Extras:
Tartan Trailer Reel, Trailer, Erika Franklin's film notes
Director:
Takashi Shimizu
(The Death, The Grudge 1 & 2 (US remakes), Ju-on: The Grudge 1-3, Marebito, Parasyte, Reincarnation, Tomie: Re-birth)
Producer:
Takashige Ichise
Screenplay:
Takashi Shimizu and Masaki Adachi
Music:
Kenji Kawai
Cast :
Nagisa Sugiura: Yűka
Matsumura: Kippei Shiina
Some people believe that Reincarnation
happens to all of us and that once you die you're not just gone forever, but your spirit lives
on and enters another body just about to be born. Others reckon it's a load of nonsense, but
as to who's right, well, no-one's ever been 're-born' and given conclusive proof that they had
a life before their current one.
However, Nagisa Sugiura (Yűka) believes she lived a previous life and regularly has
flashbacks about it. She's also a struggling young actress and looking to break into the big-time
in one of the lead roles for horror director Matsumura's (Kippei Shiina) latest flick retelling
the real-life events about a spooky-looking hotel where a man went on holiday with his family, he went
nuts and murdered eleven people in the building, including his wife and children, before finally committing
suicide. Could this, therefore, have as high a tension factor as - and be a Japanese take on - Kubrick's
classic The Shining?
The rampage of death all took place just before Nagisa was born and as preparation for the movie
begins she has apparent flashbacks making her believe she was there at the time, but was she, as
she's increasingly starting to believe, the last girl to be murdered in the hotel - the part she's
been cast for, albeit as an older age, since she's about 18 whereas the girl was around 6 - or
has she just been reading too many books about the subject while picking up this and that about
it along the way?
The latter is the notion put forward by a professor giving a lecture on the topic, a lecture attended
by college girl Yayoi Kinoshita who has also been dreaming of the same place and wants to find out more.
It comes across as two separate stories which will make sense as the movie progresses, but until things
slot together Reincarnation does feel rather disjointed as a whole. No wonder Nagisa appears
to wig out more and more throughout, her heightened state obviously attracting the director, making
him think she could do "frightened" better than any other choice for the role.
Overall, while this is definitely engaging in the final third, it's not particularly scary
throughout, just rather odd. This could be explained because it uses a lot of ideas I've seen before.
Some wind blows on the back of a girl's head to attract attention that something's wrong
(e.g. Final Destination),
when spooky faces appear they look like they've escaped from a Chris Cunningham video for Aphex Twin
and there's a creepy doll who also has a central role in the film (e.g. Child's Play).
Similar to
Premonition and
Infection,
there's more to enjoy than there is to criticise so I look forward for certain to future titles in this
"J-Horror" collection, although - again - one sneaky thing about this release is that while
there's an 18-certificate emblazoned on the cover, the film itself is actually a "15" according to the
BBFC's website, so the increase must be accounted in the trailers, not all of which I've watched as
I don't want to spoil a future viewing experience.
Oh, and there isn't much of a cast list above as I couldn't find a proper one on the IMDB and I can't
translate Japanese from the closing credits.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and looks clean and free of defects, portraying
well an eerie and drab look to the set of the hotel and how things change in the mind of Nagisa.
Soundwise, I went for the DTS 5.1 audio track, which has many fantastic deep bass rumblings in the
soundtrack and is a brilliant demo piece. It's also massively clever how it starts off being quiet
when just dialogue is taking place, then can thunder that bass in like you won't have experienced for
a long time.
The extras fairy must've taken the 'teeth' of the supplements away from this DVD as there's not
much to tuck into:
Original trailer (1:15):
Presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen, it gives away too much so don't watch until you've seen the film.
Trailer Reel:
Five more trailers for other Tartan terror movies: Premonition, Infection, Old Boy, Lady Vengeance,
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Three... Extremes
Overall, a film that passes the time but with very disappointing extras.
Inside the box with the chapter listing can be found Erika Franklin's film notes.
There are subtitles in English only, plus the option to remove them which is good as a video would have
to have them burned into the print. There are just 16 chapters, but something needs to be done about these
as many run between 6-10 minutes which is too long, really. Finally, there's a short piece of the music
and CGI on the main menu with a swirly set of images that doesn't spoil the movie.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
