Gurozuka Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: After rumors of a murder, a newly reformed film club find themselves meeting the same fate as the previous club.

Review: It's almost as if the creators were like, "Okay, see this ball in our hands? Now watch us drop it." Although the budget is obviously low, this started off surprisingly well, and the material was handled significantly better than I imagined. The story is part slasher with a "who dunnit" style executed quite well. The all female cast is cute and the actresses appear to take the material seriously which helped tremendously. Unfortunately, the entire experience comes off as amateurish with a nonsensical conclusion and motive for the killer. Even many technical aspects and decisions were a mess when they didn't need to be; for example, the horrendous handling of the music and how it drops out and rises inconsistently.

To understand the title itself, I need to give a little backstory. The plot focuses on two girls, Ai and Maki, who recreate their film club seven years after some incident; I guess this at the college level, because these girls are too old to be playing high school kids. Also, I think they missed an opportunity to make these characters more geeky and reference other movies. I mean, these girls find themselves in a slasher/mystery and never once discuss film in general? Must be low standards for a film club. Anyway, Ai and Maki find a tape that the last film club made that appears to depict a real murder. The two want to investigate whether or not there is truth to this by visiting the actual shooting location and recreating the events. In order to accomplish this task, Ai and Maki trick the drama club into assisting them. Most of this plot line is glossed over as Ai and Maki later mention they already know the murders were real, and the drama club members appear willfully ignorant or plain retarded. Early on it is explained that the apparent snuff film is portraying a story called "Gurozuka." The description of this is hazy, to say the least, but, basically, the original club's film was telling the tale of a demon woman who needed to kill a certain number of people for whatever reason. This continuation of the original film appears to be the motive for the killer, but we will come to find this doesn't fully make sense.

After establishing that none of these girls get along, shenanigans begin where the girls turn on one another with the food going missing and their cell phones being taken. One thing I really liked about this scenario was that you come to learn that only a handful of things are done by the killer whereas the rest are done by the girls to get back at one another. When the killings do begin, it really is up in the air as to who the killer could be which was good. Typically I would enjoy an unpredictable killer, but her motive made no sense which is the only reason you wouldn't guess it was her. You come to find out it was Maki after she somehow lost her mind from watching the original tape too much? Dude, I have no idea. I will say this, however, it was amusing when Maki said she wanted to eat Ai...that's a good one. Of course Maki is killed in the ensuing struggle with only Ai and Maki's sister living; by the way, Maki's sister should definitely have died--she took a blade to the skull! The ending of the film seriously tries to go a supernatural route or something. Throughout the movie the girls do have weird visions of the "Gurozuka" film, but it's not explained properly. In the final shot they show Ai somehow being filmed as if someone or thing is still continuing on. Plus, Maki's sister is saying what Maki said before dying? I have no clue.

My description may turn some off, but do not be dissuaded as the events play out in a suspenseful manner, the mystery is intriguing, and the presentation is well done. The main problems are with sloppy explanations and a disappointing motive for the killer; I chalk up most of the technical problems to the low budget. I think with a few tweaks this could have been 6 or 6.5/10 worthy for sure. I would definitely have liked to see the characters presented as more lively and engaging, Maki's motive given clarity or change the killer, or for them to just make everything supernatural. Overall, this is a fun little movie that, perhaps, tried to do more than it could handle. It's worth giving a view, but be prepared for only a slightly above average show.

Notable Moment: When the girls sit around singing a Japanese equivalent of "Kumbaya." I know people joke a lot about that in movies, but you wouldn't think anyone would really do it.

Final Rating: 5.5/10