Jigoku Shôjo

This film begins in 1965 with three teenage schoolgirls walking down a hallway when one of them by the name of "Yamada Kaede" (Kimura Hazuki) stops to look through a window where the sky has suddenly turned an ominous dark orange. When she turns back around she notices that her friends have disappeared and that an ugly old man is approaching in front of her. She then quickly runs the opposite way down the hall to avoid him and is then confronted by two other strange people. So she ducks inside a room where a teenage girl dressed in a school uniform is singing a children's song. The schoolgirl then introduces herself as "Ai Enma" (Tina Tamashiro) and after showing Yamada a quick glimpse of her past to reflect on her wrongful deeds sends her straight to hell. The scene then shifts to the present where an elderly woman is lying in bed with not much time left to live. Her adult son, "Jin Kudo" (Kazuki Namioka) is visiting her and inquires about a story he had heard of her being bullied a long time ago and summoning a mystical creature known as Hell Girl to punish the person responsible. Unfortunately, she dies before being able to tell him the full story but as it turns out the event happened in 1965 and she was the one who placed a call to Ai Enma (aka Hell Girl) to take her revenge on Yamada Kaede--who has not been seen since that time. Naturally, being a freelance journalist, Jin Kudo is determined to get more details so that he can write a story on this phenomenon. What he doesn't realize, however, is the horror that he will witness along the way. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film follows a successful Japanese anime around 2005 which has only recently been made into a live action movie. Having seen the Japanese anime series I can only say that this film is much darker and a good deal more horrifying thanks in large part to the excellent special effects. Admittedly, some of these scenes are a bit choppy in nature due to poor editing and as a result they don't flow together as smoothly as they should--but all things considered I thought this was a pretty good movie and I especially recommend it for fans of the Hell Girl anime series.

Granted, I am not familiar with the Anime that this 2019 movie titled "Hell Girl" (aka "Jigoku Shôjo") is based upon. But still, I mean, the movie had an interesting title and the synopsis sold the movie well enough. And of course, the mere fact that this was a Japanese movie that I hadn't already seen, was indeed sufficient to make me have an interest in watching it.

Well, "Hell Girl" wasn't exactly the best of things to make it out of the Japanese horror cinema. In fact, it was actually a rather bland and boring movie. Sure, the first third of the movie started out quite alright and the movie had a great tempo to it and the storyline was interesting, but then writer and director Kôji Shiraishi just lost the story completely, and it spiraled into mediocrity and boredom.

I kid you not. The last two thirds of the movie were so monotonous and slow paced that it was virtually a struggle to remain awake and sit through it. But I managed to do so, but I was not impressed, much less entertained.

Visually then "Hell Girl" was actually interesting enough. It wasn't groundbreaking or particularly over the top special effects or visuals, but they served their purpose well enough.

The acting in the movie was bland, but I suppose that was the result from a subpar script and giving the actresses and actors very little to work with. It should be said that actresses Tina Tamashiro (playing Ai Enma) and Sawa Nimura (playing Haruka Nanjo) definitely contributed their fair share to ensure to make the movie semi-watchable, despite having next to nothing to work with in terms of script.

While I managed to sit through the ordeal known as "Hell Girl", this is hardly an outstanding or memorable movie. And it is not one that I would recommend you spend your time, money or effort on. Well, perhaps if you are a fan of the Anime, then you will find some enjoyment here. But then again, as I am not familiar with the Anime, then I cannot say how true to the Anime this 2019 live action movie is.

My rating of "Hell Girl" settles on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.