I know there a few fans of Se7en here and more than a few horror fans so I thought I'd bring up Kiyoshi Kurosawa. He's been making waves for a while apparently but I just recently discovered him. His outlook is bleak, morbid, completely pessimistic. His style: choking darkness. I think you guys should appreciate this.
Cure is in many ways the Japanese response to David Fincher's Se7en. The plot, characters and situations are similar: a weary urban detective and his partner investigate a spree of grisly, ritualistic murders. Whereas the American film is paced like an action movie with enough beats of gunplay and excitement to keep the blood pumping (remember the chase after John Doe through the apartment building?), there's nothing like that in Cure. Methodical, slow, even sleepy, there's barely any flash at all. Yet Cure, IMHO, may be far more disturbing. The movies of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, I find so far, really stick in your mind long afterward.
I saw Pulse, which is due to be Americanized come March 3rd (starring Veronica Mars and Boone from Lost), at a screening last night. A J-horror in the vein of The Ring the Internet is the bane of our heroes this time around with a ghastly website/virus asking websurfers "Would you like to meet a ghost?" Sure enough, ghosts show up but don't shrug this off as another Ringu rip-off with scary babies and long-haired girls. Aside from loads of creepy goings-ons none of those J-staples are found here. The suspense, the style, and the ideas behind everything in Pulse are above and beyond anything produced recently on either shore.
I walked out of Pulse so chilled and disturbed... one of the most haunting outcomes I've seen on film.
So! Anyone else at least heard of these?
Cure is in many ways the Japanese response to David Fincher's Se7en. The plot, characters and situations are similar: a weary urban detective and his partner investigate a spree of grisly, ritualistic murders. Whereas the American film is paced like an action movie with enough beats of gunplay and excitement to keep the blood pumping (remember the chase after John Doe through the apartment building?), there's nothing like that in Cure. Methodical, slow, even sleepy, there's barely any flash at all. Yet Cure, IMHO, may be far more disturbing. The movies of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, I find so far, really stick in your mind long afterward.
I saw Pulse, which is due to be Americanized come March 3rd (starring Veronica Mars and Boone from Lost), at a screening last night. A J-horror in the vein of The Ring the Internet is the bane of our heroes this time around with a ghastly website/virus asking websurfers "Would you like to meet a ghost?" Sure enough, ghosts show up but don't shrug this off as another Ringu rip-off with scary babies and long-haired girls. Aside from loads of creepy goings-ons none of those J-staples are found here. The suspense, the style, and the ideas behind everything in Pulse are above and beyond anything produced recently on either shore.
I walked out of Pulse so chilled and disturbed... one of the most haunting outcomes I've seen on film.
So! Anyone else at least heard of these?
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