Parasite Eve - 1997

An incredibly depressing and mournful film about scientific discoveries into deadly parasites interspersed with death and despair. The Japanese aren't exactly known for cheerful, upbeat films, but even this was taking the biscuit a bit.

(HORROR) The Doll Master - 2004 **

This freaked me out far more than I think was intended purely because I am terrified of dolls. The idea of painted dolls moving makes me feel quite sick, so you can imagine how it made the characters in the film, who were subjected to constant scenes full of moving dolls with bloodshot eyes and incredibly straight hair. A typical Japanese horror about ancient curse/revenge. Weird.

(HORROR) The Suicide Manual - 2003 ***

Freaky and very disturbing film. I only watched it because someone on IMDB was raving about it after watching the 'Whispering Corridors' films. The story as you can probably imagine centres around a manual found on a suicide chat room that talks about what the best ways are to kill yourself. It's like an even more disturbing version of The Ring. A depressed and solitary cameraman stumbles across the manual after meeting a suicidal girl who swears by it and tries to uncover the whereabouts of the mysterious girl 'Rickie' who presents it.

It's very eerie. Japan does eerie so much better than anywhere else. 

(HORROR) Whispering Corridors: Voice - 2005 **

I think I've seen one of the Whispering Corridor movies and wasn't hugely impressed with that. I also appear to be watching them in the wrong order which isn't helping. Maybe it's because I've seen a lot of these Japanese horror films that I'm becoming less and less impressed with the quality of them. The story for this was a bit ridiculous. A girl in the first scene dies after having her throat cut by a sheet of music.. something symbolic there I imagine. We then learn that the girl is dead but knows that she is and only her best friend can hear her when she sings because she has such a beautiful voice (although she really doesn't. It's a bit like a cat trapped in a washing machine.) She wanders around the school in an ethereal state while the rest of her classmates don't seem to care a bit that she's dead. It's very odd. I can't say I enjoyed it, and it dragged a heck of a lot.

(HORROR) Noriko's Dinner Table - 2005 **

I'm not quite sure why this is called a sequel to 'Suicide Club' because if anything it is a prequel to the events leading up to the mass suicide under the train at the beginning of the latter. It's extremely confusing, but what I got from it was that a young girl named Noriko who doesn't feel like she belongs in her family and her current life, runs away to Tokyo to meet the founder of a teenage chat room whom she has been speaking to. It turns out that every person who committed suicide under the train was also a member. Sort of a place for lost souls to go who 'don't fit in'. However, the girl she meets turns out to be a very peculiar being who, along with her family delights in playing strange mind games with Noriko and telling her lies about how she was brought up. She succeeds in 'brainwashing' Noriko into believing that she has no family and that she lives there with her.
It's all very odd, a bit more in the vein of 'Strange Circus' than 'Suicide Club' but also seems to deal more with Tokyo culture and how teenage girls get sucked into an artificial world of celebrity.

The Red Shoes - 2005 ****

This was a very confusing Tartan Asia film. (I'm back on my TAE buzz). It was good, and my god it was creepy, terrifying in fact, but there was a lot of it that I didn't understand which therefore would probably render a re-watch sometime.

The red shoes are in fact pink, although there is a specific reason why the title says 'Red' but I haven't been able to find it out.

The shoes are cursed (as usual there is a long story that goes into why), and claim anyone who dares to pick them up and try them on. This usually means a painful death or in other cases, the person having their legs cut off. The 'victims' also become sort of manic and psychotic around others when faced with losing the shoes and usually there is also a girl with long black hair down her face near the scene of the crime. I think it's quite a good storyline, and the Asians are so talented at weaving bizarre plots around bizarre objects that they do it like no other, (added to which, the black haired girl is now their sort of 'gimmick' which is darn effective no matter how many times it's seen). However there was a lot that I missed in this film despite paying attention, and I can only guess that that is because I will need to see it again (which is not a bad thing!).

Who Slept with her? - 2006 ****

This Japanese film was actually very quirky and very funny, and I stumbled upon it by mistake.

A new member of staff at a strict boys school causes a stir as each boy fantasises over her and three particular students are convinced that they can 'have her' without their manical headteacher finding out. Things as expected, don't go to plan. It does sound rude and maybe if it was an American film it would be a bitn crude but actually as it's Asian it's not to be taken too seriously and I raised a smile quite a few times.

The three male students are hilarious, the headteacher is completely loopy, and the female member of staff is a complete tease.

Watch with some wine and chocolate and have a laugh at a pointlessly funny film.

Spirited Away - 2008 **** 1/2

I have never had the slightest interest in Japanese animation which is strange really because I love Disney and Pixar stuff.

However this was in my 1001 movies to see book, so I thought I would give it a go.

I have never seen anything so weird and wonderful in my life.

However I totally loved it and was gripped the whole way through except when my DVD skipped!

You can always count on Japanese movies to be totally bizarre. It was like watching a dream unfold before me and seeing all the strange make believe characters that you might imagine existed when you were younger.

The story is of a young girl who is in the process of moving to a new place with her parents, however after their car breaks down things start to go very weird and her parents, after gorging themselves on some food they find in an empty restaurant turn into pigs, leaving the girl to enter a strange world of spirits and monsters in an effort to save them. I cannot help but reiterate how amazingly weird it is, and I urge people to see it. It's a fable I guess, about living in the real world and escaping into a fantasy? Maybe Japanese people interpret it differently, but I certainly saw it that way, and it only added to my enjoyment. It's convinced me that I have to watch all the other Japanese anime movies I have noticed but never really taken much notice of.