Creepy

but oddly engrossing.

"Creepy", by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is quite a strange movie, strangely entertaining and gripping, but that loses steam as its running time advances, ending weirder than weird. Probably, twenty minutes less would have improved the product.

Takakura is an university teacher, former police detective, specialized in serial killers and the like. He decided to leave his job after a bad experience and has moved houses with his wife, Yasuko. But one of their neighbours, Nishino, seems to be a little bit... strange. At the same time, one of his former colleagues gets him interested in a cold case.

Cue a plot development that is a little bit of a head-scratcher, especially when it comes to the behavior some of the characters have. One thing is having people scared, afraid or worried, insecure. Another is stretching situations because they help the tension and the plot develop, even if they are not very realistic or make little sense. Sadly, Kurosawa falls a lot into the second part, mostly close to the end of the movie, where plot development after plot development will make the viewer go from: 'no, don't open that door!' to: 'come on!' pretty fast.

And it is a pity because the direction is good, with a moody atmosphere, which makes the viewer feel they can't breathe. The music, the light, the camera work... all helps to make it a suffocating experience. The acting is really good too, with Teruyuki Kagawa being the highlight again as Nishino. Kagawa can play shady or sleazy in his sleep, and he does a great job here.

Too bad that the movie falls for the cheap shocks instead of caring more about what is happening and giving sense to the story.

I enjoyed this and feel that some commentators have rather missed the point. There is criticism for the inclusion of the evidence of the girl during the first half and also at the behaviour of the wife. In both cases there is absolute clarity and relevance as far as I am concerned but possibly the film is overlong and the feeling that there is nothing happening grows if the story is not fully understood. Even when there is no wham bam action I am always happy to see those strange little Japanese streets and houses and listen to the polite niceties as the tension builds. Worth a watch and the creepy guy is certainly as creepy as they come, also true life events are alluded to and there are echoes of recent terrible tales as this horror unfolds.

The cinematography is stellar and the music effective. Hidetoshi Nishijima hits the mark, he is to be forgiven. Unfortunately, the movie fails to deliver on the pledge it makes during its slow- burning yet mystically gripping first half.

Instead, it takes an erroneous right turn in Albuquerque and puts out nothing more your bog- standard horrorblah of cheapthrilly, jumpscary plothole extravaganza we've come to expect from the likes of all the Paranormal Activities out there.

Worth a watch? If there's nothing else on, go for it. Until then, reserve your nail-biting for something a little more composed and well-nourished; the atmospheric horror-noir 'Cure' by the very same Kiyoshi Kurosawa comes to mind.

"Creepy" sneaks up on you.

For anyone who likes Japanese horror films or psychological thrillers like 'The Gift', see "Creepy." For those who like films of all kinds, "Creepy" is worth a watch.

The lead antagonist in the film is spectacular. He is definitely "Creepy." And while the title seems a bit obvious, remember, it's from the Japanese, meaning...creepy, I think. Not only are the film, subject, and characters creepy, the tension, darkness and terror creeps up and into you as you watch the film. Creepy is terrifying in a way that obvious gorefests, like 'Saw', could never be.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, no relation to the film master Akira Kurosawa, does an excellent, if not perfect, job keeping the audience entranced in the mystery of Creepy.

Teruyuki Kagawa is amazing playing the complex Nishino, the next-store neighbor of a former police detective Takakira, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima. Along with his wife, Yasuko played by Yûko Takeuchi, they partake in a back and forth of ego, secrets, veiled threats and mystery that keeps the film moving. These actors, especially the neighbor, make this less than perfect film work.

What doesn't work in this film is that the characters far to often behave in obviously stupid ways and don't react in a timely manner to a threatening situation. I don't know how the police are trained, but when I get an open shot at a criminal that is threatening the lives of others, I take it. To sum: while the director is excellent at portraying the psychological tensions between characters and chooses shots and angles to enhance these tensions, the action scenes are awkward.

Rating: Pay Full Price.

Despite the faults in the film, the overall affect leaves one feeling and thinking something more than they did before seeing the film. That is what film at its best does.

Peace, Tex Shelters

I had become interested in this movie because of the director and an interest in Asian crime movies. It involves a young former detective with a background in psychoanalysis turned professor helping out with the investigation of an unsolved case of a murdered family. In the meantime a creepy weirdo moves in as his neighbour, who gives odd, contradictory signals, but ends up getting close to the protagonist and his wife in a relatively ordinary neighbourly relationship, while still being weird and regularly thoroughly creepy. It is obvious that the movie is structured towards the revelation of the guy having something to do with the unsolved case, simply by the focus that is put on the interaction between him and the detective and his wife.

So far it's okay, and one would like to watch how it ends, however as perhaps too commonly with thriller-type or crime movies, especially with a hint of horror, the writing has frustrating aspects and is often positively baffling. Problems are artificially introduced, left unresolved and drawn out so that the film will have a full run-time. Characters behave in the most pointless, unintelligent ways, but only at crucial moments. This is typically related to an unparalleled lack of communicative or reasoning ability, coupled with an uncooperative or impatient colleague/super/witness/loved one etc.

More particularly in this case, the detective's wife is first creeped out by and careful about the neighbour, while trying to stay friendly to him, however when the relationship gets only slightly better, it is indicated that she seems somehow positively intrigued by him on a personal level, although there is no lack of creepiness and awkwardness of interaction, aside from a conspicuous absence of the neighbour's supposed wife (supposedly because of a depression), and although the detective is a perfectly good guy and there is no real issue in their relationship (in fact there is not much of any emotion or relationship drama in this movie).

More than that, the detective himself is strangely reluctant and inconsistent at following his "intuition" about the guy and simply ignores and doesn't mention to his wife that the neighbour's supposed "daughter" came to him and said it is not really her father but a complete stranger... Apparently casually dismissing this as merely eccentric behaviour or a joke of the girl, while merely vaguely hinting at it to his wife as something that "creeped him out".

And when the detective turned professor finally points a colleague towards the investigation of the neighbour, and this colleague quite foolishly directly turns up for an interview at his place, and then immediately turns up as a burn victim next to the two other people who died in the fire in the house right next to the detective and the creep, he fails to mention to the superior investigator that he had pointed him towards the creep (and of course has no relation to the other dead family) but instead merely mentions that the neighbour had the TV on while the fire was raging (which is deemed far too indifferent).

When he later mentions it after all, the superior ignores it simply (angrily, for some reason, what else).

In addition to this, a witness of the unsolved case is annoyingly uncooperative and uncommunicative, always running away, and unwilling to simply look at a picture and say if she knows the person. Her avoiding behaviour and inability to even stand (the f-- -) still almost makes one want to smack her as a viewer, however it also shows a communicative inability and overindulgence of those interacting with her.

Unfortunately that is just the beginning of the oddities, after this it becomes almost completely random.

Such issues of lack of intelligence come down to foolish writing and are simply frustrating, decreasing the quality of the movie, which otherwise is competently shot and acted.