At Home with John and Debbie

(This article uses Japanese characters. If your computer can’t display them, either install Japanese support, live with it, or move on!)

四国 (”Shikoku”) is one of the four main islands of Japan (Wikipedia article). The name means “land of four”, referring to the four old provinces which made up the island. Judging by the last Japanese film we watched, Inugami, the island’s atmospheric scenery, sparse population and culture make it the ideal setting for creepy tales that hint at ancient secrets and superstitions — just as a remote Scottish island made the ideal setting for The Wicker Man.

死国 is also pronounced “Shikoku”, but note that the first kanji is changed. Now the “shi” means “death” instead of “four”: “Land of the dead”. This is the title of the film we watched last night.

A young woman returns to the village she left as a young child, where she discovers that her childhood friend died at the age of 16. What is the dead girl’s comatose father trying to communicate from his hospital bed? What occult activities is her mother up to?

I found out about this film when reading reviews of Inugami. I think this review at the charmingly named braineater.com made my mind up, at the point where I deliberately stopped reading:

And now, a note for audiences accustomed to Hollywood fare: the rest of the movie is not what you expect. Up to this point, the film might have been an innocuous ghost story, perhaps even charming. This is not its intent. Every conventional image of childhood, friendship and love you have seen prepared in the movie so far is about to be destroyed. Every comforting cliché you’ve been expecting, every sweet lie you have come to expect from a movie, is about to turn on you and bite. Hard. There are spoilers ahead, so if you want a chance to experience Shikoku without any further preparation, now’s your chance.

Ironically, this set my expectations. I spent the second half of the film waiting for the twist that would make my jaw drop, but that’s not how it works. The film is a proper ghost story horror film, not a splatter film or a zombie romp. There is no violence, just unease. People’s motivations and emotions are real-life-complex (which I suspect, is where the reviewer considers this so different from Hollywood films).

Recommended, but think more in terms of The Woman In Black than Battle Royale, with which the film shares a starring actress in Chiaki Kuriyama.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2005 at 11:37 and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.