Kakashi

A mysterious letter,the only clue left for Kaoru to search for her missing brother and the reason behind his sudden disappearance.Her blind but relentless search leads the girl to 'Kozakuta-mura',a cursed and insane village where people are mesmerized by the power of the Kakashi(scarecrow).Soon a series of strange things will be set in motion..."Kakashi" by Norio Tsuruta is a typically Japanese supernatural mystery that takes its inspiration from such great horror pictures as "The Wicker Man" and "Pet Sematary".The film is pleasant to watch with some gorgeous cinematography and fine lighting.The soundtrack is minimal and haunting and the mood is well-captured.The main theme in "Kakashi" is the endless cycle of death and rebirth and this is cleverly paralleled with various social concerns throughout.So if you want to see a poetic and atmospheric piece of horror give this one a chance.8 out of 10.

Effectively creepy Japanese horror, about a young girl searching for her lost brother. She follows his trail to a mysterious village, where the occupants are readying scarecrows – or kakashi – for a rural festival. Naturally the villagers and the kakashi are not as they seem.

Disappointingly, the ending of the film is a bit of a damp squib. Performances are also uninspiring; Nonami Maho is very pretty but seems unable to bring her character to life. Shibasaki Kou is terrific, but she doesn't get much in the way of screen time. Chinese cutie Grace Ip guests for some reason, which is very welcome, but her inclusion seems tacked on and unnecessary.

That said, there are some genuinely eerie moments during the film's opening hour or so, which put me in mind of the Wicker Man a few times. It's not a waste of time, by any means, but Kakashi could have been a whole lot better.

Although hampered by a budget that doesn't allow for sterling effects this is a creepy little thriller that works best when showing the least. The story has echoes of any one of a dozen other films from Spirited Away to Wicker Man, but there is something about the underlying tension and feeling that something thats not right thats makes the film watchable for me. Its the trip thats the joy here, not the destination simply because you'll probably know what that is way in advance of our heroine. As long as they keep the scarecrows in the distance this is a creepy little gem that should be seen by those who are willing to go with a good but flawed film.

Tsuruta Norio's "Kakashi" caught my attention because of the obscure mental association I made with the "Kakashi-Dori" festival held annually in the Kaminoyama-shi city in Yamagata-ken prefecture. I wonder if Tsuruta had this in mind when he made this film. If he releases a sequel called "Kase-Dori"... well, never mind. Besides being rather short and less-than-satisfying in its plot resolution, my primary complaint about this film is the horrid transfer on the Region 3 DVD which is quite good for the daylight scenes, but irritatingly pixelated during the low-light and night shots. And being a low-budget horror flick, this turkey has a lot of shadowy and nocturnal footage which I had a hard time following because my attention was constantly being diverted to the ever-changing patches of pixels fading in and out. Yuck. As for the movie, Yoshikawa Kaoru (Nonami Maho)is searching for her brother Tsuyoshi (Matsuoka Shunsuke), who has disappeared. A search of his apartment turns up an ambiguous and messily-scrawled letter from a girl in Kozukata-machi, a small rural village. Kaoru drives to Kozukata on the eve of their "Kakashi-matsuri" festival, where she finds the cliche "little town with a secret", along with her brother. Unless there is a longer version of the film out there, the character development is as thin as both the plot and the special effects budget. Perhaps the movie's budget was blown on bringing in HK actress Grace Ip to play the very out of place Kozukata resident who barely speaks any Japanese. She even has a Chinese surname in the movie, which does little to explain why she's there in the middle of the rural Japanese heartland. Shibasaki Kou (who reminds me of a short Esumi Makiko) plays the mysterious girl who lured Tsuyoshi to Kozukata, and does a decent job with the sparse camera time she gets. The one thing that impressed me about this movie was the excellent lighting and cinematography of the daylight scenes depicting the beauty of a small rural farming village. Other than that, let the renter beware and the buyer be laughed at.

Kakashi is not horror movie but it tries to be. It should be a werid Japanese drama. The movie has some great ideas but the director doesn't know how to finish them effectively. The movie if made again with all the great ideas could be a very effective horror movie. There some questions they never answered Why did Kaorus brother light his girl friend on fire? Why did the girl friend act so strange? Why was it so easy to find the village where Kaoru brother was? Why was the girl friend so powerful? and why did the dead become walking scarecrows? The movie was hard to understand. They really needed a screen writer to explain more and not go to fast. If the comic was this there's no way any Japanese person could understand what the hell was going on.

Very strange can't recommend it but if screen writers are looking for horror ideas watch this movie.

**