Saimin

Despite an involving opening and an intriguing premise, the film was undermined by choppy editing which left me wondering at times what the heck was going and on and which of the many characters was I watching. Despite getting scarier as it proceeded, the final revelation left me with more questions than answers. Perhaps I need to view it again -- but not today or tomorrow!

Only if you get hold of a copy of the book OPEN TO SUGGESTION (published in Britain in 1989 but suppressed in the USA by the CIA, who told numerous American publishers who were interested in it that it would be against the national interest to publish it) can you appreciate just how accurate this film is. This tensely directed Japanese film, directed by Masayuki Ochiai (who was also one of the three writers), is a rather garish and eerie thriller which becomes somewhat paranormal towards the end. Various people are suddenly committing suicide without explanation, and a police investigation tries to find out why. They all appear to go into a trance just before killing themselves and say that they can 'see the green monkey', so there is clearly a link of some kind, but none of the people appear ever to have met one another, and it is a deep mystery which seems impossible to solve. And who or what the green monkey is no one can figure out either. Eventually it becomes clear that they have all previously been hypnotised and a high-pitched sound has been triggering post-hypnotic revived trance states without warning, resulting in their deaths. As OPEN TO SUGGESTION (which includes a 150 year survey of documented cases of the criminal abuses of hypnosis) makes clear, approximately 5% of the population are what are known among hypnotists as 'highly-suggestibles', or 'virtuosos'. They are the ones who can easily be criminally abused by an unscrupulous expert hypnotist. A small minority of these are multiple personality cases. One of the leading characters in this film is a very pretty waif-like girl named Yuka Irie, played by Miho Kanno. As the film evolves, we discover that she is a multiple personality case and that one of her personalities even lives in a different Tokyo flat which is unknown to her main personality. This sort of thing is not at all unusual for a true 'multiple', and such cases have frequently been fully documented. Yuka Irie has been hypnotically abused, and heightening terror arises from this volatile situation, since multiples need to be handled very carefully under hypnosis or disaster can result, as it does here. It is often wrongly believed by the gullible public that 'no one can be made to do anything under hypnosis which is against his or her moral principles'. That is complete nonsense. It was a false story circulated by the stage hypnotists (one of which features in this story), and perpetuated by the television hypnotists, to encourage members of the public to come forward for the hypnotic entertainment shows without being apprehensive. Of course, hypnosis in the right hands of responsible people can accomplish near miracles in many ways, such as total suppression of pain, control of haemorrhaging, cure of psoriasis and most skin conditions, cure of phobias such as spider and flying phobias, cure of smoking addictions, and so on. There is also a psychiatric version known as 'hypno-therapy', which has also had excellent results much more quickly than standard psychiatric techniques, but can obviously only be practised by a small specialist minority of trained psychiatrists and not by the normal hypnotist. However, documented cases prove that in criminal hands, highly-suggestibles can be made to rob banks, commit murder, and even commit suicide. The world's security services use hypnosis to train assassins, and everything in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is pretty accurate, as also in the film TELEFON. It was Hitler's regime which first made hypnosis a major tool of state. Ferenc Volgyesi, the SS's master hypnotist, hypnotised more than 60,000 individuals during the Hitler era, and after the War (having originally been contacted and visited in person by the American hypnotist Clark Hull in the late 1930s), he was brought to America, called Frank, given a new life, and helped the American security services to set up their programs using hypnosis, most of which have never been publicly admitted or revealed. However, I do not wish to alarm the security agencies by embarrassing them too much, I merely mention this as historical background. What has happened since 1945 is secret and will unquestionably stay that way. But one fact is certain, namely that more than 50% of all hypnosis experimentation which took place in America after 1945 was done by the FBI, CIA, and other such organisations, was never published, and is still classified as 'top secret'. This will never change. I was told this personally by Professor Ernest Hilgard, former President of the American Psychological Association, and founder of the Stanford Hypnosis Lab. (See his classic book DIVIDED CONSCIOUSNESS if you really want to understand this film.) The title of this film, SAIMIN, is the Japanese word for 'hypnosis', and the video tape with English subtitles which I have of this film is entitled HYPNOSIS. 'Saimin' must be a loan word from Chinese, for the Chinese name for hypnosis is 'cui mian', which is pronounced 'tswaymien', which sounds almost like 'saimin', thus indicating that one is derived from the other. Since I never heard of the Chinese borrowing anything from the Japanese, but the Japanese have borrowed countless things from China over the millennia, including many of their written characters, in my opinion this word must be Chinese in origin. Until I saw this film, I was unaware that there were people in Japan who were so knowledgeable about hypnosis, and especially who would or could advise filmmakers to make a film like this. That in itself is something of an enigma, for those who like enigmas. But meanwhile, anyone who has a serious interest in hypnosis can profit by seeing this remarkably gripping and harrowing tale, though it is pretty scary and over-dramatic. Also, not all girls who run amok under hypnosis are as cute as this one, which all goes to show that movies are movies. No movie wants an ugly crazed, hypnotised girl.

After a three unrelated suicides occurs in Japan, a middle-aged detective along with young psychiatrist starts to puzzle the case. A very 90's Japanese horror film which go into many direction, but it's ok.

To be honest, I'm just not the biggest fan of Japanese horror movies because of the simple reason once you have seen one of them you have basically seen them all already. All of the genre movies are more or less being the same but every now and then they do something original and unexpected, with this movie as a great example of that.

In the beginning of this movie it's being quite unclear which directing the movie is heading toward. It began sort of good but formulaic and it only took a turn and different shape at about its half way point. After that moment the movie really took off and became a real great and fascinating one to watch. It's really not a typical horror movie, due to its original approach of the story.

I really like the concept of this movie and once Hollywood will start to notice this movie they will deem it interesting and original enough for an American remake, no doubt about that. It's really not a typical average ghost or killer type of story. The movie actually has lots of different horror elements in it, which all work out great together as well. It also helps to keep the movie an unpredictable one.

It's also really a very well made movie. It's a little movie, that without a doubt did not had an awful lot of money to spend but nevertheless it's a very good and highly professionally looking one. The directing is just great and the movie really manages to create a great dark and tense atmosphere. The build up in some of the sequences is just great.

The movie also has some very original killings in it. So horror lovers that are getting fed up with seeing the same type of- and unimaginative killings over and over again should be able to appreciate what this movie is doing with its killings. It's quite insane and of course everything is far from likely but I was absolutely loving it all.

An unexpectedly great and enjoyable original movie with its genre.

8/10

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When I saw this movie, which was only last night, I was bored with it. However, it wasn't until Yuka, the possessed young girl, came on screen when I suddenly got a little weary.

Then, there follows a rather horrific line of suicides, each one more gory than the previous one.

Saga, a young Japanese man, and an old detective, lonely since his wife divorced him a few years before, turn out to investigate the strange case, and holds young Yuka as a suspect.

A very bad mistake.

From there, it's just nearly two hours of hair-rising, suspenseful fear. Sometimes Yuka's behavior would change; for example, if she was feeling lost and was dangerously depressed (this poor girl was "abused all her life and never loved", one character remarked), she would suddenly stand straight, eyes wide open, and say: "I... am... a... friendly... alien... I... have... no... intention... of.. hurting... you".

To tell the truth, this scene was supposed to be tense and suspenseful. But it got a laugh from me, since I am indeed a young teenager and was more into black comedy than horror, but later it scared me.

Yuka says (or I think it was someone else) that she is "chased" by THE GREEN MONKEY (some sort of alien, I do not know. Or maybe a ghost. This is never explained at all in the movie, not even at the end).

Is this all just an act? Or is there really supernatural events happening? Who knows? What really happens is never fully explained at all in this movie, only about 10% of it is explained, equally matched with the disturbing climax.

In spite of its unpopularity and lack of profanity (actually, this movie contain no swear words -- not even the "f" word or "s" word or even Damn! That is just so cool!), I give this movie a 10/10. Bravo, well done!