NOROI (2005)

Whether it be automobiles, electronics, or horror films, the Japanese always manage to find a way to fine tune the hell out of a primarily Western innovation.

In NOROI, we have the fully realized state of what a horror mockumentary should look like and it joins [REC] and Paranormal Activity on the higher end of the genre.

The puzzling part of the equation is the director. I have to admit that I am completely confounded by the career of Kôji Shiraishi.

Kôji Shiraishi is the director of noteworthy cinematic disasters such as Kuchisake-Onna (Carved) and Ju-Rei; two films so legendary in their generic mediocrity that it is embarrassing. I certainly did not expect a film like this to come from a guy with that sort of track record.

I suppose NOROI is the metaphorical ray of sunshine on the dog's nose that represents the career of Mr. Shiraishi, although I have heard some good things about his other noteworthy entry into the horror mockumentary genre (2009's Occult) and the surreal Teke-Teke films.

Hmmm. If memory serves me, Teke-Teke is actually an urban legend about the onryō of a girl that was cut in half when she fell in the path of an oncoming train.

I may have track those movies down and review them for the blog but for the time being, let's stick with the task at hand.

Unlike most horror mockumentaries that use the "day in the life" format such as the wellspring of the genre known as The Blair Witch Project or Daniel Stamm’s ambitious but uneven offering, The Last Exorcism, NOROI has the look and feel of an actual video journal complete with an Unsolved Mysteries-style prologue which sets the tone for the dread to come as well as clips from various television programs exploring psychic phenomenon (apparently there is a mentalist on every street corner in Japan).

The video tape entitled NOROI as showcased in this movie represents the mea culpa of Masafumi Kobayashi (Jin Muraki), a journalist specializing in paranormal investigation.

NOROI's prologue informs us in no uncertain terms that enventually Kobayashi will meet with a mysterious and unfortunate fate, but this knowledge adds to the tension rather than taking away from it.

We know all the while that Kobayashi is living on borrowed time and this is somewhat saddening because Kobayashi really is a likeable and honorable sort of fellow.

Our man works tirelessly to put together the intricate pieces of a horrifying puzzle as he and his faithful cameraman try to find the links between a series of apparently unrelated events that could possibly have a connection to the ancient legend of an oni known as Kagutaba.

Kobayashi crosses paths with several interesting characters in his quest for truth including a clairvoyant television actress (Marika Matsumoto plays herelf apparently as a device to ground the storyline in "reality") and a batshit insane, tin foil wearing telepath named Mitsuo Hori (played ridiculously over the top by the scene stealing, Satoru Jitsunashi).

What starts out as a routine interview for Kobayashi suddenly becomes a missing persons case when Kobayashi learns that Kana Yano (played by the absolutely cherubic Rio Kanno of Dark Water fame), the psionically gifted daughter of a couple Kobayashi interviews in Tokyo, suddenly vanishes without a trace. There are also the customary J-Horror style random deaths including a mass suicide.

Most of the fatalities in NOROI occur off camera and are introduced by way of interviews and newspaper clippings as not to stray too far away from the mockumentary format.

Bit by bit, Kobayashi slowly begins to make sense of the enigma before him and our hearts become heavy. We are filled with remorse and trepidation because all the while, we realize that this is the last case that poor Kobayashi will work on.

His dedication to his journalistic principles and his relentless desire to explain the unexplainable will be his undoing.

Simply put, NOROI is a brilliant film.

It is a welcomed return to the deliberate pacing that made RING the J-Horror epic it is. The viewer watches in absolute fascination and terror as events unfold before his eyes and what was once random suddenly becomes another brush stroke in a portrait of doom.

There is a bit of spoon feeding in NOROI that comes in the form of segments of the film where footage is rewound to point out details that may not have registered via first time casual observation. This deliberate practice sometimes causes NOROI to lose that aura of pseudo-authenticity that all horror mockumentaries try to build, but it does help the viewer manage the mountain of information contained in the plotline.

NOROI clocks in just shy of two hours and it is a very slow burn. Normally this works to the disadvantage of most movies but here, it actually helps out a great deal. As I said before, the forks in the road are numerous and it is hard to keep track of them as Kobayashi works all of the angles.

The viewer's patience is ultimately rewarded with the subtle and ingenious "Aha!" moments near the end of the film where something finally clicks and ends mend themselves together. Unfortunately for Kobayashi, every answered question leads him further along the path to oblivion.

As with most Japanese films, some of the cultural insertions will drive you nuts. Americans simply are not disposed towards presuppositions of the supernatural.

NOROI makes it seem like every third member of the Japanese population is a damned onmyōji or at the very least, is capable of bending spoons or something. Accepting the events, concepts, and characters which support NOROI's central theme concerning the invssion of the physical by the metaphysical calls for a heavy dose of disbelief suspension.

I suppose that is why the mockumentary format works so well for NOROI. The camera provides the audience with its window to reality so if something is going on in front of the camera, it has to be true therefore it is relatively easy to accept what is placed before you.

Besides, believing in demons isn't the hazardous part. The danger comes when demons believe in us.

It is my sincere hope that NOROI eventually finds its way to a wider release here in North America. I plan to add it to my DVD shelf as soon as I see it in my local Asian film specialty store at Chesterfield Town Center.

I spend so much money at the beloved Foreign Flix that it is unbelievable.

Dororo (2007)

Back home in Japan, the late Osamu Tezuka was known as the God of Manga and you don't get a title like that without being one helluva storyteller.

Tezuka-san's stories have followed me all of my life and I am a better person for it. As I child and later as a teenager, I yearned for respect much like Kimba the White Lion and as a father I have pondered the mistakes of Professor Tenma from Astro Boy and have learned the true value of fatherhood and will always appreciate the blessings that come with raising a child.

In 2006, I heard that Dororo was going to be made into a feature length film. That bothered me because I wasn't terribly sure how well Tezuka would translate into live-action. The animated versions of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion were entertaining enough kiddie fare, but they really weren't allowed to explore the depths that Tezuka did in the manga.

As a motion picture, Dororo has quite a bit going for it but it suffers from some of the same issues that Blood: The Last Vampire did.

The actual premise of Dororo is quite fascinating and seems to take cues from nearly every Shakespearian or Greek tragedy worth its salt.

The tale begins in feudal Japan with the warlord Kagemitsu Daigo (Kiichi Nakai) suffering a horrible military defeat. Kagemitsu seeks shelter in a remote temple and in his rage and despair, makes a pact with 48 evil spirits. He agrees to give each spirit (referred to as a demon in the English subtitles but more in flavor with the yōkai of traditional folklore than the demonic oni) permission to take one of the body parts of his unborn son in exchange for dominion over his enemies.

As a result, Kagemitsu's son is born with no limbs or facial features to speak of. In despair, Kagemitsu's wife sets their child adrift along a river in a style befitting Moses of Old Testament fame and the child is eventually plucked from the jaws of death by Dr. Honma (Yoshio Harada, whom some will recognize from Rônin-gai and the Christopher Lambert ninja vehicle, The Hunted).

Honma is no ordinary doctor; he specializes in alchemy and in yet another Tezuka plot device inspired by Frankenstein, Honma roams the country side and collects the dead bodies of children butchered in village raids during Kagemitsu's return to power. Honma then distills the corpses and uses the essence to create prosthetic devices that will allow Kagemitsu's heir apparent to function as a normal human being.

But Honma doesn't stop there. His final procedure gives the child use of a pair of magical swords grafted to his forearms and hidden away by his prosthetic hands. Eventually, the yōkai track the child down and kill Dr. Honma while trying to eliminate Kagemitsu's heir and then the story begins in earnest as Kagemitsu's heir (who eventually earns the name "Hyakkimaru" and is played by heartthrob, Satoshi Tsumabuki) embarks on a quest to kill the 48 yōkai and regain his lost humanity.

The hitch being that every time Hyakkimaru kills a yōkai, part of him returns to flesh and blood. As he regains his humanity, Hyakkimaru loses the invulnerability and preternatural ability afforded to him by his magical prosthetics.

If you're thinking, "So it is like a jidai-geki version of Edward Scissorhands," you would not be too far off of the mark.

The titular "Dororo" (Kou Shibasaki) is a tough yet sensitive ingénue thief who runs afoul of Hyakkimaru while he is in pursuit of a jorōgumo (a type of yōkai who can take the shape of a beautiful woman, but whose true form is that of a monstrous spider) which claimed one of Hyakkimaru's legs as its price for lending its aid to Kagemitsu.

Like Hyakkumaru, Dororo "earns" her name rather than simply being born with one. She remains unfazed by the fact that Hyakkimaru is actually insulting her when he refers to her as "Dororo" (which supposedly means "little monster") or perhaps she doesn't care. It seems a small price to pay in exchange for a life of danger and excitement.

The rest of the film alternates through several misadventures with a portion of the other yōkai and concludes with the inevitable showdown between Hyakkimaru and his father, Kagemitsu.

There is a part of me that really wants to fall in love with this movie. The dynamic between Hyakkimaru and Dororo is interesting as they both take turns protecting and mentoring one another. Dororo teaches Hyakkimaru what it is to be human, while Hyakkimaru has to teach Dororo that there is more to appreciate about life other than material wealth.

Dororo finds that lesson insulting as Hyakkimaru is protected from the hardships of poverty. As a homunculus of sorts, Hyakkimaru doesn't need to eat, so he can't appreciate how horrible it is to go hungry. Should Hyakkimaru succeed in killing Kagemitsu, he'll be the heir to Kagemitsu's throne so Hyakkimaru can't appreciate what it is to be poor.

The problem that plagues Dororo is the same one that plagues the previously mentioned (and reviewed) Blood: The Last Vampire and that is laughable special effects. The yōkai in the movie alternately are represented by actors in ridiculous costumes, cringe-inducing models, or some of the most underwhelming CGI since The Mummy Returns. It really is regrettable that such a potentially powerful story is undermined by this technical issue.

The yōkai are a key element of the plotline so you'd think that they'd be presented in a manner proportionate to their relative importance to the story. They don't necessarily have to be so terrifying as to generate nightmares, but you'd hope that a respectable part of the budget would be spent making the yōkai as impressive as possible.

But, we're talking about Japan here; the nation who made an art form out of guys dressed in rubber lizard suits smashing their way though cardboard mock-ups of Tokyo.

The unintentional humor injected in the story by the chuckle-worthy yōkai provides moments of levity which serve the admirable purpose of keeping Dororo from collapsing under the weight of absolute despair (there are some scenes in the movie which are genuinely touching) but even so, it'd be nice if the yōkai provided a bit more menace.

I'm not so dense as not to recognize deliberate camp when I see it. I just think that the profound parts of this movie serve us better than the humorous ones. Dororo is a tale of the struggle between the giving of one's self versus the sacrifice of others to serve one's own selfish desires and that is a timeless morale that everyone should try to appreciate.

Oh, and don't get me wrong. I wouldn't have watched this movie if not for the promise of a swordfight or two and Ching Siu-Tung's over-the-top action scenes help smooth over some of the rankled feathers raised by the CGI. There is ample bloodshed that will easily satisfy your inner gore hound.

It should probably go without saying but Hyakkimaru only tracks down about half of the yōkai during the course of this particular movie, so the promise of sequels is out there. I'd actually like to see how the tale (and the relationship between Dororo and Hyakkimaru) progresses, so here's hoping that a follow-up film comes out very soon.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

As I mentioned in my review of [REC] a while back, I'm a huge fan of the faux documentary style horror movies. The forced acceptance of what you see as evidence of actual happenings, the candid yet simple performances, and the simplicity of story all add up to a terrifying experience when all of these elements mesh well.

As for Paranormal Activity..... Holy shit....

The movie follows the harrowing trial of a young couple, Kate and Michah (Kate Featherstone and Michah Sloat), as they struggle to understand and combat the demonic force that threatens their happiness.

The action picks up on a day when Michah buys a video camera in order to document the strange goings on. We find out that this is no ordinary haunting, as the paranormal activity has occurred off and on since Kate was a child and seems to be focused on her.

No matter where she goes, the weirdness follows.

At first, Michah acts out of a mixture of intrigue and amusement. Kate, on the other hand, is absolutely terrified. Out of desperation, Kate contacts a psychic (Mark Frederichs) to ask him to divine the truth of what's going on in the house. The plot then takes an obvious shift towards the sinister when the psychic informs Kate and Michah that what they are experiencing is no mere haunting; it is demonic activity.

Over the next few nights, the malevolent spirit makes its presence felt in a gradual wave of building tension and the mental and physical effects on the hapless couple is downright devastating.

I was pleased to see that the production staff and the director had done their Occult 101 homework, as it is common in folklore (see also Drag Me To Hell) for an incubus (a nocturnal demonic being) to repeatedly visit its victim and wear him or her down in order to make them more vulnerable to its influence.

When the final moments hit, they will smash your nerves like a ton of bricks.

The subtle effects, the honest performances of the cast, and attention to small detail all work to make Paranormal Activity a blood chilling affair that is worth your cash this Halloween season.

I don't think it is quite the instant classic that the hype makes it out to be, but it follows in the admirable spirit of The Haunting and [REC] by doing more with less and making your senses pay for it