Chime

I thought I'd give it a try. A 6.8 on the IMDB is pretty good for a horror movie, and I am a vivid Horror fan, but boy was I duped! It started OK. A Japanese town is shown in quite a depressive looking view. But then...... a knive, and another knive, and lots of cans in plastic bags. Why are there so many cans in plastic bags? I just didn't get it. Did I miss the story somewhere. The movie is 45 minutes, so is the story in the missing minutes. What happened? Why. A teacher who hears a noise, am I deaf. What noise. What the f.... did happen in this movie. Yes, a beautiful tree outside the building. Oh that's the end....what happened. What was I watching?

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, once again, is able to craft a suspenseful, slow-paced, and psychological story using his explorative direction choices on the exercise of horror, dread, and terror.

For 45 minutes, it's atmosphere and it's subtle uses of horror and tension is mundane, yet, purposeful in the good ways to crawl right into your skin. What Kurosawa is great with his horror works is that he doesn't use much gore and rather uses the terrifying atmosphere and concept to craft the dreariness and creepiness within his narratives, and this short succeeds with it. Provided with solid performances and a good pacing.

If you like Kurosawa, I recommend it.

Let's get things straight: this short is not for everyone. Perhaps even more so than feature-length works of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It's mundane, it doesn't care about answering questions or following the traditional rules of storytelling. You shouldn't try to decode it from the point of everyday rationality or even the traditional cinema structure.

Instead, the movie is interested into raising an issue that was already present The Cure, updating it and setting the mood that compliments the idea. From my point of view, it's not so much a movie about depression, but a movie about the virus of violence that infects those who're troubled with their lives. As the movie progresses, we feel that the virus of violence spreads more and more. I think in a current day and age it's a really important idea, because sometimes I feel like the violence starts capturing minds of more and more people even in their everyday life.

The lonely and mundane tone complements this idea by suggesting on how this disconnected, distant and superficial relationships complement the development of the virus.

So yeah, I don't think it's the best of Kurosawa, but still, I feel like it's an interesting and important short movie. Just please, don't try to watch it as a conventional horror movie or even a conventional movie in general.

Best part here: It's only 45 minutes. I can't even imagine the horror and the pain i would face if it was longer. And i don't mean, in a good way. Look, i respect Asian horror and there are some great movies. Of course, there are some great movies overall in which some things were unexplained. Some times, ambiguity is even necessary, all the mysteries don't need to be solved.

But, this was too much. This is so cryptic and enigmatic that made me don't care at all, i mean, who are those people and why they suffer? Why should i invest? I am not even sure it's cryptic, maybe there is nothing beneath the surface, maybe it's just a mess, this is too random to be called an enigma.

I gave it 5 stars because it's well acted and well directed. Visually, it's good, i can't rate lower a film when so many aspects of film making are above average.

But, that's it.

Chime: Japanese horror film which is lean and mean, clocks in at 45 minutes. Matsuoka is a teacher at a cookery school, gets some oddball students, they're just amateurs, So he's not that shocked when a student, Tashiro complains about hearing a chime noise. But Tashiro goes on to say that half of his brain is a machine and fatally stabs himself in the neck with a cleaver to display his brain. Then Matsuoka starts to hear the chime and tragic circumstances ensue. Things are in free fall, the chime gets louder, more people hear and react violently. Matsuoka's family, an incompetent detective, Matsuoka's attempts to get a job as a chef all add to a sense of strangeness. It's also implied that Matsuoka has committed other crimes. You'll mull this film over long after the credits toll. Maybe it should have been longer. Written and Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. 7.5/10.