Kairo is a film that finally put a stamp at Kiyoshi Kurosawa as Japanese master of horror (Yeah, between him and Shimizu, i’d easily pick him). With his brilliant serial killer film, Cure, and this apocalyptic horror, Kurosawa has created two masterpieces that justified all the praise that he deserve. I’m wandering about watching this film back to back with Cure, for a perfect Friday night horror marathon experience.

One thing that i love the most about his horror film, at least, judging by Cure and Kairo, is how brilliantly he created the atmosphere. The story, the image, the background music, all cooperate filling and completing each other, in order to maximize the horror experience.

Kairo, start as a simple horror story, a la Ringu and Ju-on. But behind that simple storyline, reside a much more grandeour and ambitious direction toward the end. The first 20 minutes simply, one of the most scary experience i’ve ever watched for years ( yeah, i’m not exaggerating.). Watching the “forbidden room” scene for the first time, makes my heart thumping faster, and i;ve gulped every 10 seconds. After that, on the scale of scariness, the film is, well, toned down a little. BUT, on the story level, like i said before, it is a much more ambitious, and the ending might created a long discussion after.

So yeah, as a horror film, Kairo succeeded in not only one, but two jobs:First, IT SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. And second, IT KEEPS ME GUESSING TILL THE END (What, How, Why it happened, who’s responsible for all this). And i proudly say, this is definitely one of the best horror film of the 2000’s