![]() ![]() ![]() I’ve read it argued that this film is some sort of metaphor for Japanese millennial economic malaise I don’t really know anything about that, but it would definitely make sense as these two empty, broken people find themselves turning unexpectedly brutal in response to the arbitrary cruelties life has dealt them. They’re at the mercy of this dark world, and the one choice they are even able to make will lead them to their destruction. This is a movie about the doomed, and as such, it’s maybe even more dismal than Kurosawa’s usual fare: it’s a murky, misty, dark world that these character inhabit, filled with dilapidated wrecks and muddy menace. The randomness of the circumstances by which they end up with the little girl diffuses the tension of planning and carrying out a crime (heck, the original is almost a heist movie!) but also makes it feel like the noose is inexorably closing on them, like the hand of fate has suddenly and inexplicably turned against them and there’s nothing they can do to understand -let alone mitigate- their impending doom. There aren’t too many straight-up scare scenes, it’s mostly slow and quiet and filled with despair rather than crushing tension. Like most of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films, this one thrives on a minimalistic dread that slowly permeates everything. And since it’s random happenstance rather than malice that puts the girl into their hands, the couple is a lot more sympathetic than their British counterparts were. But they’re much more of a curse than a gift they interfere with everyday things and prevent her from living a normal life, so you can understand her desperation to seize this unique opportunity to have the world take her seriously. Kurosawa’s version isn’t really like that, though we see several supernatural encounters from Junco’s perspective and have no reason at all to believe she’s anything other than completely forthright about her abilities. It’s a horror film about what we can be pushed into by people smarter and bossier than us, and the lies that we have to tell in order to convince ourselves we’re still good people. This meaningfully changes the dynamic of the couple in the original version (which I’m now regretting not reviewing here) the crux of the horror is on the fact that the wife is a fake - she has no real powers, but her forceful personality has pushed her husband into implementing her crazy scheme and even covering for her slipping sanity.
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