Stains and computers
The film is a visual feast, with a thick and oppressive atmosphere.
Some scenes are directed in a way that sticks in my mind, the ghostly apparitions first, but perhaps even more so the wandering around the desolate city.
Yet the film's two hours drag on; the gimmick is a little too silly to justify such length, and after the first round of horror, the film flounders quite a bit.
While the transition to a post-apocalyptic atmosphere isn't totally botched, Pulse suffers throughout from very weak dialogue and rather uninteresting characters, despite their subtle performances.
The two main female roles are magnificent, and it's a great pleasure to witness all the outfits from that era.
I think the film would have benefited greatly from being even more atmospheric and not explaining the themes and mechanics of the story.
The moment when Michi is alone facing the beseeching stain is one of the most beautiful in the film. I would have liked to see more scenes like this rather than the heavy-handed and cryptic conversations that occur regularly. The inhabitants of this world have the unfortunate habit of turning into Dark Souls NPCs at the slightest annoyance.
Surprisingly, the moment that sticks in my mind the most is when the two main characters meet halfway through the film, when Michi's car breaks down. The scene radiates a particularly strong warmth, in contrast to the morbid desolation of the rest of the feature film.
On another note, while many viewers mention the film's pioneering approach to digital themes, I personally find that this ultimately plays a fairly minor role, and that it is more an aesthetic exploitation of what was then a new technology than any kind of commentary on the effects of the internet.
Overall, it is so visually striking despite its flaws that I will gladly watch it again.
Some scenes are directed in a way that sticks in my mind, the ghostly apparitions first, but perhaps even more so the wandering around the desolate city.
Yet the film's two hours drag on; the gimmick is a little too silly to justify such length, and after the first round of horror, the film flounders quite a bit.
While the transition to a post-apocalyptic atmosphere isn't totally botched, Pulse suffers throughout from very weak dialogue and rather uninteresting characters, despite their subtle performances.
The two main female roles are magnificent, and it's a great pleasure to witness all the outfits from that era.
I think the film would have benefited greatly from being even more atmospheric and not explaining the themes and mechanics of the story.
The moment when Michi is alone facing the beseeching stain is one of the most beautiful in the film. I would have liked to see more scenes like this rather than the heavy-handed and cryptic conversations that occur regularly. The inhabitants of this world have the unfortunate habit of turning into Dark Souls NPCs at the slightest annoyance.
Surprisingly, the moment that sticks in my mind the most is when the two main characters meet halfway through the film, when Michi's car breaks down. The scene radiates a particularly strong warmth, in contrast to the morbid desolation of the rest of the feature film.
On another note, while many viewers mention the film's pioneering approach to digital themes, I personally find that this ultimately plays a fairly minor role, and that it is more an aesthetic exploitation of what was then a new technology than any kind of commentary on the effects of the internet.
Overall, it is so visually striking despite its flaws that I will gladly watch it again.
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