Shikoku

i just finished this movie and really enjoyed it. i have never been a fan of American horror movies, however the latest batch of of horror movies from Asia such as the eye, phone, a tale of two sisters etc. have been great.

if you want a scary movie do not get Shikoku go watch phone or something else, this movie was a good drama dealing with the death of loved ones, and tragic love the supernatural aspects of this movie were mearly a back ground to provided loss and broken dreams. In my opinion this movie and the eye are not horror but Dramas with supernatural aspects

Really liked this movie, throughout it of course I was saying, "who is she? I've seen that actress before!" At the end of the movie, found out it was Go-Go Yubari from Kill Bill Vol. 1. This movie, like most Japanese horror movies was quite strange, but was also quite picturesque and well done. I kept expecting some sort of wild twist in the movie, but it never really came. There was a lot of guesswork as to who did what to whom, but the story was actually quite a bit simpler than that, and by the end, almost sweet. I highly recommend that you go to the foreign section of your video store and see if they have this movie. Although its quite old (1999) they may have the newly released DVD in stock. I can see why Chiaki Kuriyama has had so many film roles since this one, she definitely deserves it. (you can also find her in Ju-On, aka The Grudge, I believe she's the crazy girl in that one...)

This has an interesting story based on the shinto-religion. The island Shikoku has 88 temples and every year the priest go to each one of them in a certain order to make sure the people will prosper the following year (or similar), one priestess who lost her daughter walks the route the opposite way the same number that her daughter was old in order to resurrect her.

It begins very creepy when a woman returns from the city to visit her childhood village. It then turns into a mystery investigation delivering something else than what was promised. Recommended for horror fans.

Teenage girl Hinako returns to her home village on the Japanese island of Shikoku (which she left for Tokyo with her parents when she was a little girl) for the first time. Back then, a girl named Sayori and a boy named Fumiya were her best friends. Now Hinako meets Fumiya again, but Sayori died when she was 16. Hinako soon discovers that strange things are going on. Sayori's mother, a priestess, wants to bring her daughter back from the dead. 88 temples circle the fog-shrouded island as a seal to protect its inhabitants from the dead. But by traversing the temples in reverse order for every year of a deceased person's life, the seals can be undone and the dead person will come back to life. And Sayori's mother is about to travel the temples for the 16th time...

Shikoku is the smallest of the four big Japanese islands (the others are Honshû, Kyûshû, and Hokkaidô). Written in Kanji, "Shikoku" means "island of the four lands", but the title of this film changes the first Kanji - you still read it "Shikoku", but now it means "island of the dead". This island is still a remote place far away from the great Japanese cities, there are large, fog-shrouded forests and mountains and it makes a great setting for an eerie ghost story. The film was released together with Hideo Nakata's "The Ring 2" and produced by the same company, Asmik-Ace Entertainment. Beautifully filmed and filled with atmosphere and some very spooky moments, this is a highly recommended modern "shinrei-mono" (ghost story).

I'll be the first to point out that if you're a fan of the 'Ju On' series of films or something similar, you may find this a disappointment. It has a few creepy moments but overall it moves a steady, gentle pace to allow for the story to unfold. The 3 main characters at the foreground of this movie (Sayori, Hinako, and Fumiya) are each quite intriguing and flawed. But i'd have to say the character of Sayori is the most developed and faceted while the other 2 merely support her and the plot.

Now this was not a complaint of mine but of the boyfriend that watched this picture with me. So this may bother other would-be viewers. It is mostly shot with what seems to be a hand-held camera so it will wobble and shake. (Please correct me on this as I am unfamiliar with the many cameras and styles of shooting.) In specific moments of the movie, it seemed to add to the suspense. I thought they did a fair job of setting the mood as well. There were just a couple of times where say background music that had been edited in seemed to loud or didn't quite settle in with the flow of events. Particularly during some personal exchanges between Hinako and Fumiya.

The basic premise of this movie is set around Hinako, whom moved away from Shikoku as a little girl and has returned to take care of family business. She left behind 2 childhood friends, Sayori and Fumiya, that she was hoping to see again as well. Unfortunately she finds out that Sayori died when she was in high school and her mother, the local priestess lost her mind and has been on this pilgrimage for the past 8 years to visit the 88 temples on the island. Naturally strange things begin to happen once Hinako has started to settle in. She and Fumiya together start to investigate. Much to their horror, they find out that this pilgrimage Sayori's mother has been doing is apart of a ritual which would turn the island into the land of the dead!