Hideo Nakata’s Kaidan.

Note: Before reading, please refer to the meaning of Japanese Kaidan in context. Apparently there are many kaidan films out there. So if you’re not a fan of Hideo Nakata’s films, you’re most probably not aware of this movie.

Synopsis: 250 years ago. Soetsu, a humble moneylender, is murdered by Shinzaemon, a cruel samurai, and his body is disposed of in Kasane-ga-fuchi - the pool of a snaking river where, legend has it, those who sink into the water will never float to the surface again. 20 years later, in a chance encounter, Shinkichi, the handsome son of Shinzaemon, meets Toyoshiga, the daughter of Soetsu, and they fall in love. When Toyoshiga dies from a strange disease, Shinkichi finds that not only is he unable to avoid the mysterious fatality of the past and Toyoshiga’s tenacious love for him, but he is also forced to confront the ghostly truths held by Kasane-ga-fuchi. (source here)

Last weekend, after much procrastination to watch Hideo Nakata’s latest film, I decided to drag myself and sleepyhead LD along to the cinema. And when everyone else is queuing up for Iron Man and some Tamil film I can’t remember the title (their tickets sold out unbelievably fast!), we (just me actually) happily went for Kaidan instead.

It was my first experience watching a kaidan film, and one that is directed by horror film master Hideo Nakata. Based on the Kaidan-Banashi “Shinkei Kasane-ga-fuchi” by Encho Sanyutei and screenplay by Satoko Okodera, this movie showcased the old times of Japan during the Edo period.

I find myself in sheer delight to discover what it’s like to be living in the past tense of Japan. The men, where most of them consist of merchants, artisan or farmers, can be seen with a pretty interesting shave on the head and rolled-up work pants (especially those working at the shipping docks) that reveal their fair, fleshy thighs. But the women during that period was what fascinates me more.

With their reserved nature reflected through elaborate fitting of (what I believe to be) Kimono costumes (of which they have an outer coat to wear when the weather gets cold and chilly), these women seem to keep it delicately minimal; be it adornments on the hair or the paper-made umbrella or pretty paper fans held in hand during a casual stroll at a market.

They carry themselves through living by refined standards of gracefulness; such conservative care transpired on their every movement, appearance and speech. It simply held me there for a moment as the scene is something which can only be sighted at traditional stage plays in the modern days. Cinematography-wise, it worked. I am much intrigued by the Japanese culture during those times.

Having said that about Japanese women, such display of submissiveness should never be taken for granted. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. There is no excuse to get away with fooling their hearts for a mere word of love, the essence of what I believe this kaidan movie to be.

In Kaidan, the audience witnessed how Shinkichi (Kikunosuke Onoe V) had to learn a life time lesson for planting the seeds of vengeance of his past lover Toyoshiga (Hitomi Kuroki) who happened to be the daughter of Soetsu, killed by Shinkichi’s father and thrown into the snaking river known as Kasane-ga-fuchi plunge. I can’t be sure if Toyoshiga was aware of Shinkichi’s identity, vice versa on Shinkichi, but it seemed Toyoshiga was never informed of the cause of her father’s death then. There was no mention of Shinkichi’s acknowledgment on his father Shinzaemon even when his character showed up.

The story begin when Shinkichi meets Toyoshiga for the first time. Love at first sight blossomed in their hearts, and despite the age difference, both of them got together and led an unofficial married life of a couple. Trouble ensued after Toyoshiga revealed her rage of jealousy for Shinkichi and his irresistible charm to other younger girls.

One night in the middle of an argument, Shinkichi accidentally hurt Toyoshiga in the eye (which eerily resembled the way her late father got injured by Shinzaemon’s swipe of scythe then), followed by an infection which resulted her bed-ridden. Shinkichi stayed on to take care of her, but at the same time desperate to find a way to leave the relationship. Toyoshiga’s love for him proved too deep to let him go, though she knew Shinkichi better.

After Toyoshiga’s heart-stricken death, Shinkichi went on a brief relationship with one of Toyoshiga’s student, sweet-looking Ohisa (Mao Inoue) who wants to run away from her troubled family. They packed their belongings and leave the town, only to have their hopes to seek a better life elsewhere short-lived in Shinkichi’s own hands, literally, and ironically ended at the river of Kasane-ga-fuchi.

Shinkichi’s conscience has been plagued with guilt of causing the death of two women he once believe to have loved, and find himself hanging onto his own sanity to rid the vengeful ghost of Toyoshiga haunting on his back. Kaidan wraps up with Shinkichi finally relenting to Toyoshiga in his defeat, where they reunited at the heart of Kasane-ga-fuchi plunge in a classic fashion; Toyoshiga cuddling Shinkichi’s beheaded head in her loving arms and kissing him.

I thought that was tragically sweet. Nothing beats the love vow of ’til death do us part any better than this and I cried for Toyoshiga’s undying devotion for Shinkichi. Weird because I thought I was happy at the prospect that Toyoshiga would finally have her hands gathered around Shinkichi’s neck. But I felt bad for Shinkichi at the same time because as pathetic as he was as a man, he hadn’t had an easy life either after Toyoshiga died. It wasn’t like he’s anything but a brutal, ruthless character. It was a mistake that he had known Toyoshiga in the first place, a curse.

Few things you might find yourself in wonder after watching the movie. Was it a curse of the much talk about legend of Kasane-ga-fuchi or Soetsu swearing an eternal misfortune to befall on Shinzaemon’s descendants before his last breath that has taken its effect on both Shinkichi and Toyoshiga? Or perhaps, the act of Toyoshiga’s vow on her last written love note to Shinkichi that should he married another woman, she would ‘ensure’ that his marriage won’t last?

As a period movie, the plot is rather slow-paced, but it never missed the mark to surprise us at times where appropriate. Just don’t expect to get yourself prepared to brace the usual horror elements in this movie where Nakata would usually do in most of his acclaimed works of J-horror. KAIDAN is no J-horror in the first place, as it has existed way before we heard the term of latter.

I believe Nakata’s attempt on this movie is to get both the Kaidan story and the rumored legend about Kasane-ga-fuchi to intertwined themselves in a single plot and become an impressive piece of a classic tale told via ancient style of an aging storyteller (as seen in the opening of the movie).

To tell a story is easy, but to make the story to unfold itself nicely like a gift, without any crease and tear at the edges, almost effortlessly even, is quite a challenge. Regardless, Nakata still manage to unwrap it open with just a trickling of sweat. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Ratings: 3/5

 

Noroi: The Curse

Off-note: Went to watch Death Note’s spin-off’s L: Change the World today with (El) Panda. Not surprised at how great it turned out to be, considering Hideo Nakata is behind it muahahah. Brilliant, absolutely gratifying. Thank you. I knew I love you (the movie lah) before the reviews… ♥ ♥ ♥

**
Bought the DVD of this movie ages ago and didn’t bother to watch it until last week. So hold your breath, this is going to be a long one. Or you can skip this if you like. No matter.

Noroi: The Curse is a mockumentary (directed by Koji Shirashi) J-horror about a TV journalist Masafumi Kobayashi who had gone missing at present, leaving behind several video tapes of his unpublished work on his latest (and the last, apparently) paranormal research.

The movie opens with a scene of brief introduction on Kobayashi and takes the audience to a studio room where the tapes are played. This is where it starts: Upon receiving a letter from a woman who complained about hearing strange noises coming from a neighbour’s house, Kobayashi together with his faithful cameraman sets off on an investigation which led them to discover an ancient demonic ritual bind by an evil force of symbolical knots known as ‘Kagutaba’.

Kobayashi then begin to witness disturbing things happening around him, as tragic fate starts to befall on unsuspecting victims one after another. A lady who happens to be the only one survived after partaking in the last ritual has the explanation behind it, hence she was ‘the curse’.

Having filmed on a DV camera, Noroi is most probably likened to Blair Witch Project. But if you actually sat through the near 2-hour length of the movie without having to peeked through the gap of your trembling fingers to watch, you will then agree with me that the similarity pretty much ended there. I believed Noroi has the best plot of all the J-horrors I’ve watched so far, though you can’t possibly go wrong with having someone like Taka Ichise as the producer where his previous works include Ringu, Ju-On, and the recent Westernized version of Thai horror Shutter.

What made this movie to be intelligent as they are, I think, lies in the ability to string together a series of symbolical images in significant manner, one that most audiences can relate to without making much intellectual fuss about it. In Noroi, the video footages shown are cleverly angled to zoom onto objects which are present in other footages as well. Second place goes to the casting. Portrayal of their respective characters are almost surreal, and by using real names to the character adds a little more credibility to the mockumentary. Not forgetting of course, the ’special’ treatments used on the video to create a realistic feel to the supposed J-horror.

J-horrors are distinctive than the Hollywood counterpart in terms of subtlety used in scare tactics. But with Noroi, things were somewhat different. You won’t find a lady with long flowing black hair standing next to you… sorry, in the movie of course, but the symbolical images that I’m referring to earlier is effective enough to creep you out, even the sight of harmless, domesticated creature like pigeons can actually turned out to be a dark omen. How neat! And the best part of it (or worse, depending), the creepiness it brings sort of ‘grows’ in your mind long after the end credits rolled in. It’s beyond any J-horror I’ve seen.

I can’t tell exactly described how that feels (ecstatic?), but I can tell you what does. Take one scene in the forest for example, which I think is tastefully done, the part where everyone panicking and the cameraman was scurrying along with his DV when he ‘accidentally’ caught something in the video in the midst of chaos (in Blair Witch Project, friends who watched told me they see nothing). Then there was also another scene, where in the middle of filming the images gets somewhat distorted halfway and lo and behold! WTF!!! @#%$^&*&^

Ok, think I’ve spoiled enough surprise in this movie. But I tell you, after watching Noroi, you won’t see Ju-On the same way again. Horror fans, give this a miss, and you’ll regret this, so don’t!

Rating: 5/5

 

Horton hears a Who & Gone Baby Gone + a movie grouch…

A hint that this entry is going to be a long one so it’s best to have yourself armed with a cuppa at hand, lest you fall asleep.

I hadn’t been to the cinema for quite a while now to be honest, that I’ve conveniently forgot about the unspoken rule of choosing the right seating in the theater upon purchasing our tickets at the booth. So, besides having ourselves kick back and relax, indulged in the whole cinematic experience of it all, I for one had to endure another kind of experience… learning to tune out the sound effects of an affectionate couple sitting next to me. Go figure.

On with the movies.

Watched this with PY the big kid. Dr Seuss’s Horton hears a Who is surprisingly tasteful for my liking. A bit dry in the beginning with the whole Horton hoo-ha of suspecting what may be a community that lives on a speck of dust, which turned out to be true and off Horton goes on a noble rescue mission to save the err… speck. Horton’s an elephant btw (voiceover by Jim Carrey), and come to think of it, everything that goes in the Jungle of Nool doesn’t tally with common sense (supposed animated characters don’t have to make sense anyway) but if you’ve read the book, you know the rest of the story already yeah?

PY said this was as close to the original as it can get, laughable but no lame punch lines… worth a nod on that. Umm, confession. I never really read any of Dr Seuss’ books before *shame shame*, but this one made me teary-eyed towards the end of the movie. I’d try to hold it in but the scene was just all too touching at the right places! I’m moved by Dr Seuss’s intellectual behind it, you know, what it means for kids to acknowledged their value as an individual and one who inspires the other, all that lesson told without being too in-your-face. Good one in my opinion, second after Ratatouille. And PS: To all young girls out there… *sing song voice* Jesse McCartney is ‘in’ the movie too hehe~~ Too bad he’d only gets to sing and that’s all he ever does.

Rating: 3.5/5

Last Saturday, dragged LD along with me to watch Ben Affleck’s much anticipated Gone Baby Gone. The movie premiered in the U.S. late last year, and no doubt we owed our thanks to the censorship board for the delay. Read the book prior to the screening, so there wasn’t anything left for surprise other than wondering how it would’ve looked like in the script. Dennis Lehane’s Gone Baby Gone was Ben Affleck’s favourite book I’ve heard, made it as his directional debut along with his younger brother Casey Affleck who’d acted in his film.

And the movie was just so so and fell below average my expectation. I don’t know, probably because I have a problem picturing myself in the film than the book, never born and raised anywhere near the setting location in Boston, or nowhere in the U.S. as matter of fact. Some geographical conflict I must say. I need a solid grasp to feel what it was like to live in a washed out urban neighborhood where drugs and booze a likely favourite past time to the locals. But that’s the questioning point in the story I believed; where you’re coming from makes up the whole person you are in the society, but in ultimate sense, does it?

One thing is much the obvious. I thought they’ve downplayed most of the supporting casts involved, in what otherwise would’ve been as characteristically refined as what the book has to offer. Patrick Kenzie’s detective partner Angie Gennaro (Sandra Bullock look-a-like Michelle Monaghan) for example, is severely neglected. Perhaps the reason being is that this is Kenzie’s side of the story after all, much easier for us to just get down to business with Casey Affleck’s role as who else but Kenzie to take up the one-man detective job, figure out the missing child, sorting through his demons, the conflict he dealt with people around him who have it wrong for all the right reasons.

He gets the spot light all right, but his scruffy voice didn’t seem to cut it as an intelligible narrator for a start. Or could it be that that was deliberated from the very beginning of the script?

The climax was expected, provided the audience is attentive enough to capture the flow of the story, the plot of it. LD who didn’t read the book said the ending was just that, an ending. Monotonous all the way, so to speak. Not that the censorship helps, you get cut scenes every now and then whenever a particular word is uttered. Jackass seems to be an exception though.

Wise thing to do is, go either for the book or movie, never both. And if you asked me, I’ll have the paperback anytime, at least while I’m in Malaysia. No hard feelings to Ben Affleck. He’s a great actor/director/producer/whatever guy altogether but Dennis Lehane is more of my cup of tea. OK, so I’m just being biased all this while, aren’t I?

Rating: 2.5/5

Wut, such a cheong hei review but rating so little? Kenot meh?