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50%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #10,411
...out of 20,869 movies
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Pray tells the story of a group of Japanese punks who capture a young girl hoping to get ransom money for drugs. There's one problem: the girl is already dead, and it looks like the kidnappers are about to join her.
--Amazon
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Review by Chad
Added: April 26, 2006
Ahh, there's nothing like a good ghost story from Japan to put a smile on my face. Tonight's film begins without missing a beat, as we kick things off with a twenty-something couple consisting of Mitsuru (Tetsuji Tamayama) and Maki (Asami Mizukawa) heading to an undisclosed location. They're discussing the plan that they've concocted, and we find out that they've kidnapped a six-year-old girl who happens to be drugged and asleep in the backseat of the car. The plan, as Mitsuru describes, is to contact this little girl's parents and demand fifty-million yen for her safe return. It's a typical ransom demand, and this couple has planned it to perfection. Mitsuru has even found the perfect location to hole up in until the money has been received: his childhood school, which has long since been abandoned. The couple arrives, lay the little girl down on a small cot, and contact her parents with dollar signs in their eyes... and that's when things get odd. You see, the parents give a pretty unexpected reply to the ransom demands, as they proceed to tell Mitsuru that he couldn't have kidnapped their daughter; she died exactly one year ago today. Thinking that there's been some sort of mix up, the confused couple return to the room where they had previously laid the little girl down, only to find that she has mysteriously vanished, which is no small feat considering that Maki gave her enough drugs to knock even an adult out for a day or two.
As I mentioned, the film doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to revealing the storyline: the above synopsis unravels in the first five minutes of the film, and things only get odder from there on out. Now then, the above revelations are not the extent of the movie; the storyline features a number of twists and turns throughout the brief seventy-minute running time, but saying too much about what happens would definitely ruin the movie for any potential viewers. We discover that both Mitsuru and Maki each have their own skeletons in the closet, and we also find out that the two of them haven't exactly been honest with one another about their respective pasts. I won't dwell on those topics for fear of spoilers; however, I will say this: what happens in this abandoned school is not the spooky, long-haired little girl ghost story that has become so prevalent in Asian cinema.
The film as a whole is pretty damned good, but it does have its flaws. Before getting into that, I'd like to point out the things that I particularly enjoyed about it. After all, it's always better to discuss the positives before moving into the negatives, right? The best thing about this movie is that it's damned spooky. As the storyline is revealed and we learn more and more about the characters involved, the ghostly occurrences around this school increase in both magnitude and severity, and there will be no shortage of goosebumps to be found thanks to the wonderful atmosphere that first-time director Yuichi Sato builds throughout the film. As seems to be the norm with Asian cinema, this movie does not rely on a huge body-count or cats jumping out of the cupboard to scare the audience; no sir, it's all about the shadows on the wall, the things that are happening just out of the heroes sight, and the general tension in the air caused by all of these happenings.
The negative side of the film, while limited to only one issue, really brings the quality of the film down a notch. The storyline unravels with one twist occurring, the characters working their way through it and revealing things to us at home through the use of flashbacks, then another twist occurs, repeat as needed. These twists work out nicely, with the exception of the one that closes the movie. There's just no explanation given whatsoever, not even a subtle hint, and in my view, this harms what would have otherwise been a highly-recommended movie. This isn't a case of yours truly not "getting" the ending (I don't think), but there's simply nothing supporting that final twist unless either my DVD player skipped a chapter or the subtitles were horribly wrong.
Up until the last two minutes of the film, I would have had nothing but praise for the feature debut from Yuichi Sato. The man knows how to set a creepy atmosphere, the storyline is unique and interesting, and the performances given by the stars of the film are perfect. This film would have had my highest recommendations, had the closing moments either been explained or if they were at least halfway sensible and open to speculation by the audience. That was not the case, however, and since I personally consider the ending to be one of the most important parts of any given movie, I'm going to have to go with a 6/10 for this film.
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#1:
bluemeanie
- added April 28, 2006 at 2:44pm
I rented this flick thinking it was some Mormom
film -- the cover was quite deceiving. I guess I
have just grown tired of Japanese horror now -- it
all seems the same and it doesn't scare me
anymore. Not to mention, kids just don't creep me
out, because I am always just thinking in the back
of my mind -- kick the little bastard in the face
and run. Eh...not terrible I suppose, for the
genre...but not amazing. 5/10.
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