Movielogr
Dark Tales of Japan (2004)
Directed by Takashi Shimizu, Norio Tsuruta, Masayuki Ochiai, Yoshihiro Nakamura, Kôji Shiraishi
Twitter Facebook Google+Horror | Mystery | Supernatural
Overview
Dark Tales of Japan is a collection of five short horror films that are directed by five notable Japanese film directors, which are told by a mysterious old lady in kimono on a late-night bus traveling on a long isolated mountain road.
Length 92 minutes
Actors
Kayoko Shiraishi | Shôzô Endô | Yoshinori Okada | Kanako Fukaura | Anri Sugihara | Yoko Maki | Miyako Yamaguchi | Shunsuke Nakamura | Shigenori Yamazaki | Kyusaku Shimada | Yu Yamada | Morooka Moro | Megumi Asaoka | Seminosuke Murasugi | Tetta Sugimoto | Teruyuki Kagawa | Hijiri Kojima | Tatsuya Gashûin | Yoshiyuki Morishita | Risa Sasaoka
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09/17/2020 | TV | DVD | Owned | 6 stars |
| (Average) 6 stars |
Viewing Notes
Viewed this primarily for the Norio Tsuruta directed segment, which is one of the better short films in this collection. Tsuruta directed RINGU 0 among other supernatural horror films so I was most curious what he’d do in this format and it’s effectively creepy and scary. His is the second short CREVICE aka “Sukima”.
The first short is directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura (!) entitled SPIDERWOMAN aka “kumo onna” and it a little goofy but has some decent creepiness to it based on an urban legend.
The second short is Tsuruta’s CREVICE. Short and to the point.
The third is SACRIFICE, directed by Koji Shiraishi (NOROI, TEKE TEKE, etc), and is my favorite of the bunch despite some nitpicky details. A young woman, the gorgeous Yu Yamada, discovers that her boss is a psychopath that stalks and curses the women that rebuff his advances. It gets real weird. I think this was Shiraishi’s first directing work. If so this is an impressive debut.
The fourth short is directed by Takashi Shimizu, of THE GRUDGE fame, called BLONDE KWAIDAN about a ghost that haunts a man visiting Hollywood. It’s fine but nothing special.
The final short is PREMONITION directed by Masayuki Ochiai (SHUTTER, INFECTION, PARASITE EVE, etc). This is the longest of all the segments and features Teruyuki Kagawa stuck in an elevator with three ghosts who attempt to warn him of his fate. This one is a karma tale and probably the most realized of the batch.
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