Do A Person's Feelings Die with Them: Shikoku (1999) Review

Director: Shunichi Nagasaki

Notable Cast: Yui Natsukawa, Chiaki Kuriyama, Michitaka Tsutsui, Toshie Negishi, Ren Osugi

 

While the J-Horror boom of the late 90s and early 00s provided enough creep factor and impressive tonal scares to influence an entire generation, one of its better aspects was the films that used the emotional echoes of sadness and melancholy. Shunichi Nagasaki’s 1999 film, Shikoku, might be one of those intriguingly overlooked gems. Encased in a somber tone, this folk-horror ghost story effectively crafts a dreamlike haziness in its visuals and narrative, less a scare factory and more akin to a grim-toned fairy tale. While its narrative punch feels like it pulls back to avoid moving too far into melodramatic flair, which doesn’t necessarily always work in its favor, Shikoku is a film that deserves a gander for its subtle theming and impressive visuals for those looking for perhaps a less aggressive J-Horror tale. 

 

When Hinako, played by Yui Natsukawa, returns to her childhood home in Shikoku, she learns that her close friend from childhood, Sayori, has passed away in high school. As old memories resurface and a rekindled friendship with another childhood friend, Fumiya, begins to grow into something more, Sayori’s ghost starts appearing to her old friend. However, as Hinako starts to look into matters, she finds that Sayori’s mother, a medium, might be trying to resurrect her lost daughter. 

 

Curses and Epitaphs: The Ghost Station (2023) Review

Director: Jeong Yong-ki

Notable Cast: Kim Bo-ra, Kim Jae-hyun, Shin So-yul, Oh Jin-seok

 

As the old adage goes, what’s old will always be new again. The same is very relevant for film cycles and, if I’m being honest, the resurrection of the various trends in horror from the early 00s has been a delight. 

 

When The Ghost Station first crossed my path, the fact that it was co-written by Hiroshi Takahashi (Ring, Ring 2, Ju On Origins) and Koji Shiraishi (Noroi, Carved, Sadako Vs. Kayako) is what caught my eye. The sheer amount of awesome J-horror films that those two have crafted in the last 30 years is essentially jaw-dropping - so the two coming together to work on this one immediately caught my attention.

 

Fortunately, Well Go USA picked up The Ghost Station for distribution in the US, and it’s a welcome addition at the end of the year. The Ghost Station is pure 00s J-Horror through and through, wrapping up classic inspirations into a love letter of spooks, spins, and spiritual horror hijinks. Its mileage will vary drastically depending on your love of the throwback J-Horror. Mainly since this is a Korean film and some expectations come with that, but it also suffers from some of the same drawbacks that hindered the genre back then. Still, it was a pleasant trip down nostalgia lane that hit many of the right buttons. 

 

Mirages Are About to Appear: Ox-Head Village (2023) Review [Screambox Original]

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Notable Cast: Koki, Riku Hagiwara, Keiko Horiuchi, Rinka Otani, Haruka Imou, Akaji Maro, Satoru Matsuo, Fumiya Takahashi, Naoki Tanaka, Satoru Date, Riko

 

At just over the fifteen-minute mark in Takashi Shimizu’s latest horror flick, Ox-Head Village, our leading lady and her “not-boyfriend” go to a smaller seaside town looking to investigate a viral video.  An announcement over a loudspeaker is made, “the mirages are about to appear.” Everyone skitters to the water’s edge to see the mirages and Kanon, the lead character of this story played by Koki, starts to see the forms of people on the water. Ghostly people.

 

Although this would seem like the first ghostly images to start off a horror film, we’re already fifteen minutes into a Shimizu story. That means we’ve already seen plenty of visual trickery, ghostly images, and classic unnerving subtle spook work. Unattached hands, vague visages of oxen's head, and a minor case of doppelganger reflections. By the time these ‘mirages’ show up, Ox-Head Village has already been littering the landscape with classic J-horror visuals and tones. You’re damn right, it’s a Shimizu film. 

 

The first fifteen minutes of Ox-Head Village is a stark reminder of why the previously appointed sub-genre of J-Horror, an entire tone and style that Shimizu helped establish with his Ju-On (Grudge) films, can be so damn compelling. This third part of his “Village Trilogy,” which includes Howling Village and Suicide Forest Village, is Shimizu going back to the well that has kept him a staple of the haunted genre for decades. It’s also the best one of the trilogy. 

 

Putting the Cult in Cult Cinema: Yellow Dragon's Village (2023) [Screambox Original]

Director: Yugo Sakamoto

Notable Cast: Atomu Mizuishi, Mayu Suzuki, Takuya Matsumoto, Yuni Akino, Zingi Umemoto, Rikiya Kaidou, Yu Yasuda, Wataru Ichinose, Itsuki Fuji, Masayuki Ino, Kenta Osaka

 

Never underestimate the DIY indie film industry either. Sure, the big leagues and studio films have the money and time to make some impressive feats of cinema, but sometimes the most interesting slices of celluloid are the ones found in the cracks of the system. Take Yellow Dragon’s Village for instance. The film looks to be made by its on and off-screen creative teams for roughly $100 and the promise of shots at the local bar at the end of each day, but there is such a freedom to its playfulness that immediately strikes. 

 

While the film might be listed as a horror, sometimes a drama, on various platforms, it is far more than that. Yellow Dragon’s Village is premiere-low budget filmmaking at its finest, delivering a coy sense of humor along with its genre-bending play on expectations in a way that sets up its audience for one thing and then batters them with another. It uses its serious filmmaking concepts and then promptly, more than once, throws them out the window for the sake of toying with its audience.

 

Debuting on the streaming service Screambox, it’s that horror tag that represents the initial expectations that Yellow Dragon’s Village is playing with. Director Yugo Sakamoto, the one-man do-it-yourself filmmaker who delivered two (!) fantastic action films last year with A Janitor and Baby Assassins, tackles the horror genre with a story that starts off like any classic horror film. A group of college-aged youths find themselves stranded in the forest. It’s only when they stumble upon the titular village, where the locals offer to help them out, that they uncover a cult looking for their next sacrifice. 

 

The Ring Collection (2019)

It was only a few years ago I wrote a piece at Blood Brothers about the relevancy of the Ring franchise for horror. At the time there was two new films due for release, the wildly entertaining Sadako vs Kayoko and the less-said-the-better American sequel, Rings. Now, it’s time to take a look at the franchise once again, not just because we are going another new film – Sadako, which sees the return of Hideo Nakata to the director’s chair, but because Arrow Video has done everyone a huge favor. They just released a phenomenal box set with new HD restorations of the first four Japanese and any fans of the films, cinema collectors, or even newbies will want to pick up this set and dig into its gold mine of contents.

It should be noted that the American release of this set is the same one as the UK one from last year, although the titles have been slightly changed to reflect the silly US titling which is Ringu and not Ring. I will continue to use the term Ring through this piece because, quite frankly, the name Ringu is stupid. Fortunately, my opinion on that seems to be backed fairly heavily on the special features of this set so at least there’s that.

Communicating with the Dead: The American Pulse Franchise

After the success of The Ring (followed by the success of The Grudge,) the Hollywood money machine was emboldened to remake every J-horror or J-horror influenced film that they could find. It didn’t matter how good or bad the source material was, if it made money or was even warmly regarded critically, it was fodder for the Hollywood slaughter. This is where Kairo, also known as Pulse, comes into play. The original film is a stark and artistic horror film, intent on crafting vague messages about the relationship between society and technology, that has earned its fair share of mixed reactions since its release. For one, I am a massive fan of Kairo and you are welcome to dig into my review of the Arrow Video Blu Ray release of the film HERE for some more in-depth context to understand the rest of this article and review. There will often be comparisons to it through the next section that focuses on the first entry of the American Pulse series, but it felt necessary to address some of the context for the following. It’s during this time frame that Kurosawa’s Kairo was picked for a Hollywood adaption and the results are interesting at best and insulting at worst.

Pulse (2001)

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Notable Cast: Haruhiko Kato, Kumiko Aso, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka, Masatoshi Matsuo, Shinji Takeda, Jun Fubuki, Shun Sugata, Show Aikawa, Koji Yakusho

“What got you started on the internet?”

“Nothing in particular…”

“You don’t like computers, right?”

“No.”

“Wanted to connect with other people?”

“Maybe. I don’t know…everybody else is into it.”

It’s a simple scene in the larger realm of Pulse. Two different people, a young man living on his own and a young woman who works on computers for a living, are brought together by a strange website asking a basic question, ‘Do you want to see a ghost?’ It’s their rather mundane interactions and somewhat awkward chemistry that really does encapsulate the entire concept and brilliance of this often-overlooked J-Horror classic, recently given the pristine Blu Ray collector’s treatment by Arrow Video. This is a film about a lot of things. Ghosts, friends, suicide, the fears of a technology and the cultural lag we feel as a society as it continually outpaces our understanding, yet it’s a theme of connection that truly grounds the entire film in a layered manner and lifts it above so many of its horror peers, in J-Horror and beyond. It’s a scene where two unconnected people are brought together in fate like means to try and make a connection that brings to life the subtle script and inspired atmospheric direction of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It’s perhaps not the most memorable, flashiest, scariest, or inspired scene, but it’s one that proves just how insightful Pulse is as a cinematic feat. This is a film that, like its ghosts and protagonists, crosses over into a must more philosophical and terrifying realm where the things on the surface are not always what they seem.  

Bamy (2016)

Director: Jun Tanaka

Notable Cast: Hironobu Yukinaga, Hiromi Nakazato, Misaki Tsuge, Toshi Yanagi, Yuki Katsuragi

Ghost stories in Japanese cinema have sort of faded away for the most part, aside from trying to squeeze out every drop of profit that companies can from franchises like Ju-On or Ringu, but J-horror (as dubbed by Western culture) in general is a dying genreas a whole, or is it? No, all jokes aside, Jun Tanaka takes the romanticized stories of ghosts that the likes of Kiyoshi Kurosawa has done before during the boom of the genre, and resurrected it and made it all his own by way of indie film making, with the chilling and overall creepy, Bamy.

Rings (2017)

Director: F. Javier Gutierrez

Notable Cast: Matilda Lutz, Alex Roe, Johnny Galecki, Vincent D’Onofrio, Aimee Teegarden, Bonnie Morgan

It’s no secret that here at Blood Brothers we love The Ring franchises. I even went so far as to write an article about why this series is still relevant late last year before the release of Rings and the Japanese crossover Sadako Vs. Kayoko. Now that Rings has finally gotten a US release, no thanks to the numerous delays and postponements it received, it was an easy decision to say that it was going to get a full review here on the site. Unfortunately, I’m not sure Rings deserves a full review. This third entry into the American Ring series suffers from the ultimate sin: having no potential. In particular, the film feels like it is meant to be a sequel that is not only meant to reboot the franchise, but one that is perfectly content with just rehashing EVERYTHING we’ve seen before. It thinks it’s clever with some of its modern spins and new mysteries to solve, but it’s all been done before in this franchise in one way or another and for fans that have seen all of them, it’s even less inspired.

Sadako vs Kayako (2016)

Director: Koji Shiraishi

Notable Cast: Mizuki Yamamoto, Tina Tamashiro, Aimi Satsukawa, Masahiro Komoto, Masanobu Ando, Mai Kikuchi, Misato Tanaka

Crossover films are very divisive by nature, and cause a ruckus among the representatives of each side of the franchises coming together. I actually don't get excited for these joining of properties, as I don't find myself in the fandom of the subjects usually, but in this case, I love both of these Japanese cinema icons and their respective franchises, Ringu and Ju-On.

Sadako vs Kayako, as it were, is a Japanese horror fan's wildest dream come true. So many crappy doodles on papers all across the world of The Ring and The Grudge (yeah sorry about that) standing next to each other, has become a thing of reality, and it is as awesome as it is a let down. Get excited, adjusts your expectations accordingly (probably lowering them would help), and get ready for one of the most iconic horror showdowns ever conceived.

Top 30 Horror Films of 2016

It’s fascinating how cinema goes through cycles. In recent years, the cycles seem to be getting shorter as a particular style, look, or genre becomes popular and quickly dies out to be replaced with the next trend. In the realm of 2015 horror, it was the horror comedy that finally took a hold and delivered some knock out films that blended the humor and the horror in some fun ways. For 2016, however, it was the atmospheric horror film. Granted, if you look back at the various lists I’ve crafted for respective years you may already know that I have a soft spot for atmospheric horror. That means that this year was one that delivered a lot of films that hit the sweet spot for me as a horror fanatic. The style is not for everyone, but this year there was more than likely one for each kind of horror fan that could fall under the umbrella of being an atmospheric horror film. It was just that kind of year. There is other kinds of films that made the list, but if you’re a fan of this kind of horror it was definitely your year too.

Dark Water (2002)

Director: Hideo Nakata

Notable Cast: Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa, Fumiyo Kohinata, Yu Tokui, Isao Yatsu, Shigemitsu Ogi

Ghost stories have always played a large part of the Japanese cinematic world and the boom of the J-Horror craze in the late 90s and early 00s was only one of the more recent examples of its popularity. A big part of the explosive rise of the genre was director Hideo Nakata and his Ring films which launched an endless tide of modern Japanese ghost stories and some mixed Hollywood remakes alike. However, one of the best J-Horror films to come out of this wave was Nakata’s return to the genre, Dark Water. The weird need for American audiences to be ‘scared’ by horror films means that Dark Water is a film that gets massively overlooked due to its more dramatic narrative and slower pacing, even if it was remade just a couple of years after its release by Hollywood. This ghost story not meant to be as unnerving as Ring or as dreadfully suffocating as Ju-On, but it’s a film that really works a magical system of layering symbolic pieces into a more traditional Japanese ghost story. Dark Water may not have a ton of jump scares a lot of unique gimmicks to its name, but it’s easily one of the most emotionally effective and thoughtful horror films to arrive in the last 20 years – which is why this latest Arrow Video release is a grand reminder of a film that too many horror fans are missing out on.

The Blood Splatter: Ju-On: The Beginning of the End (2014) and Ju-On: The Final Curse (2015)

 JU-ON: THE BEGINNING OF THE END (2014)

The Ju-On series was one that didn’t necessarily need a reboot. The Black Ghost/White Ghost combination of spin off stories proved that the extension of the curse concept could work on some level. However, after watching the reboot of the franchise subtitled The Beginning of the End, I can’t say that the film itself was nearly as bad as some of the reviews lead me to believe. Ju-On: The Beginning of the End is still a creepy and occasionally clever entry into the series and one that ought to appease the more open-minded fans of the series. At times it can be a bit awkward, there are a few sequences where the execution doesn’t quite sell the idea (like seeing a giant vision of your dead friend on the subway train as a giant head), but the rest of the film retains a lot of the same atmosphere and creepy moments that the series is known for albeit from a slightly modern angle. The film is also told in the same broken segment structure that made the original ones work so well. Once again, the way that it’s told makes for a stronger mystery for the film and how it reveals its plotting as it jumps around a bit gives the audience a task to put the pieces together. Better yet, instead of being just a straight forward remake, The Beginning of the End also tries to re-establish some of the storyline that fans will already be familiar with. Instead of Kayako being the main antagonist, the film focuses more on the son Toshio as the horror driver and how his influence was the one that brought about the curse that plagues the house. While explaining the back story a bit more can be too revealing for the normally vague style of J-Horror, the new spins and twists on the plot are a welcome change of pace for the reboot that gives it some life instead of repeating the same thing again and again. Ju-On: The Beginning of the End is far from perfect and it is occasionally awkward, but still it’s nice to see Kayako and Toshio back in the haunting business. 

JU-ON: THE FINAL CURSE (2015)

Seeing as the first reboot film wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting, particularly from reading some of the reviews, I went into its sequel – called The Final Curse – with a decent amount of hope. The Final Curse, or The Final as I have seen it called at times, is a solid follow up to The Beginning of the End and works as both a continuation of the evolved story and as a direct sequel. At this point, it’s pretty obvious that these films are going to feature certain kinds of characters at the helm – the curious school girls, the amateur detective, etc. so it’s not so surprising that this one retreads some of the same ideas. It doesn’t quite have the weaving reveal to the various stories that The Beginning of the End worked out, but the further exploration of the new narrative that features Toshio as the main antagonist leads to some fresh feeling moments that work better than anything in its predecessor. The film also tends to pull away from some of the cheesier kill sequences, although there is one in a karaoke bar that’s kind of random, so that helps create a slightly more cohesive atmosphere that works. There are a handful of scary sequences that are very well shot including a scene with a mother and daughter in the kitchen that has some great set ups and pay offs. The Final Curse is slightly better than The Beginning of the End and it still shows how much life there is in the Ju-On franchise. It’s sad that this one seems to be the end of it for now (with the recently released Kayako vs Sadako that works outside of the franchise) as I quite enjoyed this one too…even with some of its cheesier awkward moments. 

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Into the Well: Is the Ringu Franchise Still Relevant?

When The Ring came out back in 2002, I was hooked. I was in high school, I was a horror movie fanatic, and I couldn’t get enough of atmosphere and concept. It was scary, smart, and most of all – timely. It combined familiar ghost story elements with the unfamiliar tones of a blooming J Horror trend and I loved it. I quickly sought out the original Ringu at the video stores (requiescat in pace) and I have been a fan since. Granted, it’s been years since I revisited the franchise and its various spin offs, reboots, and forgotten sequels, but with the recent announcement of a third American film Rings, a new Japanese film in Sadako Vs Kayoko, and some requests from our readers for more J Horror material, I decided it was time to go back and look at one of the strangest and overly complicated franchises that horror has ever seen and examine why this series is still relevant today despite some odd turns in quality.

Onibaba (1964)

Director: Kaneto Shindo

Notable Cast: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satō

J-horror is something I've always been pretty fond of since I was a teenager; Ju-On, Ringu, the works of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and so on have always gotten under my skin and really stuck with me in a lot of ways that horror films elsewhere haven't managed to do. I guess I can also add to that, I am not truly a horror genre fan although there is quite a bit I do like in the whole never-ending pool of cinema out there. I've been interested in checking out some of the earlier stuff, and this is very, very early ('64), and is essentially a pre-cursor to what was to come out of Japan. So does it live up to its reputation? I would say yes, although I do have a few problems, but first, the good!

The Good, The Bad, The Weird: J-Horror Remakes

The Good, the Bad, the Weird is a new series that explores individuals, genres, and themes within cult cinema with a focus on choosing the best, the worst, and the odd ball within that context. It’s a great place for discussion or analysis on how films fit within a series or filmography along with a way us to further discover our own tastes and preferences. 

For our first The Good, The Bad, The Weird piece, we invited Derrick Carter over from For the Love of Celluloid to celebrate in our J-Horror June month. Together, we came up with our choices for the article based on the slew of J-Horror remakes that graced the cinemas in the 00s. If you get a chance, check out some of Derrick's other work at For the Love of Celluloid (LINK HERE) and let us know what you think are the best, the worst, and the weirdest J-Horror remakes that exist.

Sadako 3D 2 (2013)

Director: Tsutomu Hanabusa

Notable Cast: Miori Takimoto, Kokoro Hirasawa, Koji Seto, Itsumi Osawa, Takeshi Onishi, Yusuke Yamamoto, Ryosei Tayama, Satomi Ishihara

One of the problems with being a foreign cinema enthusiast is that there are many films that never get a North American release. Truthfully, I feel somewhat blessed that we have gotten as many of the Ringu films as we have, but it’s still a bit irritating when I have to hunt down and import the latest entry into a successful franchise. After waiting a few years for the release of Sadako 3D 2 (or as I will refer to it from this point on, Sadako 2 because the 3D bullshit in the title is dumb), I finally caved in to see what the reboot sequel had to offer. While the original Sadako wasn’t nearly as strong as I would have hoped, this second film – a direct sequel that even brings back a few of the characters from its predecessor – does improve on a few aspects that hindered the first film, but still fails to provide a smooth and un-awkward experience for its viewers. Considering some of the bat-shit insane concepts that previous entries into the Ringu franchise has provided fans, it’s not completely out there but it still has trouble finding a definitive foundation to build its themes on.

Forest, The (2016)

Director: Jason Zada

Notable Cast: Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Eoin Macken, Yukiyoshi Ozawa

With a generic title like The Forest and some underwhelming trailers, I just went ahead and decided to skip seeing this little haunted forest flick in theaters. Even when it dropped on VOD, I was hesitant to use my credits to watch the film. However, impulsive renting certainly got the better of me and I decided to give The Forest a chance. Like its underwhelming title, the film is also quite underwhelming. The Forest is one of those films that has a rather intriguing basis and it’s far from being bad in many regards as it passes by with enough atmosphere, scares, and ideas to keep one watching at least. However, it succumbs to one of horror’s worst enemies. It plays it safe. Ultimately, it’s a move that undercuts what might have been a fun and creepy flick.

Over Your Dead Body (2016)

Director: Takashi Miike

Notable Cast: Ko Shibasaki, Ichikawa Ebizo

One of the problems of being an international cinephile is that it will sometimes take years for a movie to get a legitimate release in the US. If at all. For a director as prolific as Takashi Miike, who has recently been dropping two films a year, it can be somewhat grating to wait. Two years is how long it took for his horror flick Over Your Dead Body to reach the US, thanks to Scream Factory, but it’s here, and it’s going to be a cult classic for sure. Atmospheric, haunting, and nightmarish are all very effective words to describe what you’re likely to latch onto in this film, and while it may not find a widespread audience here in the US, fans of the director and his work are going to want to jump right in.

When the headlining seasoned actress (Ko Shibasaki) and her lover (Ichikawa Ebizo), the other star, find their relationship crumbling, the horror-themed samurai play they are rehearsing starts to feel a little too real. As things become desperate and tensions rise, the lines between play, reality, and nightmare will start to blur for our lovers…and the final call will be more final than expected.

One Missed Call (2003)

Director: Takashi Miike
Notable Cast: Kou Shibasaki, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Kazue Fukiishi, Shimizu Seinami, Anna Nagata, Renji Ishibashi

The J-horror explosion of the 2000s was a big key to my exploration of foreign film markets. Films like Ju-On and Ringu paved the way for me to start exploring a lot of different styles of film in my teenage years and so I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the genre as a whole. Yet, one of the strangest and most challenging films from this boom is Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call. The American remake couldn’t possibly try and translate its often odd story for American audiences and even to this day I find this film’s social commentary and strange twists to be off setting at times. Leave it to Miike to take a fairly formulaic and popular horror style and throw his own spin on it to develop a rather silly concept to make an impactful film. A film that shockingly holds its own to this day.