writtenbymkm-583-902097 Scary movies are supposed to be scary. This one is not. A scary movie, or any movie, is supposed to make sense. This one does not. This movie is a confused cluster of almost random images, assorted flashbacks, and a guy staring and staring and staring into the camera. The ending seems to have absolutely nothing to do with any of the rest of the movie. I'm not even sure who was alive and who was dead. Why would anyone make a movie like this? Was it supposed to be artistic? It was just painfully boring and awful.

WILLIAM FLANIGAN Viewed on DVD. Subtitles = ten (10) stars; restoration = ten (10) stars. Director Yoshihiro Nakamura delivers a remarkably suspenseful drama which is mostly confined to a single, tiny set (a long abandoned NHK radio studio). (How Director Nakamura crammed actors, equipment, and crew into such a tiny set is logistically mind bogging.) What makes things even more remarkable is that the film is in effect a two character story. Actor Ryuta Sato's masterful performance shows the disintegration of a once cocky late-night, call-in host (of a show for the teenage lovelorn) during what unexpectedly ends up as the final show. An old radio studio (into which the show has just moved temporally) has a reputation for being creepy and, perhaps, is haunted (years ago, a DJ committed suicide during a show which closed down the place); this is, of course, reinforced by the plot devices in this photo play. Actress Maiko Asano provides a scary counterpoint with a performance (especially her facial expressions) that is top-of-the-line Hitchcockian sinister. Cinematography (wide screen, color) and scene lighting are fine. Subtitles are among the best yet provided in support of a "standard Japanese" (Tokyo-Ben) dialect movie! Translations have been given careful consideration unlike the subtitles for many modern/restored Japanese films which often look/read like low-cost after thoughts. Grammatically well edited compared to line readings, they are just the right length to carry the story forward with minimal distraction and appear on screen long enough to be easily read/understood (and compared to line readings). A movie not recommended for viewing alone, especially at night! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Flow Well, God and my friends sure know I had my share of bad Asian horrors, so thank you for delivering this little gem. It looks small but the potential is explored as much as its budget allowed it to.Very few places used in this movie, either they had a lack of finances or maybe they just wanted to keep it small, so it can feel more personal, helping the viewer to connect more with the main character. Did it work? I think it was a direct hit! No point in saying too much about it, cause I fear I may reveal important details in it, thus I will do nothing more than recommend this one. It works as a horror, has some nice humorous lines in it and that good ol' twist at the end! So don't read too much into it, watch it and thank me later.Cheers!

mikekitchell A surprisingly interesting meditation on the nature of regret in terms of the way it relates to paranoia. There's a lot going on in this for having a run time of only 74 minutes, but it works. The scares are very subtle, not the jump-cut scares that seem to populate most recent Asian horror films. The way the "scares" are set up is similar to the disturbing moments in "The Uninvited" (aka 4 Inyong shiktak, directed by Su-Leon Lee), but this isn't nearly to the same caliber. The film does a nice job of balancing a classic ghost story with something more unusual and psychological. It's not perfect, but it does what it's supposed to do. I would recommend checking it out if you get a chance.