Shikoku (DVD)

Many years after leaving to live in Tokyo with her parents, Hinako returns to the island of Shikoku, where she spent her childhood. Having fond memories of two close friends, Sayori and Fumiya, she hopes to get in touch with them again. She finds Fumiya, but is devastated to hear that Sayori died at the age of 16, and that Sayori's father is in a coma following an accident. Sayori's mother, a local priestess, is on a pilgrimage to visit each of the ...
...hope to assuage the guilt at her daughter's death. And there are a number of strange happenings that are causing concern amongst the inhabitants. As Hinako probes deeper, she begins to suspect that Sayori may not be dead after all. Could this really be the case?

It is quite hard to pigeon-hole this film. It is probably best described as a ghost story with religious connotations, but it does have some elements of horror that fans of ... more

Many years after leaving to live in Tokyo with her parents, Hinako returns to the island of Shikoku, where she spent her childhood. Having fond memories of two close friends, Sayori and Fumiya, she hopes to get in touch with them again. She finds Fumiya, but is devastated to hear that Sayori died at the age of 16, and that Sayori's father is in a coma following an accident. Sayori's mother, a local priestess, is on a pilgrimage to visit each of the island's temples - 88 in all - apparently in the hope to assuage the guilt at her daughter's death. And there are a number of strange happenings that are causing concern amongst the inhabitants. As Hinako probes deeper, she begins to suspect that Sayori may not be dead after all. Could this really be the case?

It is quite hard to pigeon-hole this film. It is probably best described as a ghost story with religious connotations, but it does have some elements of horror that fans of the genre will enjoy. The religious background may cause problems for some, although I have no idea how much is based on fact and how much is fiction. Anyway, it is apparently based on Shintoism, which is in turn has some similarities with Confucianism and Buddhism. This is probably mumbo jumbo to a lot of Westerners; however, don't be put off. It does help to have a vague knowledge of Asian religion, but it is still possible to follow the film without any. The Japanese names may also be difficult to get your head round at first, but the subtitles are so good that it doesn't really take long to follow what is going on.

As with many films of this genre, the characterisation is not particularly strong, and the acting almost takes second place to the story. There are a couple of performances worth a brief mention. One is that of Hinako, who is played by Yui Natsukawa. She is definitely the main character, and the only one for whom I had any real feelings. She looks very young and innocent, and therefore undeserving of what is about to happen, but as the film progresses, it becomes clear that there is more to her than meets the eye. I won't say that the actress gives a great performance, but it is certainly more than convincing enough.

Michitaka Tsutsui plays Fumiya. Fumiya initially comes across as being a bit of a wimp - he certainly doesn't look like the usual muscular lead man of so many Hollywood films. As the film progressed, however, I managed to look past his superficial qualities to get an insight into his softer side. As his relationship with Hinako develops, it does suddenly make him seem a lot more attractive. Again, it's not a brilliant performance, but he delivers everything that he needs to, and any flaws are more a result of the story and/or the direction than anything that he does wrong.

Perhaps because of the religious background, the story does seem a little surreal at times, and it is definitely necessary to suspend disbelief. However, I actually liked it and, in any case, I've seen Asian films that make far less sense than this one. And there is a fairly long introduction to the story before the weirdness begins to kick in. This is brilliant for building suspense; I really had very little idea of what was going to happen next and I found it intriguing. Towards the end, things do get a bit silly, but I still continued to watch quite happily.

There isn't all that much in the way of special effects. There is a weird green pool though that appears to be the gateway to the dead - this is full of some really strange green slime that looks fake - the sort you see thrown over contestants in children's programmes. Most of the rest of the effects are down to make-up - one of the characters, supposedly back from the dead, is drenched in white face paint - but it actually manages to look quite realistic. With regards to violence, there is very little - the film is more scary than violent. However, there are a couple of 'death hugs' which make be traumatic for some children, so of course the rating of 12 should only be a guide.

The movie is filmed in the Japanese countryside, and it is truly stunning. I particularly loved the architecture - very picturesque. Some of the camera shots are a bit strange. At the beginning of the film, which involves a flash-back to when Hinako and her friends were little, it looks as though it has been shot with a hand-held camera. This is fine, because it is a little reminiscent of old family films. However, it does carry through into the main part of the film - albeit rather sporadically - and I couldn't really see that it added anything to the film. I suspect the director wanted to add to the eeriness of the situation, but I'm not convinced it was a good decision.

There are a few special effects. First, there is a brief glimpse at behind-the-scenes action. Nothing is explained, it is just a glimpse, and frankly a bit pointless. I'm all for brief extras, but here I would have liked something a bit more in-depth. Then there are interviews with the director, Shunichi Nagasaki and the actresses that play Hinako and Sayori. These are quite insightful, but nothing overly exciting. Finally, there is the trailer.

Overall, I enjoyed this film. It hasn't got a terribly high rating on imdb.com - 5.4 out of 10 - but there are only 299 votes, so I'm not going to take that too seriously. It does have its silly bits, and there is certainly the need to suspend disbelief, but I still liked it. The atmosphere build-up is well done and is positively creepy at times. I'm certainly quite happy to have spent an hour and a half watching it. Just don't be put off by the subtitles and the religious background. Recommended.

The DVD is available from play.com for £3.99.

Classification: 12

Running time: 100 minutes 

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