Re/Member

After watching many Japanese horror films, I was hoping for better. If not for the childish and very unnecessary teen scenes, this movie would have been much better. This movie should have stuck to its plot line and stayed away from the random scenes. These scenes worked against the darkness of the movie and added a lighter element that totally made this movie feel cheap. This could have been so much better. I love Japanese horror movies and I was hoping to love this one too, but for me, Re/Member just fell short of what I have come to love about Japanese horror. With all that said, it was not horrible.

The premise wasn't anything new, but I wasn't looking for any ground breaking originality. It had a story, so simply tell it in an interesting and entertaining way, and I would've been happy. And, there were definitely good bits to it! So, it could have easily been a fine, enjoyable horror flick, but certain unnecessities like having an internal "I've had enough, so I'm gonna be courageous, ganbarimasu" emotion doesn't just give you an extra boost of power/energy, turning you into a superhero, and allowing you to overcome any obstacle infront of you. Yes, I've heard of adrenaline, but it shouldn't take long to kick in, certainly not a "John Snow standing in the battlefield" moment to doubt yourself, then suddenly thinking of your friends generates the super soldier serum within you" long.

Good, but most of the watch time I feel like my family was just yelling at the girl to HURRY. When you're handed something important as another character sacrifices themselves for it, you don't just stand there, watching for them to die! You be useful and RUN.

At the start, some of the violence felt a little comical to me. It slowly got a little more serious, but I didn't feel scared at all during this, neither did my 10-year-old sister.

However, it didn't quite make sense for the girl to be evil, because they were helping her find her body. Didn't she want to be found? I thought that was the whole point of the body find thing...

While this isn't the best movie ever, it was entertaining.

Sitting down to watch the 2022 Japanese horror movie "Re/Member" here in 2023, I did so without ever having heard about the movie. But the Japanese cinema have a long track record of making enjoyable and entertaining horror movies, so I figured that I would give it a go.

Writers Harumi Doki, Katsutoshi Murase and Welzard put together a fair enough script and storyline for director Eiichirô Hasumi to bring to the screen. The movie was watchable and entertaining for what it was, but it wasn't a groundbreaking story. And what really made the movie all the more watchable was the ferocity of the red creature. It is rare that you get to see that kind of rage and malevolence from creatures in movies, so that was quite enjoyable.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, but they put on good performances.

Visually then "Re/Member" was fairly okay. The special effects were good enough for the movie, but hardly outstanding. But it was refreshing to have a Japanese 'ghost' movie without the traditional girl in white dress with long, black hair covering the face.

Something did puzzle me, though, as it was funny how there happened to be a coffin with the exact beveled shape of the corpse of the little girl whose body parts the students were searching for. It just made so little sense.

"Re/Member" was watchable for what it was, and it is suitable for a single viewing. However, there just wasn't sufficient contents to the storyline to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of "Re/Member" lands on a five out of ten stars.

This reminds me of Final Destination (2000) and Happy Death Day (2017) and probably loads of other similar films. It does have an interesting take on the core concept, giving the loops more purpose but I couldn't help but think it would be better suited to a survival horror game. There are some odd choices and tonal shifts that feel more natural than they should so that was a pleasant surprise. I liked the monster, it was pretty cool. I didn't like the ending, it was frustrating. Overall I mostly enjoyed my time watching this film but I probably won't watch it ever again or remember it next week.