Zoo (Japanese 2005) Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: An anthology of five unusual tales based on the works of a guy calling himself Otsuichi.

Review: Once more, we combine two of my loves: anthology films and Asian horror. To be fair, however, I think this barely qualifies as a horror anthology since the stories are all over the place genre-wise. Actually, I'm really surprised I had never heard of this film before considering it is quite good. After finishing up "Forbidden Siren," I was looking over Yui Ichikawa's filmography to see if that was going to be the last we saw of her, but I noticed this oddball horror movie amongst the list; though, after "Zoo" there's only one other movie I'd be interested in so this is close to the end from our friend. Anyway, the five tales felt unique and had a layer of depth I wasn't expecting. There was a hint of pretentiousness here and there, but, for the most part, these are imaginative tales that offer respectable and original ideas. Let's take a look, shall we?

Kazari and Yoko: To start things off we don't have much in the way of credits and sadly there is no wraparound. That was definitely a poor choice when considering the weird poster art that does not show up in any of the tales. Looks disturbing as hell, right? So we meet Kazari and Yoko who are twin sisters, and we are shown that, at some point, Yoko will fall to her death. Kazari is the adored and cherished kid while Yoko is abused to a degree that I question the validity of the scenario itself. I mean, the poor girl is covered in bruises, dirty, and clearly not taken care of yet no one intervenes or cares? Hell, kids openly make fun of her bruises for fuck's sake! The two girls are raised by their bitchy mom who lives somewhat vicariously through Kazari and vents all her anger on Yoko--all the while forcing her to live in conditions that would make Harry Potter blush. Kazari does come off bratty but not as bad as you would think which will be important later. A scene that demonstrates this bratty behavior is when Kazari gives her scraps to Yoko, knowing how hungry she is, and starts to be cruel with it by making her eat food she spits out; to be fair, Kazari's friends do try and stop it. However, at other points Kazari will try and ease Yoko's beatings...so make of it how you wish; keep in mind they are teens too, and is there really a worse form of female than that?

Eventually Yoko finds a missing dog, when pitifully taking a shower in the rain, and returns it to a happy old woman. This old lady rewards Yoko's kind act by cleaning her up and later promising to take her away from the horrible life she lives. Coinciding with this is the mom taking a book the old lady gave to Yoko. When trying to retrieve the book, Yoko watches Kazari spill beer all over the mom's laptop. Knowing that something like this would drive the mother possibly to murder, Kazari takes the book in order to pass the blame to Yoko to make it appear she spilled the beer while taking back the book. Yoko tries to go to the old woman, but she is conveniently dead. It is then that Yoko decides she must stop being a wimp and tricks Kazari into thinking the mom knows she ruined the laptop. Afraid of the beating, Kazari agrees to a plan Yoko proposes of the two switching roles in order for Yoko to look like Kazari and take the beating. Thinking this is a good idea, the real Kazari, as Yoko, goes inside their apartment and is promptly thrown from the building to her death--just as we saw at the beginning. For some reason, no one calls the police as the real Yoko is asked to write a suicide note to cover the mom's butt. The segment ends with Yoko running away with the old lady's dog as the two live happily ever after I suppose. I thought this story was a good way to kick things off. The girl playing both twins, Ryoko Kobayashi, did an excellent job adding a layer of depth to both roles while making them feel distinct. I just wish there weren't as many absurd moments: such as no one caring about an obviously abused girl and that a kid can die in broad daylight with no cops showing up...really?

Seven Rooms: I think this is probably the best of the bunch due to it's creativity and being the most horror-oriented of the five. In this segment, a sister and her young brother wake up suddenly to find themselves locked in a dingy room; the sister is played by Ms. Ichikawa by the way. The two discuss how the last thing they remember is being hit over the head, thus, implying they have been captured by someone. They are given one piece of bread for food and there is a small stream passing through the room that is meant to be a toilet of sorts. The design of the rooms are cool...just wanted to put that out there. The sister realizes the stream's pathway is just big enough for the little brother to swim through. Upon swimming through both ends of the stream, the boy reports that there are seven rooms total but a grate blocks escape on either end of the stream. In each room is a young girl with each having been captured for varying lengths of time. One of them, a crazy lady, tells the brother that the guy who captured them will kill someone each day at 6 PM and then bring in a replacement girl to fill the void; so you have a week to live pretty much. At first, the siblings don't believe this until one day they notice the pieces of one of the more distinguishable girls floating down the stream. At one point, the brother catches a glimpse of the killer and claims that he's a big guy carrying a chainsaw. As the days pass, the sister tries to form a plan of escape while the brother collects any useful items the girls are carrying before they die. On the day that the sister would be killed, she breaks her room's light bulb, to make the room dark, as she props up a dummy of the brother behind her that was constructed out of the belongings of all the girls. As the killer moves in close, the real brother pops out of the corner and locks the door from the outside...leaving the sister trapped with the chainsaw-wielding killer. I should mention the killer is amusingly some white guy. Hey, are you trying to insinuate something?! The brother frees all the girls, but he cries over the sacrifice of the sister in order for the rest to live. Although, could you ladies hurry your candy asses up a bit and call for help rather than casually taking your time to exit?! Ever think he may not be working alone? Needless to say, this segment ends bitter-sweet. I liked the overall approach, and it's hard nowaday to make a crazed killer feel original. The dynamics of the brother and sister relationship was endearing and everything felt natural and realistic. Definitely a bit disheartening that Ms. Ichikawa did not stick with the horror genre after appearing in a pretty good lineup.

SO Far: This next tale can be a bit convoluted so bare with me here. A girly looking boy is home alone, working on a puzzle, when the film greatly suggests his parents were killed in a car accident. The boy notices his parents return home, one at a time, and both claim the other is dead but they are the one that survived. Both parents also claim they cannot see the ghost of the other spouse yet acknowledge the son can communicate with them regardless. Keep in mind, it's established that this is a miserable marriage as well. At first the son finds the situation awkward but everyday life progresses smoothly enough as if nothing had ever happened. This does not last long, however, as the parents begin to bicker angrily using the son as the middleman for their squabbles. They stop showing what the two are saying, and I can't read lips, especially in Japanese, so your guess is as good as mine as to what insults were hurled; they were obviously pretty fucked up since the ball got rolling with the dad saying he's glad the mom is gone. This leads to dilemmas placed on the son as he must choose which parent to give his time toward as he can no longer see them both at the same time. Coming to terms with the notion that his parents are fading to him, the son must decide which parent he will stick with permanently. He obviously chooses the mom since she is the nicer of the two...or maybe it was because the dad knocked over that puzzle--you don't fuck with a girly-boy's puzzle. At this point we get a pretty obvious twist whereby it's revealed neither parent is dead. Gee, ya think?! What--the kid was paying the bills all this time and no police or relatives came to check on the kid? Sounds legit. While at a doctor, the parents say they started this ghost game after realizing they hate each other, in a manner of speaking, except the son began to believe it to the point he has blocked his dad out of his mind. As the bitter couple tries to deal with their crazy son, the film ends with the implication that the son is actually toying with everyone and perhaps trying to get them back together through...shenanigans...I guess. I don't know! Okay, I know I make this sound dumb, but this was pretty good. The "SO Far" title looks suspicious because it's meant to mean "significant other far (apart)." I think it's best to view this tale as a metaphor for divorce and how it impacts the child and puts them in weird, awkward situations where they must choose between the parents. In this regard, this segment is brilliant and felt realistic to me. It can be needlessly confusing with many ways to interpret things, but that adds more to think about. And that milf...

Hidamari No Shi (When the Sun Shines): Taking things in a whole different direction, we get into an introspective sci-fi tale that's strangely animated. This entry begins with the creation of an android girl at the hands of scientist. The girl starts off naked so you may think this story is going down a perverse route, but you'd be way off. Oh...only I thought that? Umm...moving along. Suspiciously, there is a photo of a couple that looks very much like the scientist with a more human-looking android girl. The scientist is trying to teach the android girl various aspects of living as we get the idea the world is not what it seems. More importantly, the scientist wants the android to interpret death, love, and a reverence for life. Slowly, the android girl reaches these conclusions through experiencing a near death from a fall and the loss of a rabbit she grew a liking toward. After repairing the android, it is revealed that the scientist is dying and created the android girl to bury him and continue onward. Angry that she will be left alone to bury the scientist, whom she loves, android girl comes to terms with this fact once she understands that humanity is extinct; she saw the ruins of society when she fell. Making things more interesting is that the scientist himself is an android whose only memory of the past comes from a "woman" who made him 150 years prior. Hmm. When the scientist finally dies, android girl buries him in a massive graveyard as the audience realizes this is a cycle that may have been happening for thousands of years. With a final shot of the couple in the photo, we can infer that the two androids swap roles and recreate the other as their end draws close every 150 years. You are definitely left with a sense of wonder as to who the original couple was and how this cycle began. I really liked this entry as it was deep, thought provoking, and addressed multiple philosophical concepts in regard to life, its meaning, and the continuance of life through death. Some heavy shit here to say the least. On top of that, the atmosphere was perfect which is impressive for an animation. I really wanted to know more...if only the shitty "Matrix" sequels could have been like this.

Zoo: To close things out we have maybe the weakest entry. It's ironic, since this is the segment the movie is named for, but it simply doesn't make any sense. It's not that it's inherently bad, it's just that this entry needed some blanks filled in considering we aren't left with enough clues to piece together an explainable narrative. Switching to a grainier film quality, we initially get an intriguing beginning with a man waking up and flipping over a polaroid photo that reveals a decomposing skeleton. We then see that there are many photos on the man's wall of a woman as we cut to 104 days earlier. Oh shit, is this the true "500 Days of Summer" sequel I always wanted? 100 days of dead bitch?! We get the idea that the man obsessively loves the mystery girl seen in the photos as we see the two spending time together. The woman expresses her annoyance to the guy taking her photo constantly, but then the two prepare to bang. Oddly enough, the woman bites the guy's lip and then kisses his shirt with the blood-stained lips; she says this is her mark or something like that. Uh...okay...kinky...I guess? We then cut back to the present to see that the guy has a polaroid for each of the last 104 days of the girl's dead body decomposing. Cutting back to the past again, we see the couple driving through, what I'm guessing is, oblivion, as the girl notices a zoo advertised. The couple turns back around and goes to the zoo which is actually closed down. They meander about and have pretentious conversations regarding zebras when the guy takes another photo. Pissed by yet another photo, the girl says they need to break up and vaguely mentions there are more men in the world. This sends the guy into a homicidal fit as he chokes the girl to death and sets into motion the first photo we saw of the decomposing body. Coincidentally enough, the man sees a zebra watching him commit the murder as he comes out of the tantrum. When we cut back to the present, we get a barrage of nonsensical scenes including a photo of the girl unburning (not even a word and I don't care), the girl crawling on the guy and leaving him another bloody kiss, a phone call from the girl saying once more he's not the only man in the world, the implication that the 104 decomposing photos appear at his doorstep each day, the man claiming he can't find the zoo, and a shot of the girl now with a zebra in it. The end. Yeah...I have no clue what all that means. I don't know where to begin honestly. Although I liked the imagery a lot, what is up with the oblivion setting? Is this the same dystopian universe as the last segment? I mean, where the hell is anyone? Is this why the guy freaked out over the line about other men in the world? Or is he imagining this girl as the center of his universe and can't see anyone but her? And I'm sorry but this chick is busted. I kept thinking the twist would be she was a dude. What's with the zoo? And the zebra? Ugh, I don't get it! So someone is leaving the photos or is he? He seems to feel guilty, but that doesn't explain jackshit. I don't know about this one. It started off very promising, had great atmosphere, but then spiraled into madness and took me with it. Help!

Despite the flaws I had with each story, this was an extremely well made anthology with consistently good entries; if the last story hadn't dropped the ball, I would have rated this higher. More so, if there were a wraparound, with that weird character on the poster no less, I might be calling this the best anthology I've seen. Unfortunately, that's not happening though. I liked the atmosphere, imagery, and thought provoking aspects to the tales as each one had a lot more going on than surface level ideas. The stories stood strongly and independently from each other and that's another great feat. The acting was good and, often times, impressive from the younger stars. Lastly, the production value was exceptional when I'm betting they weren't working with much of a budget. I definitely recommend checking this out especially for the Asian horror fans out there. The film has it's flaws, for sure, and some may view the segments slightly more pretentious than I, but if you know what to expect you should be pleasantly surprised by the quality provided here. Unknown gems like this need significantly more recognition.

Notable Moment: At the end of "Seven Rooms" when poor, little Ms. Ichikawa dies. Still love that it was some random white dude as the killer.

Final Rating: 7/10

Bye bye Ms. Ichikawa!