Rinne (Reincarnation)

MARCH 11, 2007

GENRE: ASIAN, GHOST
SOURCE: DVD (BORROWED)

With the notable exception of Gravedancers, were ANY of the After Dark festival movies really good? Jesus Christ. While we (or, I) are (am) on the subject, are there ANY good films that detail the account of a film crew attempting to make a film on the site of some previous murders?

Reincarnation certainly isn’t in either case. I hoped that the two concepts would cancel each other out, but no. If anything, it made it 2x as bad. Takashi Shimizu took a rare break from remaking one of his Ju-On movies again to helm this, but like those and roughly 460% of all other Japanese imports, we still have little girls with long black hair popping around in the background while the main girl tries to figure out some old murders.

The opening scene either has the worst translation errors in history or the writer is clearly deranged, as it makes not one iota of sense (but its hilarious). There's also a creepy doll, who's also the ugliest doll since Dolly Dearest.

And there you have it: all the film has going for it.

And since the site of the old murders is a hotel, do we get any Shining references?? Oh yes we do! The most excruciating is when the main girl follows a ghost around the hotel. She comes to room… wait for it… 237!!! WOW! GENIUS! But then, a twist! She goes into room… 227! Which confused me, since 227 is a lesser number than 237. Shouldn’t it be 247, as if to say, this is MORE than Shining? Or are they just admitting that their film doesn’t hold a candle to Kubrick’s?

Incidentally, if I were to grade the Shining a 10/10, my rating for Reincarnation would be about 10 less too.

What say you?

5 comments:

  1. Ow so sad :( I wanted to see that movie since Oguri Shun was playing in it, but now I'm having doubts >__< ... Black-haired girls popping out really freak me out you know!!! ... What tooo doooo?????? T__T

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  2. To answer your question: The Last Broadcast was a good movie about a film crew following up on some murders attributed to the Jersey Devil. The ending nearly ruins it, but up until the finale it's pretty solid.

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  3. I enjoyed Reincarnation very much. It has one of the creepiest, unsettling endings I've seen. The friends and family members I've shown it to have agreed.

    The long, black hair (and white shift/dress) is a Japanese horror tradition. Not having it in a film would be like a Westerner making a cop film without a firearm.

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  4. Maybe the 227 is a reference to the old Marla Gibbs/Jackée sitcom, a possible favorite of the filmmakers?

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  5. Personally, I agree with Texadan on this one. This was one of the better ADF movies during that year.

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