japan)

The curse of the cornershop carrier bag continues

Here's the third title the Tomie horror saga, which is already longer than the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy… Pretty long, eh?

Really, TOMIE: REPLAY is the first movie sequel, because TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE was too much like TV. Presumably they didn't want to use the title TOMIE 2, which would infer a direct continuation of events from the first film. So instead it's the strangely named TOMIE: REPLAY, which does inject a needed round of solid shocks into the series.

Centred around a seriously underlit hospital, it begins with a ghastly operation, where Tomie's head is cut out of a little girl's stomach! Afterwards, almost everyone who took part in the operation disappears, including the surgeon. His daughter sets out to find him, trying to make sense of his blood-soaked diary. Meanwhile a young patient discovers Tomie walking the corridors at night and agrees to take her home with him, poor fool. Murder, mayhem and mutation soon follow...

This film gets a bigger budget than the original, enabling a more expansive story, with several subplots revolving around a hospital going out of control. The likeable and experienced cast are convincing, and there's enough money for some haunting FX.

Yet another actress plays Tomie here, Mai Hosho (later to appear in the awesome SUICIDE CIRCLE - they needed a lot of schoolgirls for that one), and there's a new director to the series, Tomijiro Mitsuishi, who succeeds in bringing in some powerful heart-stopping moments and creep-outs.

We get to see how men usually treat her - a meal, then murder, then dismemberment. There's not much graphic gore, but some grisly sound FX make the scenes more than effective. Using Junji Ito's manga as inspiration, there's also a marvellous mutated corpse, and a madman's face that both stick closely to the dark visions of the original drawings.

The film occasionally goes off the rails, with a couple of over-the-top moments that don't work and even some unintentional laughs. The main complaint I have is that there's not enough of Tomie herself - we spend more time with the other characters tracking her down and mopping up after her.

These are quibbles though - this is a well-structured horror film, enhanced greatly by an atmospheric and effective soundtrack. The region 1 DVD has an anamorphic widescreen picture, 5.1 audio, good (removable) English subtitles, and trailers for the first 5 Tomie releases. All five being available in a DVD boxset.

But as we shall see, this won't be the last time they'll be burying Tomie's head in the forest in the dead of night...

Here's the complete saga so far:

1998 - TOMIE
1999 - TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE
2000 - TOMIE: REPLAY
2001 - TOMIE: REBIRTH
2002 - TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
2005 - TOMIE: REVENGE
2005 - TOMIE: BEGINNING
2007 - TOMIE VS TOMIE

Tomie: Rebirth
(2001, Japan)

Takashi Shimizu directs the best Tomie yet

The TOMIE series of films starts quietly, then gets better and better upto the halfway point, before trailing off again. The middle three, TOMIE: REPLAY, TOMIE: REBIRTH and TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT are the ones I'd recommend. REBIRTH is my favourite. It's also the most accessible. Not that I don't enjoy the strange, more experimental atmosphere that usually pervades Tomie films, but this has a faster-moving story, and I like anything directed by Takashi Shimizu. He made this inbetween his THE GRUDGE video movies (both made in 2000) and his Japanese films of THE GRUDGE (both released in 2003), making TOMIE: REBIRTH Shimizu's first film, shot on film.

Like most Tomie films, it doesn't continue the story from the previous one, starting with a young painter completing a portrait of Tomie, then murdering her. His two closest friends help bury her in the woods. But later on, at a birthday party in a nightclub, the three of them are bewildered to see her alive again. Their lives are soon turned upside-down - one needs his girlfriend and another turns to his mother, to try and prevent Tomie from taking revenge...

Strangely, in the promotional documentary in the DVD extras, the director says that he thinks humour is needed in horror films. Zoiks, I always thought that part of the strength of THE GRUDGE films is the unrelenting, scary mood. Also, if I hadn't watched the documentary, I wouldn't have known that there was much humour in the film! There's maybe a little dark irony as two of Tomie's murderers talk about mundane matters while they dispose of her body. There's also a touch of RE-ANIMATOR as the conspirators have to get rid of her body the second time! Thankfully he didn't resort to more blatant comedy relief. Shimizu also seems intent on making his own distinctive entry to the series - while re-cycling ideas that have been used in the previous films - there's even a scene copied from the climax of TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE. She certainly seems to be regenerating faster than usual in this episode.

Strangely, TOMIE: REBIRTH doesn't get much beyond creepy, it's not nearly as frightening as TOMIE: REPLAY. But it does get very grisly and bloody - Tomie dies a lot in this one. But whereas the previous films had a constantly off-kilter atmosphere, TOMIE: REBIRTH allows us to stay more grounded in normality - the mundanity of normal surroundings, streets, shops and houses.

My favourite scene involves a street corner at night and a carrier bag - easily as scary as the first JU-ON. Unfortunately there's not many moments like that here. Trying to make Tomie perform new tricks means that there's also computer effects used instead of the convincingly physical prosthetic effects of the previous films. This severely compromised the climax for me.

Because of Tomie's strange powers, it doesn't matter that different actresses play her. As a purist, I think Tomie should always 'come back' looking exactly the same. I think the series could have been more of a phenomenon if one actress had become associated with the role. Having said that, so far, everyone who plays the role has brought something new to it.

This time, Miki Sakai proves to be the most beautiful and alluring Tomie so far. She looks more mature and powerfully creepy, but perhaps isn't as threatening as the others. The acting of the three guys isn't totally even, but the stressed-out mother is excellent, as are the girlfriend (played by Kumiko Endou) and Tomie, who have the hardest roles.

I enjoyed this the first time I saw it, but now watching it alongside the other Tomie films, it feels less strange than it should. It's good, but with a heavyweight horror director, it should have been great.

The region 1 US DVD from Adness is good for extras - there's a subtitled promotional programme with interesting interviews with the cast and the director. There's also a revealing look at how the major special effects were achieved. Some of them fooled me completely.

The feature is anamorphically presented with a slight 1.85 crop. The excellent audio is in Japanese in 5.1 stereo. The English subtitles are removable and the translations are good, but occasionally stilted. The worst part of the DVD is the picture - it's quite murky and a little soft too. This slightly spoils the early night-time scenes.

The film got a single disc release in the US a few years ago, but is now more easily available in the boxset of the first five films, with has poster art from TOMIE: REBIRTH on the cover.

Here's the complete saga so far:

1998 - TOMIE
1999 - TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE
2000 - TOMIE: REPLAY
2001 - TOMIE: REBIRTH
2002 - TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
2005 - TOMIE: REVENGE
2005 - TOMIE: BEGINNING
2007 - TOMIE VS TOMIE

Tomie: Forbidden Fruit
(2002, Japan)

How you can you ever safely say that you're making a final Tomie film.

This was also known as TOMIE: THE FINAL CHAPTER when it was released (how very Voorhees), and for a few years it stood as her last appearance, until two more films were made back to back in 2005.

Tomie befriends a schoolgirl who's getting bullied. I mean seriously bullied. The bullies are using a crossbow. Tomie visits her new friend, who's coincidentally called Tomie, and lives alone with her father. For a little while, we think that evil Tomie has lost her charm and no longer drives men wild. Then we learn that she's already had an affair with Dad, 25 years earlier. Of course while he's aged, she hasn't changed a bit. She's also rather cross that he's named his daughter after her. As Tomie cosies up to both Dad and daughter, we wonder where it's all going to lead. What is Tomie up to, this time?

The pace starts deceptively slowly, with Tomie behaving herself - I was almost concerned that they'd changed her character. Her friendship with the other Tomie is given time to develop, while we learn more of the father's back-story in flashbacks. Together, this sets up the second half of the film, where things get a little, well, crunchier. All I'll say is… baseball bat and buzzsaw...

To ensure a good response to this film, the producers used a different strategy for the Tomie series - no new young directors or bad acting, instead there's a veteran director and a small but heavyweight cast.

Bad Tomie is played by Nozomi Ando, who'd just starred in the excellent SAKUYA - SLAYER OF DEMONS (a tremendous schoolgirl samurai riff on BUFFY) - she went on to star in cult hits KIBAKICHI and SUICIDE MANUAL. She's an excellent Tomie, but more malicious than evil.

Innocent Tomie is played by Aoi Miyazaki, who is currently riding on the success of the female buddy-movie smash hit NANA, where she stars as one of the two Nanas.

Her father, Kazuhiko, is played by esteemed actor Jun Kunimura, who was in AUDITION (but not as the lead). His role is the hardest and it's wonderful to see him underplay in a genre that usually gives way to overacting.

The title of the film was totally hard sell: the audience being promised THE FINAL CHAPTER as well as FORBIDDEN FRUIT - publicity photographs angling towards the schoolgirl relationship as lesbian, and teasing us with a rekindled love affair with a 25-year age gap.

Much is made of Tomie's kissing scenes, but these also make the central story between the three characters very dramatic and very realistic.

But as the director (Shun Nakahara) steps up the horror, he seems less and less able to take it seriously. There's some real Junji Ito horror stuff, but it's constantly leavened with humour. At least this time it's actually funny, but it's a shame that the horror isn't as intense as the drama.

For once the digital effects are convincing, relying on seamless compositing rather than computer-generated imagery. There's less blood than usual, some surreal body horror and the clever use of the refrigeration plant that the dad works in...

The soundtrack is suitably weird and discomforting, but a little too eccentric, the music occasionally distracts from the action. The constant chorus of the crows adds to the atmosphere of forboding.

Once again, this Tomie story doesn't follow on from any other. All the films have stand-alone stories, like the manga. This one seems to be a little out of step with the grimmer mood of the series, but after a slow start, it still has quite a grip! Of the first five Tomie entries (four films, one made-for-TV) all are entirely watchable. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, and each their own special character. If you don't like one, you may like another. It's a bit like a box of chocolates...

This was the last film inclcuded in the currently available US DVD boxset of the first five TOMIE horrors.

Here's all the Tomies in order:

1998 - TOMIE
1999 - TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE
2000 - TOMIE: REPLAY
2001 - TOMIE: REBIRTH
2002 - TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
2005 - TOMIE: REVENGE
2005 - TOMIE: BEGINNING
2007 - TOMIE VS TOMIE

Tomie: Revenge
(2005, Japan)

Three long years after TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT came not one, but two new Tomie movies, TOMIE: REVENGE and TOMIE: BEGINNING, filmed back to back. I got very excited, until I saw them...

Dr Suma knocks over a young woman while driving in the woods at night. But she seems unharmed and quickly disappears. The doctor looks for the woman in an isolated mansion, wanting to check her injuries. Instead she finds two madmen raving about "Tomie" next to an unconscious woman in a sleeping bag. What on Earth is going on?

We learn a little more at the nearby hospital where Dr Suma works. She gets questioned by two 'National Security' men who are looking for Tomie - they think that she has the power to physically invade other women's bodies. They believe she's somewhere nearby, in the woods...

Well, the first place I'd have looked would be the mansion! But here it takes a whole hour of screen time for anyone to figure that out! This 'possession' theme is a new story idea that stupidly means that Tomie barely makes an appearance in her own film! Her female victims get all the action instead. It's an uninteresting new power for Tomie, and she seems to have forgotten all her other tricks.

I was also disappointed to see that this movie had been shot on video, with the opening night scenes looking especially murky and smeary. It really looks like a low-budget production and is an example of the perils of 'v-cinema' - they rarely deliver atmosphere (the original two JU-ON v-films being a notable exception).

The narrative is confusing, not helped by the shaky handheld camerawork. I also don't normally notice bad acting - watching a lot of horror films may have lowered my sensitivity to it - but here the acting is definitely poor. The messy and very short story ends with a surprise that cheats the viewer, rather than satisfies. The whole project is lacking the usual Tomie atmosphere of creepiness.

It's especially sad that the writer/director is Ataru Oikawa, who made the first TOMIE film, which I found interesting, off-beat and creepy. I thought that more than anyone he understood the Tomie mythos enough to expand it successfully. He's also directed TOKYO PSYCHO, which I'll be avoiding.

In its favour there is a little convincing drama from the two leading actors, Dr Suma (Hisako Shirata) and her boss (Kyusaku Shimada, the lead heavy in PRINCESS BLADE). There are a couple of gory scenes we haven't seen in the series before, but they're misjudged, overplayed and don't resemble anything in manga creator Junji Ito's drawings. The sound mix is uninvolving and lazily pumps up the volume to prop up some rather obvious leaping-out-at-the-camera scares.

I can't be nicer about TOMIE: REVENGE. It just makes the first five Tomie titles look more consistent, imaginative and carefully crafted. I'd even recommend the made-for-TV TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE over it. I won't even recommend this to Tomie completists, because it's so divorced from the source material.

The Hong Kong region 3 DVD has good subtitles and an anamorphic widescreen presentation, but the audio sounds like a rushed stereo mix. There are only two trailers as extras. It's also out on DVD in the US.

If you're suffering at all from too much Tomie, we're near the end of the series, until of course, she returns again...

1998 - TOMIE
1999 - TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE
2000 - TOMIE: REPLAY
2001 - TOMIE: REBIRTH
2002 - TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
2005 - TOMIE: REVENGE
2005 - TOMIE: BEGINNING
2007 - TOMIE VS TOMIE

Tomie: Beginning
(2005, Japan)

Tomie: the wonder years...

Brownie points to writer/director Ataru Oikawa for bringing us the first TOMIE. But lose all those points again for making TOMIE: REVENGE. In 2005, he also delivered a slightly better, but equally clumsy tale, TOMIE: BEGINNING. At least with this, I could tell that it was based on an early story by Junji Ito about Tomie's schooldays.

The film is set present day at a rather poor turnout for a class reunion. Only two former pupils are left to reminisce, remembering when Tomie first joined their school. The rest of the class are now either dead, missing or institutionalised! Mostly told in flashbacks, we see how schoolgirl Tomie divided and conquered...

I don't think that this origin tale can constitute Tomie's true 'beginning' - I suspect that she's a lot older than she looks.

Again it's shot on video, again with annoyingly loose camerawork (there's a spectacular shot of Mount Fuji at the start of the film that's almost thrown away!). But at least the performances are more even than in TOMIE: REVENGE.

Rio Matsumoto plays Tomie this time - she's OK but hasn't got the nasty giggling quite right. Her first evil acts are little more than grade school bullying, so the film flounders for a while. Later, contrary to her usual M.O. of tormenting her boyfriends and forcing them to kill her, she compels boys to work for her (like she did in REVENGE) and this simply keeps her out of the action.

Tomie uses her powers of regeneration more than in REVENGE, which leads to some confusion for the viewers, and some half-hearted special effects. A 'crawling' ear being dragged along the ground only belongs in a fifties 'B' movie. There's a better scene where a bandage soaked in Tomie's blood starts regenerating, but this logically means there should be three of her running around (original Tomie, ear Tomie, and bandage Tomie) - more loose ends of plot left dangling from this straggly tale.

One major death scene is cheated completely off camera (I'm not even sure how the character was supposed to have died unless I read the manga again) and the film's biggest gross-out scene is played for laughs. Her victims' 'mad' scenes are unconvincing and over-the-top. With no atmosphere and no creepy thrills, all that the film offers is a short story and a little spurting blood - very similar ingredients to the average Thai horror, which isn't saying much.

One mad little scene theorises that Tomie is related to a flatworm (!) and the stock footage of the little critter is very interesting, though of no use to the plot, and indicative that nature documentaries are more interesting. The other highpoint for me is the ending, firstly because it's a relief that it's finally over and secondly, that it leads neatly back to the very first film.

This would be a neat and tidy closer to the series, if it weren't for the appearance of TOMIE VS TOMIE in Japanese cinemas last year. But until a subtitled DVD gets released, we're going to have to take a little TOMIE break.

TOMIE: the series

This concludes my overview of all the TOMIE stories for EVIL DREAD for now. I was very disappointed that the two 2005 additions didn't exceed the accomplishments of any of the first five. The challenge remains to visualise the unfilmed manga, which would require considerable skill and formidable special effects! Similarly unfilmable is Junji Ito's epic GYO, about a land invasion of monstrous fish. And why doesn't anyone make some UZUMAKI sequels as well?

TOMIE is a unique horror character, though she's faithful to many typical traits in Japanese horror - where powerful women are evil and must be dealt with severely - where female biology is a bizarre mystery, bordering on the supernatural - where any woman who looks overtly sexual should be avoided, because she'll ruin your life. The subtexts continually signal that women shouldn't be assertive or wear too much make-up!

All in all I'd only recommend the early stories - TOMIE, TOMIE: REPLAY, TOMIE: REBIRTH and TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT, because they are uniquely creepy horror films, and are closer to Junji Ito's marvelous and mysterious TOMIE manga 'mythos'.

1998 - TOMIE
1999 - TOMIE: ANOTHER FACE
2000 - TOMIE: REPLAY
2001 - TOMIE: REBIRTH
2002 - TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT
2005 - TOMIE: REVENGE
2005 - TOMIE: BEGINNING
2007 - TOMIE VS TOMIE

Ghost Train
(2006, Japan, Otoshimono)

Even after 10 years of Asian horror films riffing on the scary elements of the original RING, I really don't mind even more ghosts with long black hair, as long as they are scary. Besides, the ghost in this one is wearing a black dress - that's completely different than usual.

GHOST TRAIN delivers the chills, and attempts to add a new dimension of its own, enough to set it apart from the rest. I've had nightmares about Underground stations, and this film taps into scares that I didn't feel during subway shockers DEATH LINE (1972) or CREEP (2004), for instance.

Called OTOSHIMONO in Japan, it's been retitled several ways in other countries. It's not to be confused with the South Korean 'ghosts on a train' movie, RED EYE that was also called GHOST TRAIN.

The story starts in the busy Tokyo subway system, when little Takashi picks up a train pass off a platform, only to be told to "give it back" or he will die. He later tells a schoolfriend Noriko, and her older sister Nana, of the warning from a woman in black. He soon disappears off the face of the Earth, and the train pass re-appears on the platform. This time Noriko unwittingly picks it up...

On the same line, train driver Shunichi sees a bloodless mangled corpse lying on the tracks in the tunnel ahead. But when he stops and looks underneath the train, the body has disappeared. His boss is concerned that he's not only seeing things, but that he keeps making emergency stops.

On another subway train, Kaeru gets a cursed bracelet that she can't remove. What is going on?

This story has its roots in the Japanese custom of leaving lost objects precisely where they were lost, so that the owner can find them if they retrace their steps. In Japan, I even heard stories that wallets will be respectfully left alone, wherever they were dropped, until claimed again by their owners.

The creeping camerawork and carefully orchestrated sound mix help keep the film constantly and effortlessly scary, right from the start. Though some of the shock moments are needlessly cranked-up by repeat edits and zoom-ins, for anyone who missed them the first time. But for once, the scares are all for genuine reasons, and not false starts.

The pace is kept rolling by the constant intercutting between the parallel hauntings - Nana and the train pass, Kaeru and the bracelet, Shunichi and the train company.

Early in the story, Nana is trying to decide on her higher education and is reading a brochure from the Miskatonic University - a hint at where the story could be heading - a startlingly different ending to other long-haired ghost movies. I even detected a slight trace of the Underground station horror QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (1968). Writer/director Takeshi Furusawa previously worked on the influential KAIRO (PULSE), but this film is a far more straightforward chiller than anything by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

The cast are engaging, with Erika Sawajiri (from SHINOBI) as Nana, and Chinatsu Wakatsuki (from JU-REI) as Kaeru. Shun Oguri as Shinuchi the train driver is a familiar face from AZUMI, AZUMI 2, Takeshi Shimizu's REINCARNATION, and (a possible in-joke) the TRAIN MAN TV series (a romantic drama about a manga geek defending a 'normal' woman from bullying on the subway).

GHOST TRAIN isn't very gory, and has a few cliches, but it's an enjoyable story packed with scares, in a setting ripe with possibilities. It's currently available on DVD in the US from ADV.

The Eye 3
(2005, Hong Kong/Thailand)

How many second sequels can you name that are better than the first?

We're not talking about Jessica Alba here, but about Thailand's most famous horror film. I loved THE EYE (2002) and was surprised at how good THE EYE 2 (2004) was. But I'm surprised at how bad THE EYE 3 is - an unfunny comedy-horror from the Pang Brothers, who directed the first two. It's sneaking around under several titles like THE EYE 10 and THE EYE INFINITY. OrigInally called GIN GWAI 10, it's finally being released on DVD in the USA under the more obvious title THE EYE 3.

So beware - the cover art may look like a horror film, but this is really trying hard to get laughs, with the directors aiming to spoofing their own films. They only get it half right - some of the scares work, but the humour doesn't. For instance, the opening scene of a Buddhist exorcism, where inside a circle of monks, a young girl begins to levitate and act like a Linda Blair possessed. Her tongue begins to loll out of her mouth… but they take it a step too far and have the tongue slap the monks around, Three Stooges style! The scene was working fine until the gags crept in. Guess they haven't seen REPOSSESSED.

Another problem is the completely disjointed story, with a far less focussed plot than the first two films. Four friends on holiday in Thailand are telling ghost stories, and their Thai friend convinces them there are actually 10 ways to see real ghosts. The first two ways having been explored in the first two films - "yeah, we heard about them".

As they all work their way through the next eight ways to see ghosts, there's an uneven cross between Thai horror and broad Chinese comedy. The film works in places, like one scene when they are sitting in a deserted street at night trying to lure ghosts out with food. But by far the worst scene is when a possessed human gets mistaken for a body-popper by two b-boys, who then try and engage in a challenge dance. No, no, no.

Rather than a series of spoofs, this looks more like leftover, under-developed ideas. There's also a constant assumption that seeing ghosts means danger. Surely, the ghosts are around all the time - the living are only in trouble if the ghosts have a motive to do harm.

The cinematography is colourful, moody and predictably green for the ghostly scenes. But unlike THE EYE 2 where the editing was carefully paced, the cutting style here is fast and random. The special effects start off well with some ghastly make-up effects, but then there's an over-reliance on an easy electronic ripple effect over many of the ghosts - obscuring their features.

The whole mess certainly explains why there haven't been any more EYE sequels.

THE EYE 3 is getting released in the US by Lions Gate at the end of June, with a misleadingly scary cover… It's already out in the UK and around Europe under various titles.

The X From Outer Space
(1967, Japan)

Guilala is heading straight for Tokyo!

If you've ever heard of a Japanese monster movie featuring a giant space-chicken - this is it… only it's not a chicken. Guilala (or Girara) may have a beak, but that's the only chickeny thing about it. The plot is more of a riff on THE BLOB or THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT - some gooey stuff brought back from outer space grows and grows and starts stomping toy tanks...

I only mention this fairly rare kaiju now because, forty years later, there's a sequel about to be released! THE MONSTER X STRIKES BACK: ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT features an extremely faithful recreation of the original suit, in a satirical comedy from Minoru Kawasaki, who also directed the awesome CALAMARI WRESTLER (a sort of seafood wrestling spin of ROCKY) and the less than awesome THE WORLDS SINKS EXCEPT JAPAN (a spoof of the recent disaster movie THE SINKING OF JAPAN). I find his genre satires like EXECUTIVE KOALA and RUG COP funny, but this new film looks like one of his political comedies, where the humour seems only to work in Japan. I'm still hoping for the best, especially after hearing that the legendary Takeshi Kitano has a major role in it. Due out later this year, we'll have to see.

In the meantime, I rewatched the original, after reading Stuart Galbraith IV's wonderful book MONSTERS ARE ATTACKING TOKYOI, which tells the history of monster movies within the Japanese film industry through extensive interviews with the people who made and starred in them. In their heyday in the late sixties, every rivalling Japanese film studio tried to muscle in on the success of Toho's GODZILLA series. Daiei had GAMERA and Shochiku came up with Guilala, exporting it to the USA as THE X FROM OUTER SPACE.

On a trip to Mars, spaceship AAB Gamma meets a UFO that freezes their controls and plants some cosmic goo on their hull. On their return to Earth, the goo escapes and heads straight for Tokyo (surprise, surprise). How can anyone stop it?

The story is a sort of hybrid between GODZILLA and THE GREEN SLIME, but shows a little originality towards the end, when the scientists try and lure Guilala away from the city by loading a nuclear power source onto the back of a jeep (but please don't try that at home). There's not many car chases like that one.

The monster suit's not bad, the effects aren't totally bad (though there's not nearly enough slow-motion to make it look bigger), and the acting's not totally bad. The film is solid retro fun for monster fans.

This sixties view of space travel portrays it as an easy job with an endless round of dancing and drinking. Problem on the trip to Mars? Hey - let's stop off at the Moonbase and hit the nightclub! The monster's escaped? Let's go to a bar! Light on drama, the requisite love triangle is devoid of sparks and the earnest cast aren't given much to do except run around. The attempts at scientific techno-babble are hilarious.

Trivia fans will spot that the launch sequence of AAB Gamma includes a steal of the opening scene from the James Bond YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, with a launch vehicle that releases a ship from its nose-cone, that opens like a flower. There's also a scene where Guilala's goo eats through the floor of the research base - which is all very ALIEN.

The design work is a little bizarre - spaceship AAB Gamma doesn't look like it could fly in either Earth's atmosphere or space. The offending UFO looks like an internally-lit homebaked lemon meringue pie, and Guilala has lumpy arms, big floppy feet and deelybopper antenna. Another drawback to taking this at all seriously is the repetitive, jaunty music that also undermines the few moments of drama. They also say "AAB Gamma" a hell of a lot, when they're in radio contact with Earth.

The modelwork is OK, particularly the impressive rocket base and the Moonbase, but the toy tanks and planes look way too small to have ever convinced anyone - how's your suspension of disbelief? Though Guilala is full of monster tricks and looks better in his night-time attacks, when his glowing eyes and fireballs look much more effective.

For years, this film has been badly served by home video, usually as a cramped pan-and-scan VHS, while the film was originally framed 2.35 widescreen. It's a last resort to watch it like this, as you can rarely see what's going on - the action is too tightly-framed.

The Japanese and US versions of the film are roughly the same, and I'd urge you to track down a widescreen version. The Japanese DVD is still available which has an optional English audio track on it, but no subtitles. The English dub was made for the original movie release, and half the cast are talking English anyway, so this isn't a case of blasphemy not to watch it in Japanese.

Besides, how else are you going to stand a hope of understanding the sequel if you don't watch this first?

Serial Experiments Lain
(1998, Japan)

Weird, hypnotic anime

One of the most unusual anime series that I've seen doesn't qualify as horror, but is hard to categorise - it certainly has its creepy moments.

Lain is a withdrawn young schoolgirl who gets an e-mail from a classmate who has recently committed suicide. But the message was sent after the girl's death, claiming that she is still alive on the internet, no longer in need of her physical form. Intrigued by the message, Lain gets her father, a computer designer, to set her up with an experimental internet navigation computer, so that she can investigate. Then the series gets a little complicated...

Watching the series induced the same sort of immersive effect as when I spend too long on the net. As the episodes roll by, the sense of disorientation and distance from reality is frightening, but it's hard to fathom exactly what is going on.

Her dad is more interested in his computers than his daughter, but becomes a little more interested when she gets over-enthusiastic about the technology. Otherwise, her entire family are usually motionless in front of the TV, barely communicating. Meanwhile Lain is in danger of being lost in her own bedroom, taken over by the weird wired web.

SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN is one of the first anime series I got into. I was surprised at how adult and cerebral it gets. There's little action, but it's rich with ideas and thick with atmosphere. I get the drift of the story, but I'll probably never fully understand everything that's going on. This again makes it intriguing and rewatchable. After ten years, the series remains ahead of it's time.

The animation and the layouts are impressive and darkly colourful. It has impact without using much motion. But the effort and technique that go into these fairly static shots is impressive. For example, in the opening of every episode - there's a shot of out of focus traffic - where car lights are recognisable only as blobs of color and abstract lens flares. This is an image that would be easier to film than to draw.

The sound design is extremely well done - like the indistinct murmur of traffic and crowds in the opening shots, or the ominous sound of power in the overhead wires. I hope that an even more immersive audio mix will be made in 5.1 surround in some future release. The series concentrated hard on music, spawning three official soundtrack CDs, (confusingly one of them is called 'Bootleg').

SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN is available on DVD in the US and UK - the entire series is made up of thirteen 25-minute episodes.

I've been hoping to see another anime experience anything like LAIN. Its writer, Chiaki Konaka, delivered the even stranger TEXHNOLYZE, but I found the narrative impenetrable. Thankfully, he's been reunited with LAIN's director, Ryutaro Nakamura, on a new Production I.G anime series called GHOST HOUND, which certainly looks unusual, weird and rewarding. It takes as it's starting point of inspiration, the TV series TWIN PEAKS...

The Calamari Wrestler
(2004, Japan)

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to recommend it to you properly. THE CALAMARI WRESTLER is a monster comedy with drama, pro-wrestling, Shintoism and a heap of seafood. Whenever I show this DVD to anyone, they want to see it - but how could you resist? It's as if the Japanese remade ROCKY as a wrestler and also, gulp, a man-size squid.

The story starts with the Japanese wrestling federation descending into chaos when the reigning champion is successfully challenged by a walking, talking squid. Where did it come from? Why does it wrestle? What does it eat? Can it find time for true love between bouts?

Despite a low budget, this has a tight, twisting plot and is full of ideas. The scenes of behind-the-scenes drama and romantic melodrama are constantly entertaining because one of the characters is a squid!

Osamu Nishimura, the actor playing the plastic fantastic title character, makes no effort to move like a squid! He just walks down the street with a slight swagger, shopping basket over one tentacle! Not even a mention of how a squid can walk around, it just a sticks a boot on two of its tentacles. It's a fantastic-looking suit, and no matter what FX budget you threw at it, you'd still know it was a special effect, so why waste money? Ultimately, the script, the director and the cast make the whole concept work.

THE CALAMARI WRESTLER is full of surprises, when I thought it was going to be a one-joke film. Certainly, the director keeps his tongue in cheek, but has the cast play it totally straight. The Japanese are excellent at acting in fantasy situations, be it ghosts, giant monsters or superheroes of any size.

A couple of the lead actors even wrestle as well as act. There are also presumably many famous sports commentators and professional wrestlers guesting throughout the film, though I don't recognise any of them. With any faraway culture, it's a stretch to understand it all - but it's still funny, as well as fascinating.

The English subtitles on the US DVD release (from Pathfinder) are done well, which is crucial for the comedy. The transfer is good, but don't ask me whether it was shot on film or video - I'm guessing it was a mixture of the two, and then edited on video. The worst technical aspect is the under-produced audio mix, which is occasionally distracting. But I guess that was due to the budget rather than the mastering of the DVD.

There aren't many extras, but there's a good behind-the-scenes featurette (which is short on a few subs) which shows the suit actors, the sets, and a glimpse of how much fun they had shooting it all.

When this DVD was released, I was fully expecting more international success for the director, Minoru Kawasaki. I thought that there'd be further of his titles, EXECUTIVE KOALA, KANI THE GOALKEEPER CRAB, and RUG COP, but this hasn't happened. I didn't enjoy his THE WORLD SINKS EXCEPT JAPAN at all, but would still like to see his other 'unlikely animal' films, and the cop with a killer wig. Hopefully the forthcoming MONSTER X STRIKES BACK: ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT, the comedy sequel to THE X FROM OUTER SPACE (1967) will put him back in the western spotlight.

Princess Aurora
(2005, South Korea)

If you're getting withdrawal symptoms from not getting any more Vengeance movies from Chan-Wook Park, and I'M A CYBORG, BUT THAT'S OK didn't work out for you, here's another bloody tale of revenge from South Korea...

As a scenario, this is superficially similar to SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, as it certainly doesn't pull any punches revenge-wise. But unlike the Vengeance trilogy, rather than analyse the nature of revenge and the resulting cycle of violence, PRINCESS AURORA has a more one-sided viewpoint as a story, and more single-minded than DIRTY HARRY as a character.

From the very start, we get the full brunt of the raw violence of the central character, as she mercilessly murders a step-mother for beating her little girl. Then she snuffs out another young woman who has been verbally cruel to a pizza delivery woman. This is extremely rough justice for the respective crimes, but the police are immediately on the case.

Little does one of the detectives know, just how involved in the case he already is. As the killing spree continues, the police are still clueless about her motive or identity, except for a Princess Aurora sticker left at each crime. Though it's not shown in much detail, it looks like the Disney cartoon character from the animated classic SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959).

This is a compelling thriller from the start, and just as it starts looking like a typical cat-and-mouse detective story, the plot starts twisting. It's not a whodunnit, but the killer's motivation is the mystery - and not a shallow FRIDAY THE 13th explanation, but the very core of the film. This is a slickly-made, bloody thriller with intelligent, well-rounded characters. The plot gets a little far-fetched towards the end, but it doesn't spoil the intensity of story.

Jeong-hwa Eom has the toughest role, showing the turmoil of her character, and having to play-act various roles to infiltrate her way into her victims' lives. Sung-keun Moon plays a detective on the case, who'd rather be studying to be a pastor!

Gorgeously shot in 2.35 widescreen, PRINCESS AURORA has just been released on region 2 DVD by Tartan UK.

Persona
(2000, Japan)

What the world needs now, is a lot more Chiaki Kuriyama...

One of the most memorable characters in both BATTLE ROYALE and KILL BILL: VOL 1 was played by an unusual-looking actress who convinced us all that she enjoyed a bloody good fight. As a jogger that you simply don't mess with, or as ball-swinging Gogo Yubari taking on The Bride, Chiaki Kuriyama made a huge impression on audiences but has failed to appear in any more US films, or even many Japanese ones. Her biggest film since KILL BILL was as the villainous Agi in THE GREAT YOKAI WAR (2005), directed by Takashi Miike, but otherwise it's been hard to see much more of Chiaki's work, up until EXTE is finally released in the US on DVD at the end of July. She appeared as a young ghost in SHIKOKU (1999), and as a sword-swinging sidekick in AZUMI 2 (2005). You might also remember her in a small role in the second JU-ON video movie, as the schoolgirl who's terrorized by her mobile in an empty schoolroom.

PERSONA, called KAMEN GAKUEN in Japan, was a chance to see Chiaki appear alongside Tatsuya Fujiwara just before they were both in BATTLE ROYALE. Her role in PERSON is pivotal but for comparatively little screen time, like many of her appearances. Of course, Fujiwara is now even more famous for playing 'Light' in the DEATH NOTE films.

But this PERSONA is nothing to do with the Ingmar Bergman classic... A schoolboy arrives in class wearing a featureless mask. He says it's to disguise himself from bullies. As other students start wearing masks, the ploy works because the first boy is no longer recognised. As a mask craze begins to catch on around the city, pushed by an influential fashion guru, a schoolgirl called Yuki sets out to investigate who's making the masks and why. She even finds a secret society clubhouse hosting a sort of EYES WIDE SHUT masqued orgy. But when one of the masks burns someone's face off, Yuki teams up with a reporter in order to solve the mystery of the masks.

From the downbeat opening, I was hoping for a supernatural thriller. But this switches from supernatural trappings into a typical Japanese mystery movie, similar to the popular CASE FILES OF YOUNG KINDAICHI detective series. Those usually start off teasing the audience that something spooky is going on, but in the end there's usually a more scientific SCOOBY DOO explanation. Which is a shame, because the film starts powerfully and mysteriously, exploring themes of identity, invisibility, and even anonymous sex (though the teenage orgy we see gets no more racy than open-mouthed kissing).

There are some startling mask scares, certainly enough to send anyone wary of masks behind the sofa. But halfway through, it morphs into a dot-the-dot MURDER SHE WROTE mystery, set amongst some 80's style fashion shows. Surely curly perms and 'new romantic' make-up weren't still trendy in Japan in the year 2000?

PERSONA was directed by Takashi Komatsu, who made the interesting supernatural KIDAN (2005), which I've already covered. The difference being that KIDAN was from his own script. PERSONA almost looks like a two-part TV special, but the perky lead, Maya Kurosu, manages to hold it all together. I only wish the potential of the story could have been explored further.

For Chiaki Kuriyama and Tatsuya Fujiwara fans, you could do a lot worse. Though PERSONA is a rare title on DVD outside of Europe. The only English-subtitled DVD I could find was the UK region 2 PAL release from Terra.
Vengeance
(2006, Thailand)

The best action films I've seen from Thailand have come from the Pang Brothers. Any others have been much lower budget and only intended for Thai audiences, rather than for international markets. I still wanted to see VENGEANCE (known as PHAIRII PHINAAT PAA MAWRANA in Thailand) because of the supernatural elements involved, making this a hard-to-classify action film. Like PREDATOR, it starts like an action film, then branches off into dark and deadly fantasy.

After a confusing first few minutes, VENGEANCE settles down to become a half-decent thriller. As a team of Thai policemen set off into the jungle in pursuit of a gang of escaped convicts. Here the use of locations reminded me of the lush rainforest atmosphere of THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK 2, but with temples! Both the cops and the escapees then start to suffer casualties as they exchange fire, but then the forest itself starts to claim victims of its own.

The first hostile creatures they encounter are a nasty swarm of 'tiger wasps' (according to the subtitles), who deliver more interesting action than ever appeared in the disastrous seventies movie THE SWARM. The next protectors of the forest are rather more mystical, and live in the 'ladyfruit' tree… Then, there are some marvellous little crocodile/gekko creatures - the CGI effects are beautifully composited into the action.

As the two sides encounter a group of forest-dwellers, we also get a giant snake - but that's when the computer effects really fail to convince. The modelling and animation is far from convincing and heralds the effects-heavy section of the story, which the budget really can't support. If the producers had stuck with the subtler effects achieved in the mid-section of the film, and kept up with the three-handed game of police vs convicts vs forest people, it could have worked more successfully.

Unfortunately, the special effects get over-ambitious. There's plenty of action, but less story-telling, as it all ends with a rather rushed, botched finale. So please don't think you're getting a giant snake movie, which the posters might lead you to believe. Actually the snake is the poorest effect in the film. The high benchmark for snake action has been set in the ANACONDA films. If you can't match the quality of those, stay out of the jungle!

But VENGEANCE is ambitious, alternating as a cop thriller, a jungle adventure, and a fantasy horror. The acting is convincing, not something you can say about many horror films from Thailand. There's a sexy cast, plenty of action, plot twists, a little gore, and some glimpses of creatures you haven't seen before... But I still wanted it all to make more sense.

My enjoyment of the film was slightly hampered by the Thai DVD I saw, which was annoyingly censored for smoking, knives held to the throat, and guns pointing at people's heads - these scenes were all digitally blurred. I also thought there were some jumpy edits during some of the fights. Worse still, the framing of the film felt like the 16:9 image had been cropped at the sides, often showing characters leaning out of the frame.

Brentwood Home video are releasing this in the US on DVD and Blu-Ray at the end of July. Hopefully they've corrected the problems of the Thai DVD.

Exte - Hair Extensions
(2007, Japan)

It's good to see actress Chiaki Kuriyama finally back in a Japanese horror film. But with Sion Sono directing, it was never going to be a straightforward affair.

Sono also wrote and directed the infamous SUICIDE CIRCLE aka SUICIDE CLUB (2002), with its unbelievable opening sequence where dozens of schoolgirls join hands at the edge of a subway platform and then jump under a train. Despite a central story of an investigation into the serial suicides, the director tied in a bizarre subplot involving a girl band. The opening was a great hook, the dramatic scenes were gripping and downbeat, but Sono was obliquely exploring other themes - the sort that only film critics seem to understand. The bizarre song and dance from the extremely nasty villain took me by surprise, and the movie flew over my head as I listened to a really bad song, apparently a tribute to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. Nope, I didn't get that reference - had to read about it later. Anyhow, EXTE is Sono's new film, half of which I love, half I didn't.

I knew something wasn't quite right during the opening scene, when customs officers open a dockside container only to find it full of human hair. When a corpse is discovered inside, one of the officers makes a comedy face before running away. Surely this was a serious horror film? That's how it's been sold.

Chiaki Kuriyama plays Yuko, a trainee stylist at a small hair salon. Her studies are interupted by her step-sister who dumps her daughter with her while she's off partying with drunken businessmen. As if babysitting wasn't problem enough, a weird guy turns up at the salon giving away hair extensions, cursed ones...

I love Sion Sono's handling of the horror scenes, but I don't understand what else he's trying to achieve. EXTE has many fine horror moments, with strong performances from a good cast. But the story is almost non-existent, driven only by the whims of a completely insane villain. Not realistic-insane, not movie-stereotype insane, but comedy-mad like a 1960s BATMAN villain. Penguin likes umbrellas and birds, Riddler likes riddles, Catwoman likes cats… and in the same two-dimensional way, Yamazaki likes hair. That's it. No complex backstory, no scheme, no plan. He just likes hair. This point is oft-repeated, especially when he sings a useless atonal ditty, the lyrics of which are just 'my hair'. If Sono is trying to send up the horror genre, he needs to be funnier.

While actor Ren Osugi (of UZUMAKI, NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE, AUDITION and many more) is always reliable for creepy villainy, but here he's asked to dress in wigs and silly sunhats. As Yamazaki, his day job is to sell the hair he cuts from corpses while on night shift in the mortuary. As a vaguely camp hair extensions salesman, or waltzing round his grubby apartment talking to a corpse, he seems to be playing for laughs. But not only isn't it funny, these scenes are completely at odds with the rest of the film. There are gruesomely detailed deaths by hair, as it tries to rip itself free of its owner, or as it snakes around into ears, up noses and slithers around eyeballs...

Despite the spectacularly painful hair murders, the only real horror is when the abused girl's mother tries to reclaim her, banging on the door, and trying to lie her way into the house. The characters in this storyline are well-rounded and expertly acted. It totally works as a grim drama. But as soon as we return to Yamazaki, the film becomes a comedy again.

There's so much that I like about EXTE. The shame is that Sion Sono could make great horror films, if only he took them seriously. I suppose that if you get his humour, the film may still work for you.

EXTE- HAIR EXTENSIONS is shortly on DVD in the US, and already out in a special edition in the UK.

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