Yonimo kimyô na monogatari - Eiga no tokubetsu hen

I loved this film. Unlike most "Twilight Zone" movies which focus too heavily on spooky scares, this gives you the full buffet table. There are four shorts: (1) horror, (2) comedy, (3) psychological drama, (4) romance.

I read about this film on IMDb while researching the career of Momoru Hosi, who did the 3rd segment "Chess". Momuru Hosi is a talented new director who has only done one other movie, UNIVERSITY OF LAUGHS, which I recommend very highly. His contribution "Chess" is by far my favourite of the 4. It creates a very surreal atmosphere pleasing to the eye, and at the same time it tells a profound allegory of human life. Great musical score, too. This short alone is worth the price of admission.

The other 3 were also very well done with fine acting, creative plots and vivid cinematography. One thing I love about Japanese cinema is the vivid use of colours, perspective and graceful camera motion. (This is the opposite of American "reality TV" where everything is bleached and flat, and the camera operators seem to be on crack.)

In all, you've got quite a spectrum to choose from. But of course that means that if you're expecting only one genre, you'll be disappointed for the other 3/4. These 4 films were purposely selected to be as different from each other as possible, and that's exactly what you get.

I should also mention that there's a 5th short which is the "envelope" story through which the other 4 are told. This itself is not to be underestimated. You'll just love the storyteller (who is a cross between Rod Serling and a creepy yakuza), and his message, though brief, is a profound one in the end.

I originally saw this movie on a festival when it came out. A year ago, I bought the DVD, and I am glad I did because I do not get fed up with watching it over and over again. The four stories differ a lot, but they are all really good (the last one maybe a little cheesy, but my wife likes that). My favourite is definitely "Samurai Cellular". As a non-Japanese, it was only yesterday that I found out about the story actually being historical (except for the cellular phone, of course). This makes it even more funny. If you are a fan of Twilight Zone or short films in general or like Japanese culture try to see this on DVD! And I really mean "or", because the compilation serves all three interests.

A group huddling from the rain in a railway station listen to a set of weird tales told by a strange man whose identity is never revealed:

Tale 1: Four people trapped in the snow leave an injured fifth to die. (Sort of; the situation is more complicated but amounts to the same thing.) They take refuge in a cabin for the night...but it appears someone else is in there with them.

Tale 2: A royal minister in medieval Japan finds a cell phone and gets a call from a historical researcher of the future wanting to find out if the coup the minister is heading will happen as the history books say. In fact he's a coward who doesn't want to get involved...but the phone call makes him think again.

Tale 3: A chess master is defeated by a supercomputer and is so devastated that he becomes a raving derelict. A millionaire finds him and lures him into a chess game that he says governs the outside world. The chess master sees people dressed in black and white on a giant grid, when a piece is captured a man dies, etc. He's committed to a mental institution...but the visions don't stop.

Tale 4: An engaged couple visit a marriage bureau that gives them a VR preview of what their married life will be like. It's a horror, and they break up...but is that the end or not?

The tales all have interesting but faulty premises, each of which leaves something important unexplained. The first one is the best (also, incidentally, it's the only one that's a horror story, which I'd expected them all to be); the second looks like an episode of Spielberg's "Amazing Stories"; the third is the most interesting but the least credible (and I wonder if the idea was swiped from Cervantes); the fourth is Japanese soap opera (which I happen to like). The actors are good, the production is slick, and to me quite Western-looking, and there are a few wonderful images (e.g. a ghost on a wall, a woman dressed as a chess piece)...but it needed better stories.

Short summary: A group of people get stuck in a railway station because of a sudden rainstorm. One young man tries to make time pass by telling a ghost story to the others. When he can't remember the ending, an older man cuts in with a different story that's connected to the first. The rest of the movie intercuts this first setting in the station with the stories this man tells, all very very different. The first is a regular ghost story about a group of people getting stuck in a small cabin in the middle of a blizzard due to a plane crash. The second is a rather humorous piece about a samurai who finds a cellular phone. The third is a thriller about Chess (I know how it sounds, but it's really very good) and the last one is a sort of hi-tech love story.

I really really enjoyed this movie. All the stories are very different, yet they all seem to have the same type of mood in a way. The first story, the ghost story, was really effective in creating a very scary environment. I usually don't get very affected by this sort of thing, but this part felt very disturbing, a mark of very good horror craftsmanship. The third story, the Chess one, is my favourite. The one movie I can really compare this to is The Game, it has the same feeling of not knowing what is real and what's not. The 'Samurai Cellular' and 'Marriage Simulator' are pretty good, but not of the same quality as the other two stories.

Overall, this movie was a very pleasant surprise for me. I really hope that it'll be released on DVD with english subs soon.

"Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari" (or however you subdivide the title) appears to be, from the cover art, another of those popular Japanese horror flicks, a la "Ringu", "Tomie", et al. Well, that's only about 25% right. Unfortunately, the creepy cover art initially led me to overlook this title, despite its comparison to one of my favourite vintage TV shows, Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone". Upon closer examination, however, I must admit the concept of "Keitai Chushingura" convinced me to purchase the DVD.

As detailed elsewhere, the movie consists of four short films tied together by a creepy guy (credited as "Tamori") in a bus station who tells stories to others stranded by a downpour. The first, "Yukiyama" is the horror entree, starring Yada Akiko ("Saimin", "Aishiteiru to Ittekure"), who does her best "Blair Witch Project" impression. Tense, a little confusing, but well done. I kept thinking of the Snow Demon in Kurosawa's "Dreams". "Keitai Chushingura" was initially my favourite, since it brought a hilarious twist to the time-honoured Bushido legend of the 47 Ronin of the Ako Clan. This time, Oishi is portrayed as a reluctant womanizing hero who has to be coerced into his historically relevant action by the promptings of a caller from 300 years in the future who's part of an "historical accuracy study" or something like that. Good stuff. "Chess" is a surreal, clever twist on the game which seems like it came right out of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Finally "Kekkon Simulator" was a totally non-creepy, neat little romantic story featuring Inamori Izumi ("Long Vacation", "Hito Natsu no Propose", "Ashita ga Aru sa!"), which was touching without being excessively weepy. The only letdown was perhaps the final short monologue from Tamori-san, but it in no way detracted from a fine film. NOTE: As of 12/2001, I believe there are only Region 2 & 3 versions available on DVD, both of which have English subs.