Tales of Terror from Tokyo and All Over Japan: Volume 3 Part 1 Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: An anthology series showcasing all manner of random horror tales from Japan.

Review: After taking a step down in volume 2, the slack is, thankfully, picked back up this time around. I would say these stories are as good as the first volume, but they have a few added advantages. For one, the quality feels higher with better cameras or something. It's not to say the budget isn't low still, but an overall look of better production values can go a long way. The other thing I liked about this volume was the great variety to the tales. The first two volumes mostly had ghosts and random bullshit, but this volume has a little more oomph to it with tales of monsters, aliens, ghosts, demons, etc. So, if you were worried it was all down hill after a couple opening tales, you will be happy to know things get better. I still don't know why they marketed this as two parts of the same volume though? Even if it aired in Japan this way, why not make the English release as volume 3 and 4? Eh, whatever. Okay, let's take a look at what volume 3 (part 1) has for us.

The Red Eyes: A woman, sleeping in her bed, is suddenly awakened by a creature that has appeared under her blanket and is strangling her. The creature would appear to be some kind of demon in the form of a child with glowing red eyes. A ghostly man appears and tells the demon that the woman he's strangling is not his mother but he relentlessly tries to choke the life out of the woman. The woman, in typical idiotic fashion, puts up no struggle instead of kicking this kid's ass--demon or not. The ghostly man finally convinces the kid that the woman is not his mother by pointing to the fact that she has no scars on her face. Realizing this, the demon kid tries to give a scary glare and disappears back under the blankets and the man vanishes. Thinking her ordeal is over, the woman now notices a larger being emerging under her blankets. It is a scarred and demonic-looking woman also with red eyes--the audience realizes this is the mother and the woman screams as she is presumably choked to death. This was random as hell, but it was imaginative and the demon woman did look creepy. Not too bad of a way to kick things off this time.

Tell Me: Three friends are, I guess, breaking into some abandoned house or shrine to make their lives interesting or something. The main girl doesn't want to go into the house and waits in the car while her loverboy and friend go in. Moments later, the friend and loverboy come running out and are too startled to explain to the main girl what they saw. As the group drives off, the radio starts to play the conversation the loverboy and friend had while in the abandoned home. The friend was apparently trying to flirt with loverboy, but this doesn't bother the main girl all that much since they quickly realize they've driven in a circle and ended up right in front of the house again. On the radio, they hear a pounding noise as we see a flashback to what the loverboy and friend saw inside the house: when the two went upstairs in the house, they saw themselves beating a sack that was filled with the main girl's bloody body. The story ends with the main girl begging the two to tell her what they saw...perhaps this will lead to the events foreseen to come true. Kind of a lame ending, but the atmosphere and buildup were solid.

Another One: Once more we have a guy staying at a hotel when shenanigans happen. This series really has a thing for hotels and haunted apartments! Anyway, this is supposed to be a somewhat comical tale as the guy notices a ghost lurking around him as he tries to go about his business. It was admittedly funny when the ghost was trying to get his attention and he was pretending to try and sleep and even announced it. The ghost starts to clap his hands accompanied by a motivational chant, but the ghost also wants the man to participate in this little game. Eventually the man humors the situation and plays along for a little while before trying to use some kind of sutra that banishes the spirit away. Later on, we get a narration explaining that the ghost was a school coach that killed himself. Amusing enough I suppose.

The Men in Black: Compared to the last story, I found this one to be a lot funnier as it was a parody, of sorts, of "Men in Black." Two boys, with a fascination for aliens, are trying to capture a genuine photo of a UFO when one of them brags about having hard evidence. The kids are dorky, and this greatly adds to the charm as one of the kids' mom says strange men had come to the house looking for him. The said kid's room has been trashed, and, while he questions his mom regarding this, the other kid takes the film roll he had that was supposed to be hard evidence of a UFO. At the same time, the kid gets a phone call from a magazine wanting to feature his UFO photos and he runs off like an idiot to meet the magazine's reps. The boy is then seemingly abducted by the men in black while the other kid, with the stolen film roll, runs into the men in black who are two goofballs. The men in black chase the kid around and they make the sequence out to be all intense; the music builds up to some epic moment but then the men in black disappear when the kid throws the film away and a cop shows up. At the end, the abducted boy is returned, but when he's questioned by the friend, he simply points and hisses at the kid like it's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." This was a pretty funny story, and it was great to see something other than ghosts.

My Wife's Coming: Oh...is she? Don't even tell me I'm the only one that reads the title in that way?! A nephew is visiting his uncle, that is an old man, after the aunt appears to have recently passed away. The uncle wants the nephew to stay by his side and keep an eye on him, because he believes he's being haunted by his dead wife. While taking a bath, the uncle fears he's being drowned and calls for the nephew to help him. He also brushes by the fact that he abused the wife in life and thinks she is out for revenge from the afterlife. Oh yeah, just casually mention how you beat your wife with no reaction whatsoever. When the two are sleeping, the uncle starts screaming and the nephew hears a smacking noise as he starts to see the hand of the wife slapping the uncle. The nephew runs into the bathroom and washes his face in the tub--eww, please don't tell me that's the same water the uncle was bathing in?! Then the nephew gets hit and notices the aunt taking a little bath in the tub herself. Well bitch, if you're just going to hit some dude for doing nothing, now I don't care you got beat. I felt like the story was half comical, but were they trying to be more serious with this subject matter?

The Bloodiest Armor: A girl, with a love for film, has recently landed a job at, what I'm guessing is, a prop shop, but it isn't quite what she expected. What is this, a girl after my own heart? Pretty cute too. When a bitchy co-worker is roughly handling one of the props, the owner gets angry and scolds the woman with a hit to the head. Amazing, no lawsuit--must be nice to be in a country not full of babies. The owner explains to the main girl the importance of props in enhancing a scene or performance and that the props can develop a soul of their own. When the girl is cleaning a samurai's helmet, the bitchy co-worker implies that something is unsettling about that prop. That night, when putting things away, the girl hears a noise and notices an apparition dressed as a samurai and wearing that particular helmet. The owner explains that while working on a film that turned into a disaster during production, an actor was killed wearing the armor and I suppose the owner was the prop guy for the movie. He further explains that he's tried to destroy the helmet and have it purified but nothing works. The girl says she will stay on regardless, because she loves film-making too much, but then the owner is found dead some time later. Kind of a lackluster ending. This felt a lot like "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction," but with that show you could get away with stories that went nowhere, because you were meant to guess whether they were based on a true story or not.

Overtime: A group of office workers have a rumor that anyone who works overtime on the 20th of the month will disappear at the hands of a woman who burned herself to death. Not initially believing this, the main guy becomes worried when he is the one chosen to work overtime. To make matters worse, the main guy's girlfriend has her birthday party that night. Complicating things further, the main guy doesn't know how to react to one of his co-worker's flirtation and the accompanied ridicule from other office friends; the friends joke that perhaps the flirty co-worker is the ghostly woman. That night, the main guy is acting like a little bitch trying to reassure himself the rumors aren't real when he gets a text from his girlfriend who seemingly breaks up with him. For what, working? Typical woman logic. All hell starts to break loose with phones ringing, the guy's computer turning off and on and loading up the email with the rumor written out, and then the lights go out. It's amusing to note that a voice on the phone sounds orgasmic yet again; I'm starting to wonder whether they know the difference between the sound of pain and the throes of ecstasy. The main guy sees his flirty co-worker who starts to choke him and chases him to the elevator--but then the guy wakes up. Deciding it's time to leave, the main guy heads toward the elevator only to be confronted with the flirty co-worker anyway. Oh shit, what will happen next?!

Overtime 2: The flirty co-worker explains she came back to the office to pick up some files she will need for a meeting the next day, but that sounds super shady. The woman also addresses the fact that she knows people say the rumors imply she's the ghost and she's okay with it. Uh, am I the only one that finds it fucking retarded to think your co-worker is a ghost? Besides the fact that everyone interacting with this individual would cancel that theory out, but what ungodly creature would want to continue working a menial job even in death?! While riding the elevator to leave, it keeps stopping randomly on different floors which scares the main guy. The flirty woman discusses how she once dated a younger guy and it was great, and, in turn, starts to kick it hardcore to the main guy. This is when things stop making sense as there's something about other people being on the elevator and this ride is like the longest in history. The flirty co-worker starts to act ghost-like and chokes the guy as in the dream. The guy tries to get out of the elevator but she catches his tie and chokes him some more before ripping his head off with the pull of the elevator. Uh...the end? I know this was kind of comical and lighthearted, but did it have to be overly stupid too?

Red Tricycle: Deciding to move out of her apartment, a woman realizes she has been holding on to an old tricycle since childhood that was a gift from her grandmother. Instead of maintaining her sentimentality toward the gift, she wants to get rid of it all because...it's dirty? Well, considering you left it outside for god knows how many years, I'm surprised it hasn't rusted into nothingness. Plus, you're telling me in all these years, this is the first she realized it was dirty? This chick is at least in her mid-twenties (I'd say thirties), how did it make it this far under that reasoning? The woman throws the tricycle in some random trash pile and is somewhat affected when it's gone later that night. But, when she comes home, the tricycle is back in her apartment almost greeting her. She throws it away once more and has a dream about when she first received the tricycle. When she wakes up, the tricycle is by her head leading her to call in the boyfriend to solve this problem. The boyfriend finds nothing and the perplexed woman goes about whatever she does when the tricycle appears and comes toward her. I guess maybe the tricycle actually belonged to Billy?

Shadows Sitting By Their Feet: A group of girls are staying at, what I'm guessing is, some kind of inn when one girl explains she is having trouble trying to sleep. Once they all settle in, the main girl tries to do some little trick to put her mind at ease...which is apparently just saying "please god, let me fall asleep." She then notices a shadowy figure beside one of her friends and is confused. The shadowy figure starts to rock back and forth in a lame attempt to be scary. I would have given them some leeway at first, but then they had to do some cheap fast motion effect that looks abysmal. Worse, the main girl sees more shadowy figures and they too are doing this fast motion rocking. Maybe there's a headbanger convention. Then, in what I can only classify as one of the most randomly hilarious moments I've seen in a while, the shadowy figures start to roll across the sleeping girls in slow motion. Weirder still, the shadowy figures start to eat uncooked rice while huddling over one of the sleeping girls. The main girl passes out due to either fear or the overwhelming stupidity of the scene. The next day the girls all have a nice laugh about it and that's it. What...the...hell?

Ghost House: This little tale stars Maki Horikita who you may recall me mentioning as the cute Ayano character in "The Locker" 1 and 2, and she's also kind of the villain in "One Missed Call: Final." The segment begins by stealing a page right out of "The Grudge" with three girls going to a Saeki-house wannabe. Ms. Horikita starts to film the house, looking for ghosts I guess, when one of the girls thinks she sees someone watching them from the second floor. As the three head inside and upstairs, Ms. Horikita's camera starts to die and she changes the battery outside. She gets a phone call from one of the other friends warning not to come upstairs and then stumbles upon the third friend screaming and rattling on about someone being upstairs. When Ms. Horikita and the friend do go upstairs, the friend informs them that the third girl, that Ms. Horikita believes came with them, did not come with them and died recently. They check the footage and see a ghostly image on the second floor and the other friend is not on the tape. Ms. Horikita questions why they were lured to the house (probably to change Toshio's diaper or something) as a nearby phone ominously begins to ring. The segment ends as Ms. Horikita picks it up. Kind of cliched, but not too bad. Could have been scarier, that's for sure.

The Breath of Mononoke: The story begins with a foreboding look at the parking garage that this segment takes place in, and this is followed by a news report discussing recently found bodies of mutilated women. We are then introduced to a woman dropped off in the garage who is trying to go down (or up) a floor to get to her car or to exit--hell if I know--but the door is locked. She aimlessly walks along while calling her boyfriend or husband until she hears a growl in the distance; I swear, there was a moment when she was walking that I thought she'd slam right into a pipe. The woman looks to see what is the noise, but finds nothing...except more growling. She picks up her pace a bit until she hears the growling behind her and much closer. She turns around, sees a monster emerge from behind a pillar, and takes off running until stereotypically tripping. When the woman looks back, the monster is gone, but then she hears the growling in front of her as she looks forward to see the beast right on top of her. Say bye bye hun! The monster slashes the woman and drags her off to feast. The story ends with another news report describing the woman's body being found and added to the list of victims. I liked this one a lot. The whole "mononoke" thing is a kind of demon, but I felt like this thing was more werewolf-esque; I suppose they could be the same myth but different cultures. They don't really show the monster, but they use tried and true techniques to mask this effectively.

The Bride: Well, the last two volumes ended weakly, how will this one fare? A single dad is home alone after his daughter leaves to help relatives and is just trying to enjoy his dinner when shenanigans interrupt it. After the TV malfunctions, the man appears to pass out at the dinner table and is unable to move once he awakens. He notices a ghostly woman sewing in the shadows who flashes him a sadistic grin when she becomes alerted to his presence. The ghostly woman comes close to the frozen man and starts speaking nonsense until the man regains mobility and she vanishes. The man hears a noise coming from his daughter's room and sees a trembling form under blankets. Gee, I wonder if it's really the daughter? Underneath is some guy in a uniform begging for water, and this sight causes the man to pass out. The man comes to later when the daughter (who is pretty cute) comes home and asks him what he's doing in her room. After kicking him out, he hears a scream but is unable to move as the ghostly woman from earlier has appeared behind him with that crazy smile. Not much of an ending with absolutely no explanation especially considering the story's title. Eh, at least it made for a better ending than the last two volumes.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this volume. Even though the first volume had slightly better stories, this volume offered up more variety and increased visual quality. Also, like the second volume, you have more recognizable actors from other horror films so I like that. You do get less stories than the previous two volumes, but I think this one more than holds its own regardless. The only real downside is that there's basically only one really scary story, and that's from the first volume. The stories here had some potential to be scarier, but, at the same time, you do only get 5 minutes to make the magic happen.

Notable Moment: I would say this entry's standout moment was with the "Men in Black" segment. It was funny, entertaining, and managed to pull off quite a bit in its short time. It even had its own special title card.

Final Rating: 6/10