Got 40 minutes in and couldn't bear it anymore -- had to drop it. Cheesy acting, boring plot and a sluggish start (no, not the creepy/moody/deliberate type of slow, just sluggish). I can take a guess that the missing girl somehow drowned in the apartment's water tank, that much is obvious. It's a generic haunted house scenario, which is OK if the acting, cinematography, sound design, screenwriting, scares and every other aspect of filmmaking can back it up. But from what I saw, it was cheap all-round. I'd be surprised if it picked itself up after the 40-minute mark.
A solid film until about two thirds of the way in. From there it has a complete genre-shift and lost me. But for those first two thirds, the atmosphere is unnerving and depressing; settings included cramped apartments, dull computer rooms and libraries and rusted, rundown factories; all invoking feelings of claustrophobia and isolation, with muted colour pallets and heavy film grain, adding to the film's social commentary of loneliness and withdrawal.
Fantastic use of sound throughout the movie -- whether it be the creepy choir, near-constant white noise of computer fans, occasional omission of sound, or the frequently used violin screech-esque effect (reminding me heavily of that scraping sound from Ringu, in purpose).
Thing is, the plot is your standard J-horror; weak and vague, it's like video game plot, but we're watching a movie. Didn't come as a surprise though. With these films it's not so much about what happens as it is how it happens, and Kairo executes that perfectly -- for the first two thirds anyway.
I am a huge fan of Isao Takahata's original masterpiece of animation, Grave of the Fireflies (1988). This live action remake however, while sad, missed the mark for me. It changes some of the plot and adds new characters. The acting is not the best, but you can't expect much from children. Still, the emotions and voice acting felt far more real in the anime version. Fantastic OST though.
Fantastic use of sound throughout the movie -- whether it be the creepy choir, near-constant white noise of computer fans, occasional omission of sound, or the frequently used violin screech-esque effect (reminding me heavily of that scraping sound from Ringu, in purpose).
Thing is, the plot is your standard J-horror; weak and vague, it's like video game plot, but we're watching a movie. Didn't come as a surprise though. With these films it's not so much about what happens as it is how it happens, and Kairo executes that perfectly -- for the first two thirds anyway.