| Schmaltz | 8 |
| Violence | 8 |
| Romance | 6 |
| Nudity and Sex | 1 |
| Plot | 7 |
| Buckets o' Blood | 9 |
| Terror | 7 |
Link in the Internet movie database
Synopsis: Misa Kuroi (Kimika "I'm not even going to pretend I know what else these actors have done" Yoshino) is an unfortunate Japanese schoolgirl who has to live all by her lonesome as her parents work overseas, and can't come home to see her very often at all. She invites her friends over for a party at her house, to cheer herself up with a little underage drinking and video gamage. But the party comes to a crashing halt as the teens run out of beer! Misa and her best friend Shoko (Cheiko Shiratori) wander out to buy more libation while her friends remain behind to be slaughtered by the walking dead who shows up, without even having been invited. Misa is chased by this strange walking dead-man who seems to be stalking her relentlessly, only to be dragged to safety by a strange fellow named Saiga (Wataru Shihodo) who seems to have the power of magic at his beck and call. He explains the central conflict of the movie to Misa, her role in it, and the two of them join forces to face it together... and if you think I'm going to spoil even that much of the film, you're gravely mistaken!
Commentary: I've been a fan of the horror genre ever since I was a young lad. I've never been terribly scared of horror films -- as a kid, I didn't realise that's what it was supposed to be about until friends told me how scary they considered slasher films to be (I still don't get that. I don't think I ever will) -- so I'm a huge fan of several kinds of horror films: the ones that can creep me out (as so few can), the ones that have a powerful mythology to them, the ones that generate an intense and powerful atmosphere, and pure unadulterated schlock. Well... Eko Eko Azaraku II didn't creep me out. And it certainly wasn't schlock. Dare we hope that it falls into one of the other two categories?
Yes! Yes we dare! In fact, it falls into both of them! I've been trying to get more and more into foreign horror these days... old Italian films and recent Japanese in particular... because the Western horror mill is still rather slow in delivering what I like. We've had gems like signs, The Ring (based on a Japanese film by the same name), The Blair Witch Project, Scream 1, 2 & 3, Resident Evil, Dracula 2000 and not much else... (do I count 28 Days Later? I'm not sure. It had an extensive Western release, but I think it could be counted as foreign goods. Damnfine movie, though. Just got the DVD and man is that worth the price of admission). It's heartening that we're seeing more domestic talent willing to take a stab at making Good horror films, but as long as the bulk of the output is going to be crap like Valentine, Wrong Turn, Final Destination or the like, I'm going to see if I can't get my fix elsewhere...
And Japan is certainly the place. The horror industry has become much smarter there than it was before (though truthfully, there are a lot of gems if you know where to look), and has been putting out some quite amazing stuff in the last ten or so years. Eko Eko Azaraku II, the subject of our review today, is one such product. My one complaint about it? It's a little slow-moving for a horror film. But you know something? That very slowness helps the movie build tension, establish characters you give a damn about, and provides us with some really nice character business that is generally missing from the genre, which often believes t'is better to deliver the goods fast than to take one's time.
The camera-work is standout. The DVD I rented is, fortunately, in widescreen which means that I got to see the sweeping gloom which made up the film. By occasionally switching between wide-angles and (sometimes strange) closeups, the audience's range of vision is subtly toyed with throughout the film.
There's backstory to this movie. I haven't seen Eko Eko Azaraku I yet (Greencine hasn't shipped it to me, darn it!), but I didn't really suffer for the lack. I'm not sure how much this movie connects to the first one (in fact, I suspect it's a prequel), but the film's backstory is well explained and not at all glossed over. The backstory is also not a simple set piece, often used to propel a serial killer off on his undead orgy of teen-slashing, but a sweeping construct that's important on every level of the film. It's not a top-heavy mythos - if you break it down, you'll realise that it boils down to a fairly simple history - but it feels full and rich, which is very important while watching a film that relies so heavily upon the past.
The actors do a good job conveying their places in the world, too. Kimika especially does very well at showing what an ordinary person, put into a horrific situation where one's lifelong friends are dying horribly and she might be next, might act like. This is something many horror films gloss over: it's very hard to get over tragedy in six seconds just because you've found yourself in the middle of an R-rated film. Kimika does not have her character go into hysterics throughout the film, mind, but the horror of her situation does pervade the character throughout. It's a subtle difference and an important one.. the former can just be bloody annoying, while the latter lends a good deal of authenticity to the character.
This is a movie about wizards and magic, and as such you would expect it to contain special effects. Well you'd be right, mister! The film doesn't go overboard with the SFX, but uses them believably to conjour up the illusion that magic is real. There is an absolutely beautiful moment achieved with just a reverb filter that lends more credibility to the magic angle than any other moment in the film: as Saiga is teaching Misa a spell, he whispers the words... and as with all of his spell-chants, there's a slight reverberation to his voice. Misa, as she repeats the words again and again to learn them, slowly acquires the reverb...
Best of all, at the end of this film, all the plot threads are tied up but not all your questions are answered. There's plenty of after-action dwelling to be done on this movie. It's not quite as deep as, say, signs but it's certainly not mindless fun.
And who says that horror has to be mindless? I'd sure like to find out so I can find that man and kick him in the shin...
Back to reviews.
Back to the main page.