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.
