Kansen

I like how much work Japanese directors put into the pacing, atmospherics, and suspense of their horror films. This one is no exception. If you ever saw Kingdom Hospital and enjoyed it for the mix of suggestive spooky supernatural undertones clashing with rationalism and materialism thematically, then you might like this film as well. At first I thought this film would turn out to be something like 28 Days with ferocious infected zombies feeding on humans, but there is a much more clever plot line going on which I won't reveal. The plot seemed to have some holes in it til I realized what was really going on in the end. Mainly though, I enjoyed the mix of film with a suggestion of a supernatural influence in a materialist or rationalist world. Visual storytelling gets this idea across with images of, for example, swings swinging on their own near the hospital, or an old crazy lady who sees her dead relatives in mirrors staring at her reflection in a window looking like an apparition. I must say that after discovering Japanese thrillers and horror films, it is hard to go back to Hollywood offerings for sure. They seem so predictable, tame, and cookie-cutter in comparison.

Like so many J-horror flicks in years past, the plotting is a nonsensical mess of seemingly random events tied to a loose running narrative, but the visuals do a good job of maintaining interest.

A patient dies at a hospital due to a mistake made by a team of hospital personnel. Wanting so save their careers, they vow to cover it up. Around the same time, a young man arrives at the hospital exhibiting symptoms of an unknown contagion. After the youth dies due to the virus (by melting away, of all the unpleasant ways to go), the members of the conspiracy start behaving strangely and also experiencing the same symptoms. What is happening to them? That is about as linear as the plot ever gets, from there on the story starts rocketing back and forth between flashbacks, hallucinations, ghostly encounters and other odd events. Moreover, rather than moving toward a resolution of conflict, it merely gets weirder and stranger the longer it runs. The characters are mostly anarchistic views of social stereotypes, which makes hardly any of them likable or sympathetic. Also, the story drags for the first 30 minutes or so, while the last 30 minutes shoot by way to quickly; some re-editing could have helped with that.

Visually, the film is nice. A greenish hue covers most of the film, which gives it an eerie sort of discomfort. Also, many shot choices and camera angles add to the feeling of things not being right. There is a fair amount of 'gooey' scenes, but not very much in the way of the red stuff. Most of the scare set ups are fairly well done, but many of them conclude without much pay-off.

There's good (visuals), there's bad (the script), meaning it's really only meant for J-film fanatics.

6/10

Like many horror fans, I've been watching a lot of Asian films recently. Although Asian horror isn't new, easy availability of it in the United States is relatively recent. Unlike many horror fans, though, I'm not generally of the opinion that Asian horror is better on the whole than American horror. That's not to say I think American horror is usually better, either. I just think the two are different.

The odd thing is that even understanding that difference, a lot of reviews for Infection are complaining that the film is a bit "confusing", "disjointed", or more charitably, "non-linear". That's to be expected from a viewer who hasn't seen a lot of Asian horror yet. But oddly, those comments are often coming from viewers who seem to love the genre. It's odd, because the genre is characterized by being more non-linear. Compared to the typical U.S. horror film, Asian horror has many of the same differences that European horror from the late 1960s and early 1970s had--it tends to be more surreal and poetic. Rather than a focus on transparent literalism, there is a focus on metaphor, symbolism and dream logic. For anyone familiar with academic philosophy, the difference is reflected there. U.S. horror is equivalent to analytic philosophy, European horror to continental, and Asian horror seems rooted in Zen, Taoism, and so on.

Thus, when you begin watching a film like Infection, you have to expect something different than what you'd expect from, say, Cursed (2004) or Valentine (2001). Although in many ways, Infection is more straightforward and spends more time providing explanations than the typical Asian genre film. It's nowhere near as inscrutable as Charisma (aka Karisuma, 1999) or Chaos (aka Kaosu, 1999), but it's not as transparent as Dark Water (aka Honogurai mizu no soko kara, 2002). Rather, it fits nicely in the middle of the two extremes.

The story is set in a small Japanese hospital. Right from the start, we see that they're having odd problems and things are beginning to get out of control. The hospital is understaffed and quite a few employees do not seem to be as competent as they should be. Meanwhile, we see an ambulance that keeps announcing that it has a patient with a possibly dangerous infection who needs to be seen immediately. We're not sure who they're broadcasting this to. After a while, it becomes clear that they're broadcasting it to no on in particular. Eventually, The ambulance drops off its patient despite protests from a doctor about not being able to handle the case. The patient has a bizarre, possibly fatal infection, and it seems to be spreading.

Although infection makes a fair amount of sense on a literal level, much of the film is meant as an extended, in-depth metaphor for infections, and not just literal biological infections. Director/co-writer Masayuki Ochiai and co-writer Ryoichi Kimizuka stress a phenomenon that's more like meme theory--they're looking at how ideas, or any kind of information or state, starts with a seed that's passed on and evolves/transforms over "generations". Since this is a horror film, a lot of the focus is on how that can go sour.

At the same time, the film works just as well on another level--an unabashed series of cringe-worthy horror set pieces. All of these layers co-exist happily, and most viewers can choose to engage (or not) with the film on any or all of Infection's modes. Like most artworks, you get out of Infection whatever you put into it. That means that this isn't really for passive viewing.

Just as would happen in an infection, or under the various infection-like phenomena that are being symbolized, Ochiai gives us a gradual transformation in style, structure and content. The opening scenes are normally lit, the hospital is well populated with relatively normal folks, and the patients' problems seem only slightly odd. At the very beginning, the film could just as well turn into something of a hospital "soap opera". But imperceptibly from moment to moment (it's only perceptible when you take a step back for a "broad" view), the lighting and color schemes change, first becoming a bit darker, then emphasizing pinks, reds, yellows and finally greens and blues--a color transformation not unlike a minor inflammation leading to bruising, sickness and strong nausea, and finally death.

At the same time, our cast of characters--both medical professionals and patients--gradually dwindles until we're left with only a small core or normality. Infection becomes increasingly claustrophobic, and Ochiai makes a similar transformation in his physical threats--from "hard", external problems, to a gradual getting under the skin, to complete bodily dissolution. At the same time, a ghostly presence becomes more prominent. These kinds of infectious progressions imbue every aspect of the film and are quite ingenious.

But wait--there's more! Ochiai has also given us a mind-bending "rubber reality" film. He makes a philosophical point about color perception early on that ends up being correlated with the changing color schemes on a completely different level, rooted in the mental. This aspect comes as something of a twist near the end, and imply a recontextualization of the whole to that point, although the point may just be the role of the mental in "infections". But just so we don't forget the ultimate aim, Ochiai gives us a small horror set piece tag at the very end that exists only for its own sake.

My love of this film might also have personal roots--just about the only things that disturb me in reality are medical in nature--doctors, hospitals, treatments, sickness, etc., so films like this hit close to my phobias. At any rate, for me, this is one of the best Asian horror films of recent years, right up there with Ebola Syndrome (aka Yibola bing du, 1996), Battle Royale (Batoru rowaiaru, 2000) and Suicide Club (Jisatsu saakuru, 2002). Don't miss it, but go in with the right frame of mind. And bring penicillin.

I was hoping for a little more out of this movie. It is set in a hospital, which is an inherently creepy setting that has been used to good effect in several good horror movies (eg, Session 9, the Eye 2). Unfortunately, though the cinematography is good, there's not much in this movie that rises above the sort of low-level creepiness inherent in all hospitals.

At times I was struck with the idea that the director had originally planned to make a fairly straight-forward hospital-slasher movie, but due to some kind of colossal blunder ended up being shipped 50 gallons of green goo instead of the 50 gallons of fake blood that he ordered. Infection was then swiftly rewritten to accommodate this mix-up, and while they were at it they tacked on some twists at the end which might have been fresh prior to the global movie-twist mania that swept the world circa 1993 or so.

It's not a terrible movie, and there is some endearing acting by the three lead doctors (who do fairly well with pretty colorless characters). Overall, though, it plays out like a Halloween episode of E.R. Many scenes that ought to frighten the viewer are just drawn out, only the most extreme of the gross-out scenes are really effective, and the movie is full of dross that doesn't enhance its story or its mood.

Not the best Asian horror film I had ever seen, but it was a bit entertaining just had a couple of loose ends. Of course, loose ends in a film such as this is very typical. The film is about a hospital that is understaffed and looks to be eroding quickly. Patients being dismissed when they should be getting immediate care, patients wandering the halls, and all in a very dreary looking hospital. I do believe I would rather die at my house than receive any care in this place. During the night things begin to happen as a ambulance driver keeps trying to get any hospital to take a patient of his who has a bad rash. Another burn victim falls from his bed and is in need of immediate care. The ambulance driver finds his way to this hospital and the doctor turns him away as he rushes to try and help the victim who has fallen from their bed. Well things are in chaos and the burn victim dies as the wrong combination of drugs is administered. Well despite one of the doctors saying he would take the blame the others want to cover it up. Thus the strange things ensue as the ambulance driver apparently left his patient who has a very strange condition and another doctor who has overheard the cover up wants to study this strange illness. Has its moments, but it has a lot of plot holes. Such as the strange suture guy, moving swings, fox boy and a host of other things. Things added for seemingly no other purpose than to try to make this movie more complicated than it really needed to be. Kind of made the ending crash as suture guy seemed so pointless as he was not involved in the whole thing then somehow he did something that seemed to suggest he may have had something to do with it. The setting and the atmosphere were great, but as to often happens in these films they try to make the ending as confusing as possible, to make themselves seem more clever. If you ask them what their intentions were they would probably not even know, you have to know what your intentions are when crafting an ending such as this so that when one thinks upon it everything can make sense, here I just can not tie it all together. Still, good enough to keep me entertained.