On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 65/85 |
Kim Hollis |
I like the ideas in the film, but it left me cold and a little bored. |
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa brings his Japanese New Wave sensibilities to the horror genre with Kairo (Pulse). The stylish film combines its horror with some complex philosophical concepts.
The story begins with a young woman named Michi as she and her friends are trying to get in touch with a co-worker who is in possession of an important floppy disk. When Michi goes to his apartment, he is extremely quiet, pale and hardly responsive. Not long after this, he suddenly hangs himself.
Meanwhile, a college slacker named Ryosuke is becoming a first-time user of the Internet even though he can't stand computers. As he clicks around, he soon finds himself at a strange Web site where he sees ghostly images of people as they move through their everyday lives. Then the computer gives him the prompt, "Would you like to meet ghosts?" He pulls the machine's plug, but it still runs of its own accord.
Baffled by the situation, Ryosuke consults a computer genius called Harue, but no answers can be given. One Internet user after another meets the same strange fate as the young man who originally committed suicide - with the strange after-effect where they melt away into black splotches. Ultimately, Ryosuke and Michi discover that the Internet is a portal for a crowded afterlife.
Like many successful Japanese horror films, Kairo is being remade in the U.S. and will star Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars). (Kim Hollis/BOP)
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