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26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Help me" never sounded so creepy as it does in Japanese, 23 April 2006
"Kairo" (Pulse) is an example of how Hollywood gobbles up anything original and memorable and turns it into dross. The esteemed horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Seance, Charisma, etc) had such a dreadful time when Hollywood decided to remake "Pulse" (beginning with director Wes Craven pushing him out of the decision-making process) that he stopped making horror movies altogether. So like "Ring" and "Dark Water" and "The Grudge" and all those other sloppy Hollywood remakes, another original vision is devalued, turned into teen shlock, cheapened.
This is a genuinely creepy and stunningly effective horror movie. By "horror" we mean that distinctive Japanese/Korean style that depends more on atmosphere, tension and psychological trauma than on special effects, grisly murders, or screenfuls of fake blood. "Kairo" is not just another example of the style, but it predates all the others -- even "Ring". So you might call it the beginning of the deluge.
That's not to say this is a perfect movie. The DVD is pretty awful, but it's hard to say if this is the fault of the print, the DVD process, or intentional. The film is grainy, dark, slightly blurry. It might be purposeful. The English subtitles are "hard coded" and there's only stereo sound. There's a 30-minute making of feature that doesn't add much, and a pretty awful American trailer. As usual, the censor or manufacturers have found something to warn us about next to the 15 cert: "Contains sustained psychological horror and suicides."
The confusing thing about this movie, and the thing that probably gets it marked down from other reviewers, is the "amateur" feel to the production. I think this is purposeful. After all, Kurosawa is an established, popular director. (Remember Miike made "The Happiness Of The Katakuris" to look purposefully amateur, with famous actors standing around the frame looking like they didn't know how to act?) Most of the actors here are young, and they stand around the frame looking like they don't know how to act. The camera work is static, poorly lit, and oddly framed (usually with objects like plants or windows or doorways between us and the action). The filmstock is poor and almost colourless. The sound is very noisy -- we hear all the background rumble, which is only noticeable when it suddenly shuts off when the scene changes. The acting itself is mediocre. The movie has the feel of a low-budget college project. All this, I think, was intentional. Because in the midst of this cheapy feel, Kurosawa suddenly throws in a terrific and genuinely shocking scene like when we see one of the characters climb a factory silo, walk to the edge and jump off to their death. All in one take, and done so brilliantly it looks horribly real. Deceived by the "low budget" feel, you hardly stop to question the special effects, which are amazing. Creepy dark ghosts, half hidden in the darkness. People who fade into black outlines, and then to stains on the wall, which dissolve into particles. The grainy dark film is part of the atmosphere. In these terms, Kurosawa has made a brilliant directoral decision -- it works very well.
The plot is simple, but deceptive. When their colleagues commit suicide, two strangers are drawn together. Both are lonely people, which is the theme of the movie: the afterlife, they suggest, isn't a place of communion and happiness, but of eternal loneliness. Moreover, heaven is now full, and with nowhere to go, people don't die anymore, they just fade into this eternal loneliness. The horror creeps up with each half-glimpsed dark shadow, the spooky websites that come up by themselves on computers, the taped-up rooms where ghosts have been spotted. Pretty soon, Tokyo is depopulated -- there is literally nobody left alive, and for the two characters the only escape from loneliness is each other. There are distinct shades of "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" here, the same gradually escalating isolation. But here it is simply emptiness and loneliness. The scenes of an empty Tokyo are amazing, and so much better than the scenes of an empty London in "28 Days", which was that particular movie's only selling point.
Despite a surprising cameo in the closing reel by Kurosawa's recurring star Koji Yakusho (the sudden familiar face is, actually, quite jarring, as if the characters suddenly stumbled on the set of a movie!), the movie's descent into lonely isolation never lets up. It's a claustrophobic, creepy, smothering movie, and one of the best of its genre. Those who want by-the-numbers shocks, people jumping out behind you with axes, and directors who mistake big budget for atmosphere, should stick with whatever Hollywood teen shlocker is out this week. For those who want more depth, this is highly recommended.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a great film, but an important one nevertheless., 8 April 2006
Having read a lot about this film and its remake I was intrigued to see what all the fuss was about. I had previously viewed two of Kiyoshi Kurasawa's more recent films - 'Cure' and 'Bright Future' and been impressed by their very Japanese style and the feeling of almost unbounded space engendered by some clever cinematography and use of wide, white, backdrops. 'Pulse' certainly explores some of the same themes: the alienation of Japanese youth, Japanese feelings of failure and loss of moral certainty caused by recession. On the other hand, Pulse's most enduring contribution probably comes from its other, additional ideas such as the quasi-supernatural menace posed by technology (i.e the internet)exploited by 'The Ring' series (in the form of a much more individualist and, therefore, Western oriented story). Those familiar with 'The Grudge' will also see an obesssion with 'evil places, and those unfortunate to have watched 'Suicide Club' will now know where its basic idea was ripped off from. Also watch for the empty streets ('Open Your Eyes', '28 Days Later' etc) All in all, the film does wander a little, and there are too many good ideas which are not fully developed. But although not as tight as the excellent 'Cure' I believe that this historical contribution from Kurasawa is well worth adding to your Asian film collection.
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6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ticks the boxes, but few genuine shudders, 10 April 2006
By now most people have either seen most of the notable J Horror films out there (Ring, Dark Water, Ju On: The Grudge etc.), or at the very least the shoddy Hollywood remakes - with one exception. Pulse (aka Kairo) has been on the shelf for a few years before finally making its way over to the UK. However, thre is a feeling we've seen it all before. The design for the curse of the film is people logging onto a website offering to show them a ghost - not a million miles away from the videotape in Ring, in other words. Yet the curse seems to mutate halfway through into being invoked by a cursed room, which are sealed off with red tape, a la The Grudge (which was actually released in Japan after this). This already puts the film at a disadvantage as there isn't a clear way to set events in motion. The film does compensate, though, in what happens to the victims of the said curse - they leave a sort of burnt shadow on the wall near where they died, which does give off a creepy ambience, as do the shadowy figures occasionally seen floating through scenes (again copied by The Grudge). The story is split between two characters, both in Tokyo, experiencing the curse from different angles. Michi finds out about the curse when a work colleague hangs himself after seeing the website and her colleagues soon succumb to it, while Ryosuke is stalked by the website at home and tries to figure it out with Harue at college. As events start to spiral out of control as more and more people fall into suicide and burnt shadows, their paths inevitably cross as it turns out there's no escape. So the plot delivers on the notion of despair taking over the lives of everyone it comes into contact with, but the film doesn't hit the target full on for full-blown scares and never gets out of second gear - so the finale in Tokyo jars as suddenly it's Armageddon, but two minutes before it was still just "creepy", just as some moments in the film are just "odd" more than anything that'll stay with you. The bookends also don't resonate because they feel a tad flat and involve a character we're never introduced to outside these scenes. In short, the film does have a strange, haunting atmosphere but doesn't build upon it enough. In other words, it does what the inevitable remake'll do, which is a shame.
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