Masuoka (played by cult filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto, director of Tetsuo and star of Ichi The Killer), is a solitary cameraman obsessed with the desire to understand fear. He watches grisly footage of a man committing suicide in the subway, and desperate to understand the madman’s intentions, Masuoka returns to the scene inadvertently opening a door into a bizarre and horrifying underworld. Here among the ghosts and creatures he finds a strange and beautiful mute girl. After kidnapping her, Masuoka discovers evidence of a chillingly inhuman nature and realizes he has discovered a truth too frightening to be real. –Tartan
Japanese director Takashi Shimizu’s first experience in film was working part-time at a Kyoto movie theater, while writing scripts in his spare time. Several years of freelancing as an assistant director followed and in 1997 he enrolled at the Film School of Tokyo.
A short film project he did for school attracted the attention of director Kyoshi Kurosawa and screenwriter Hiroshi Takashi. They introduced him to producer Taka Ichise, who had been asked to produce a series of horror stories for a cell phone company. He asked the young director to give him some ideas of what might scare him and this process launched the beginning of the Ju-on horror movie series.
Four Japanese Ju-on movies later, Shimizu directed his first American-produced feature — The Grudge (2004), an English-language version of his hit film, Ju-on: The Grudge — starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as an American in Japan.
Shimizu won a Crystal Skull Award at Screamfest for Ju-on: The Grudge (2003). —tribute… read more
Shimizu shows he's more than just a one trick pony with this psychological Lovecraft-esque take on existential horror. Having Shinya Tsukamoto in the lead role is of course a big bonus.
A very surreal Odyssey of a study into the mind-movie integrated live's we all live and what it's doing to us. A wonderful movie with a very strong atmosphere to it and some very true to modern life cyberpunk elements. The soundtrack does a very good job at heightening tension when the scene calls for it and the actors do a wonderful job at conveying strong emotion through minimal (to no dialogue). A worthwhile film
Marebitoまれびと(稀人・客人) is a Japanese word referring to a ‘divine being’ who comes from afar bringing gifts of wisdom and happiness.
The film begins with a man (Masuoka) who witnesses the suicide of… read review
