Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: After her grandfather's death, a young woman notices a ghost appearing in the photos she takes.
Review: In light of Netflix apparently getting rid of numerous titles in the coming days, I figured I mine as well watch and review a few before they go bye bye. Well, with alternate titles floating around, no wikipedia page, no imdb page, and very little information, is it really a shock that a movie like this is being taken away? The moment you see those horrendous subtitles you will probably find yourself wondering why was this even on Netflix to begin with; this film is on DVD too, so I can't imagine who the fuck was responsible for these pathetic subtitles! Even with the groundwork looking shaky as hell, was there a gem waiting to be discovered? Of course not! I'd like to say this could be classified under V-cinema, but this feels more made-for-TV. What's worse is that this film comes off as a weak and boring ripoff of a multitude of other Asian horror movies with special attention to "One Missed Call" and "The Grudge."
It's really hard to explain, but it's as if everyone involved with making this movie was as bored with the material as I was to watch it. I mean, if you get a chance to watch this, you will notice this slow, uninterested tone to the events even when things are supposed to be scary. Even the ghost looks bored out of her mind! Besides bad direction, the plot is a complete fucking mess with too many subplots that eventually serve as filler for a movie that's only like 70 minutes long. I will do my best to sum up this incoherent nonsense: the main girl's grandfather recently died at the same moment her parents are seemingly separating in the weirdest manner possible. Her brother and father are staying at the grandfather's house while the mom and main girl move to some new house. All of this family drama is pointless as you will discover. Another useless plotline is that there is some kidnapper on the loose abducting little girls which, seriously, does not contribute to the plot one bit except as some kind of red herring. The main story involves some ghostly woman in a photo that the siblings discover at the grandfather's house that they believe may be connected his death; the grandfather's death and what he may have known gets brushed over and has no resolution whatsoever. Then there is some random teacher investigating the photo for the main girl who goes off on his own little subplot as if he will be connected to the ghost but nope. Then there is something about the main girl's friend being the ghost in the photo--but before she actually died? I don't know. Then there is some kind of reference to a camera, the friend hearing the story about her own ghost, the friend's crazy mom, school drama, mama drama, the main girl's brother dying, the main girl seeing her own ghostly self, and somehow the main girl dies and ends the movie doing a reverse moonwalk--okay, maybe I couldn't make sense of anything! All I can say is they failed...miserably. The music was kind of decent though, and I liked the approach to this being an ordinary part of Japan rather than the city or boonies.
I wanted to rate this movie much lower, but I can't fault the movie for having shitacular subtitles, and because they played it so straight; I've seen movies on this level that crank up the schlock, but this film attempted to maintain a consistently dark atmosphere. While this movie isn't as overt with the material it's stealing, don't let that fact make you believe you are getting anything more than scares and ideas we've seen hundreds of times. There were too many subplots that pad out this film when it could have been successfully condensed into a mediocre episode of some TV show. With all things considered, the plot still makes no fucking sense and feels pointless. Definitely don't waste your time with this one.
Notable Moment: When you first see the ghost in the forest. It's been done before, and better, but they tried.
Final Rating: 4/10
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