St. John's Wort: la flor de la venganza

Version: Japanese, English subtitles (by SBS)

I don't know what to make of 'Otogiriso'. It was slow from start to finish, quite a feat for a movie that runs less than 90 minutes, but it built up a strange and creepy atmosphere and was crafted using some interesting concepts.

I can't say much about the plot without spoiling it: Nami (Megumi Okina) has been designing a video game based on dreams she has been having. After finding the house from her dream, Nami and Kohei (Yoichiro Saito), decide to investigate the house. Naturally, this is a bad idea, but video games and movies alike thrive on bad ideas.

The whole concept of 'Otogiriso' is that the movie is a video game. It plays out like a game - the characters are stuck in one location, they have a support team they can phone, they have maps and must find keys for locked doors. A nice idea, but probably one that would appeal to gamers and few other people. Others might appreciate the cinematography, but this is definitely not for everyone.

'Otogiriso' is a good movie, I would recommend it to gamers, and maybe fans of Asian horror movies - 7/10

Nami has been creating artwork for a new video game based on images she's been seeing in her dreams. With one of the game producers, she travels out to an abandoned house that seems to match her visions. As they explore the old mansion, Nami begins to have more visions of a forgotten childhood, until at last she comes across a photo of twin infants, labeled "Nami" and "Naomi". As Nami and the producer go from room to room, an unseen person seems to be watching them from a hidden room. "St. John's Wort" (Not the most appealing title ever) is NOT, by any means, in the same league as "Ringu", "Ju-On" or "The Eye". It lacks the subtle suspense and substance that made those films so great. This film IS, however, one of the most stylish films I've seen. Director Shimoyama Ten went all out with wild camera angles, a slick look and a great atmosphere, which, unfortunately, he fails to sustain into the films second act. There are some truly hilarious plot twists--I won't give them away, but there so unintentionally funny that they almost make the film worth renting for that reason alone.

Don't come in expecting a suspenseful masterpiece. it isn't. Think of it as, say, the most stylish home video of all time, and you'll enjoy it.

6.5/10.

This movie is like a video game, Elvira style, if anyone remembers it :) Girl inherits spooky house, goes there, finds out about her family and childhood and "the terrible secret". The fact that the whole thing was done in order to create materials for a video game added an element of obvious to the movie.

I liked the actors, they played well for their parts, you might recognize the girl from Ju-On The Grudge, cute as ever. I felt that the starting idea was very promising and if the movie would have drifted in the "asian horror" area, it could have been a very interesting movie about teenager enterprise. This way, the film wasn't serious enough to be called a horror, nor was is funny enough to be called a comedy. And I have come to dislike movies that increase their level of complexity by mirroring themselves (let's do a movie about making a movie about...).

In the end it was OK, but nothing special. I would rather play Elvira again.

Excellent production design within a tight scope that had enough room to breathe that the view should never feel cheated. I enjoyed the abundant MAC, Quick Time and Lycos product placements, a nice now to the media savvy. Some other nice touches, like a great video game level maker that is a Japanese go girl with blonde mane instead of the expected 20-something white male hacker stereotype.

Aesthetically I was enthralled with the stacks of amazingly, nay, beautifully disturbing paintings all about the home.

There is lots of playful stuttered editing, stylistically playing heavily on multiple planes of perspective (filmic reality vs. hidden cameras vs. the hand held camera one character is toting around). Reminds me at times of the aspects that I liked of the classic horror games like Seventh Guest. I think that really was why the film was nifty for me, a former video game artist / designer. The layers of real vs. game in the making and the tight interaction between the adventuring couple inside the mansion vs. the go girl artist and pensive programmer back in the design studio. The inter-cutting of the two locations combined with the playful changes moment to moment in virtual film stocks and perceived point of view really took this tidy, cute little yarn to a new level. Minute details like the miscellaneous brass keys helps convey the parallels as well; the keys seemed like level objectives true to genre. The design of the film further seems to question the movie's very existence as a construction in all as well as in layered fictional elements, wrapped up nicely with a sense of choices being explored without undermining the integrity of the narrative.

Admirably, throughout the film the narrative toys with the notion of linear versus interactive, which tends to parallel the comparison of film to video games respectively. This film actually approaches a sort of implied interactivity, a new perspective for the viewer in a time based medium to the proverbial backbone of the narrative that I've not previously seen, at moments both inside the story and as well a voyeur to the story. As linear progression without options is an abstraction of reality humans accept far too easily, this film did a splendid job of perverting the linear and can at least be viewed as a solid indication of the potential of newer technologies applied to film projects yet to come.

I am really into Japanese stuff but I have been laying low the past year due to lack of time to indulge in such movies. A group of friends and I rented this one last night without having any expectations on it. The flick started out pretty funky using a lot of colour filters which we discovered were kept throughout the entire movie. I had no problems adjusting to it but some of my friends had problems enjoying the flick due to these filters.

As for the plot, I did not find it that bad. Conventional indeed with a few people going to an abandoned house so if you are looking for original cinema, I suppose this one will not save your day. I cannot really comment on the acting. The main actors did not do exceptionally well but not poor either. However the scenery was really nice, the interiors of the house coming to mind.

I was a bit unhappy with how the story unfolded. I suppose I expected something more. At any rate it was an OK time-killer and I think it is worth at least 5/10. The flick is not exceptionally good but still a good piece of entertainment a Saturday night.