Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!
Plot Summary: A series of TV specials presenting, allegedly, true tales of the supernatural from Japan.
Review: My goodness that title is a mouthful! And that's the English version of the title; the Japanese version was not that ridiculously long. Anyway, I don't know a whole lot about this series except that they claim they inspired the J-horror boom of the late '90s and early '00s. Maybe that's true, maybe it's embellishment, but I can definitely feel a similar tone and style to the direction. These specials came out in '91 and '92 respectively, and are anywhere from 5-15 minutes in length. The stories are a bit tame, but they have a certain charm and innocence to them. As to the validity of these stories being true...eh, I highly doubt it. The alleged ghost photos they show before the segments are especially fake as they're mostly nothing more than lens flare. Even if the stories were true, there is no feasible way we could prove this. I will also mention the oddity that every story is told from the perspective of a female--what's with that? Oh well, on with the ten haunting tales!
The Lonely Girl: Compared to other horror series', this was a decent way to kick things off. We have a girl and her friends on some kind of swimming team as the main girl kicks it to the coach; well, she claims that's flirting of some kind--I'd call it casual conversation. While the main girl showers up, her friends, done showering, discuss that a girl had died on their team in the past. Meanwhile, the main girl thinks her friends are screwing with her as the ghostly apparition lurks about. Confronting what she believes are her friends, the main girl tries to get the ghost to come out of a bathroom stall. When idiotically putting her hand over the stall, the girl is attacked by the ghost who then chases her about before she starts screaming. With her friends and the coach coming to assist, the main girl avoids the team until she learns about the outcast life of the dead girl. And I guess that's it. We don't get to see any full on Kayako-action, but I thought this story had okay scares and respectable atmosphere.
Spiritual Flight: After the death of her grandma, who was a kind of medium, a little girl comes into contact with a strange force when walking home from school. Later on, the girl has an out of body experience which we could assume was a kind of astral projection. The girl floats around town and eventually finds herself in a large cemetery where she feels a similar force from earlier. The next morning, the girl seeks to discover whether her experience was real or not. However, instead of a large cemetery, she finds a pet cemetery. The girl comes to the conclusion that her calling in life is to be a medium similarly to her grandma. Hmm, not all that scary, but I suppose others claim to have experienced things like this; maybe there's a small chance something like this could be real.
Mystery of the Red Earring: This was arguably the best of the tales. The story, while cliched, was kind of creepy, and the one girl was cute and geeky--my favorite combo; I mean, she must really love her Bart Simspon shirt! So my little geek has invited over her friend to keep her company as she's been scared of strange events surrounding an earring she found. Apparently, after picking up a stray red earring, every time she goes to throw it away it reappears. The earring also brings forth weird occurrences, noises, and a ghostly apparition. When the girls try to sleep that night, they are awakened by a loud banging on the sun roof overhead. Then the friend notices a bloody woman slamming her face against the glass in an attempt to get her earring back all the while that geek is hiding under her blankets screaming; this girl is really trying to win me over, huh? The next morning, they take the earring to a temple where a weirdo priest claims he will take care of the situation. He also says he knows the earring belonged to a woman who committed suicide. Yeah, okay, buddy. And that's it. Not a lot of resolution to these stories; I suppose that makes them appear more real. Not too bad overall.
The Gymnasium in Summer: Three classic-looking, schoolgirls decide they will break into their school for the lulz when they come across various spirits. At first I wasn't sure what was happening since two of the girls claim to see ghosts almost immediately, but they choose to stick around for whatever reason. The third girl thinks they are messing with her as she hangs out in some sort of balcony. Shortly after, a ghostly woman in red comes at the third girl who is too scared to move. The other two find the scared girl, and they cheer her up with a stupid Winnie the Pooh doll. I guess that's it. I'm not sure why so many adult spirits would be haunting a school but sure. My main gripe with this particular segment was all the damn soft touch. My god, wipe the vaseline off the lens!
House of Restless Spirits: After seemingly moving into the Saeki house, a family is haunted by evil spirits--predominantly in the form of a man in black. For some reason, this is the only tale to specify the date that the events were happening which makes me believe perhaps this entry could legitimately be based on a real incident. The mom is the one that sees most of the shit happening, but the young daughter also appears to interact with the spirit. I liked how the school calls and says the daughter is not making friends; uhh, is that a thing teachers do/did? Growing tired of the hauntings, the mom is like, fuck this shit, which prompts the father to call in a spiritualist who appears to struggle with exorcising the evil. The family then decides to move out but not before mentioning that great misfortune came to the following occupants. Though this feels like every haunting ever, it's a decent story that did feel as though it could have been based in reality.
The Hospital at Midnight: Lesson in how to start off a story correctly: open with a Japanese nurse putting on her stockings! Incident report! This segment has the unique distinction of breaking the fourth wall as the nurse is recounting to the audience her incidences as an early intern. When doing her rounds one night, accompanied by the primary nurse on duty, the two come across a patient walking about in the dark. When the intern nurse inquires about what to do, the other nurse says that that guy died recently. In another incident, the nurse is doing her rounds alone when she feels herself being dragged down the stairs by a force. Comically enough, the nurse is dragged down the hallways before being slammed into a wall. The nurse believes that this strange force is what comes for the dead at the hospital or something like that. Lastly, after being buzzed to an unoccupied room, she explains that she has gotten used to working the midnight shift and feels a certain empathy for the spirits. Hmm, she's clearly an insane weirdo...but I'd date her. This was another pretty cool story despite a few hilarious moments. Plus, you can never go wrong with nurses.
Be Gone Crone!!: This was one of the shorter tales, but it almost managed to be scary had the ghost looked cooler. A young girl is simply trying to study, but her friend tells her a ghost is coming to her house and wants to inform her on how to get rid of it. Interesting conversation to say the least. Sure enough, lurking at her window is a ghost that tries to get into the home. I'll give you one guess as to what you say in order to stop the ghost. BE GONE CRONE!! Begone? Actually, that ghost didn't look much like a crone but I'll go with it. Short and sweet yet shallow compared to the rest of the segments.
My Friend At the Stairwell: Two young, schoolgirls begin to bond over their strange feelings regarding a blood stain on a stairwell. The girls believe that something is not right about that spot as well as believing they see a ghostly boy in their peripheral vision. I enjoyed how the one girl, when talking to her other friends, is like, "I have a lunch appointment." Did kids used to talk like that? They should go back to that! Anyway, after finally seeing the ghost for sure, one of the girls becomes obsessed with making contact as she believes she can hear the ghost's cries for help in her head. Oh...no...that doesn't sound crazy whatsoever. Going alone, the girl does speak to the ghost, but he tries to chase her with his blood-soaked face accompanied with sadistic grin. When the other friend shows up, the two realize that there is no way they can help the ghost. Screw that ghost! It was wise that they tried to make this a scary segment, but the lighting was far too bright; other than that, a solid effort for sure.
Paralysis: This is easily the worst of the bunch. It's as short as the "Be Gone Crone!!" story, but it's nowhere near as entertaining. All that happens is a woman comes home from work or whatever, talks to her idiotic friend on the phone, then goes to bed. Oh, and she appears to trip out on acid too. Later on, the girl feels herself unable to move which we could assume is the concept of sleep paralysis (thus the title). However, it would appear a bunch of goofy-looking ghosts are holding the woman in place. After the initial scare, the ghosts relent and that's it. Hell, I didn't even realize the story was over until a couple minutes into the next entry. I was still trying to figure out where they were going with this--apparently nowhere-land.
The Black Hair in the Abandoned Building: This was probably the closest contender for best segment, and was ripe with, what would become, many J-horror cliches. But I think it was my beloved geek-girl in the "Mystery of the Red Earring" that helps it one-up this story. So this story begins with a guy in the hospital already, from POV, while he's talking to his girlfriend-ish character. Some time ago, the girl, the boyfriend, and the girl's brother all visited some abandoned building as the title would entail. They were taking various photos which later turned out to reveal unsettling images. At one point, they stumble across a mirror as well as a box with a large portion of hair stuffed inside. "What's in the box?!" Sorry, couldn't resist. For whatever idiotic reason, the brother runs off to take more photos while the two lovebirds rest a bit. This is when they notice the boyfriend has long strands of hair on his arm. They decide they should put that hair back in its box, but, when they do, the boyfriend sees a wannabe-Kayako in the mirror. Scared shitless, they begin to run away from, what appears to be, It's deadlights. Narrowly escaping, we cut back to the hospital POV where the girlfriend says the guy's hair is starting to grow long and look like the hair from the box. When the guy looks in a mirror, his hair is long, but he sees the Kayako-clone saying howdy. I did like the atmosphere for this segment, and it was mildly scary; definitely a great way to close out a collection such as this.
I wish they had more segments, but I suppose I've been spoiled by the "Tales of Terror" franchise. The budget for the tales was low, as you might guess, but they worked with the material well enough. Plus, J-horror from the '70s-90s has a distinct flavor different than the films that came afterward, and I miss that on occasion. I only wished they were scarier back then. I get that they were trying to play off the fear that these tales are real, but I think this made them hold back too much. Had they went balls to walls, I would have rated this higher. However, I'll admit, if I can find any way to substantiate the claims that these are real stories, I'd up the rating a point. Overall, this was a cool collection, and it was really cheap--definitely worth a look for Asian horror fans.
Notable Moment: During the "Mystery of the Red Earrring" segment when the ghost is slamming her face on the sun roof. I don't know why, but this is really disturbing to me.
Final Rating: 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment