Director: Koji Shiraishi
Writer: Koji Shiraishi
Starring: Jin Muraki, Rio Kano, Tomono Kuga
Japanese, Subtitled, 1 hour, 54 min.
This is a story about Masafumi Kobayashi, a paranormal journalist who has written many books about paranormal phenomenon. He compiled all his research on videotapes. In 2004, he finished his latest documentary, “The Curse.” Shortly thereafter, his house burned down. His wife died in the fire, and he was declared missing. His video “The Curse” tells the story…
A woman calls Kobayashi to investigate a her claim to hear a crying baby. He records the noise and has it analyzed. It’s actually the sound of five different babies. He also finds several dead pigeons at the house. The sounds stop when the neighbors move out. The lady who called him died in a car accident five days later.
It then breaks to a segment from a variety show where they are testing a bunch of children’s clairvoyance. One girl gets it exactly right. The second time, the little girl draws a bent-looking skull shape. Later, she makes water (and an unexplained hair) appear with only her mind.
Back to Kobayahi. He’s visiting Kana, the psychic girl. She’s had headaches since the experiment.
On another variety show, two celebrities accompany a psychic to a haunted shrine. She falls down screaming. She is later examined on stage by another psychic, Mr. Hori, a weird guy with a tinfoil hat. The guy attacks her, yelling about pigeons. Afterwards, they show video of the incident, and way back in the background is a figure that has a strangely-bent head.
By this time, we’re about a half hour in, and these various characters and threads start to come together.
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There is a lot going on in this movie. It’s a complicated world, with psychics, investigators, demons, flooded towns, rituals, skulls, ectoplasmic worms, and pigeons. It’s got interesting imagery with the skulls and tied ropes was well as the clear, modern camerawork competing with old videotape footage. It’s a slow build-up, but it’s all good.
There’s also a lot of talking, which means there are a lot of subtitles to deal with. The found footage and interview style of the film made it seem a lot more realistic, even though that’s been done far too often lately.