Senritsu meikyû 3D

I gave it a chance and watched it twice just to see if I had missed some creative writing, directing, acting, props - anything. Even the actor interviews when asked what the movie meant the most frequent answer, "What ever you make of it." The usual plot device of making the viewer question whether what was being seen was taking place or was just in the mind of our central character just didn't fly. Just a not well thought out mess.

Some examples: 1. The long opening and closing scenes of a forest did not fit with anything in the movie which was centered about an amusement park and hospital. The focal structure in the film, a spiral staircase, seemed like an oddly out of place prop for either location. 2. The visuals of falling feathers and rising/falling bubbles contributed nothing. 3. The floating rabbit backpack, both as a physical form and as a go through walls form, was just meaningless effects. 4. The comatose girl who is presented as supposedly an avenging spirit, she's hooked up to various hospital monitors which if move would set off an alarm, is shown with dirty feet as if she was out in the world avenging. Yet, on one occasion shows up at a person's apartment. 5. The intermingling of the two time periods were at times actual physical events and at times visual or hallucinatory. Not consistent. 6. The police interviews which were intermittently injected to provide some cohesion and clarity, did neither.

Not a slasher or a tension edge of your seat horror movie but it makes up for it with above average 3d and a decent but confusing story. The filming was excellent and I watched it with dubbed english so hard to judge the actors. But a few jump scares some creepy characters and overall entertaining movie. glad I purchased the 3d bluray , unlike a LOT of horrible German 3d horror movies I shouldn't have purchased.

We're at a time with the rest of the world catching up with Hollywood in offering 3D content, since an explosion of screens with the right infrastructure put in place, and the marketing machinery already being rather successful in convincing audiences to accept having to put on an extra pair of plastic glasses, and to pay more to do so, means more money to be made in putting out a 3D film, whether shot with the right type of cameras, or done so doing post- production. The Shock Labyrinth, as the marketing language puts it, is touted as J-Horror's first live action 3D offering, and don't let the cheesy looking trailer fool you, it's actually much better than the teaser made it out to be.

Directed by Takashi Shimizu who was responsible for the original Ju On films as well as the American adaptation The Grudge, one wonders if he had preferred to stay within his comfort zone in yet having to craft a story with children and water, and a tale of revenge even, where a group of childhood friends gets an unexpected visit by one of their own 10 years after her mysterious disappearance. Things get stranger when it is learnt that she had presumably died, and as such, just who is this Yuki (Misako Renbutsu) who turned up. Even stranger is that the group of Ken (Yuya Yagira), Mikoto (Ryo Katsuji), Rin (Ai Maeda) the blind girl and Yuki's sister (Erina Mizuno) all seem to head back without a single recollection toward the scene of their misdemeanour, a house of horrors within the Fuji Q Highland theme park which is fit out to resemble a hospital.

The narrative is a strange brew of reality and fantasy, with even a time warp of sorts get thrown in, complete with the paradox of time travel, which makes it seem a little bit implausible for the non-linear narrative to hold water, other than to suggest that memories can be faulty, especially a collective one from some 10 years ago. The constant flash forwards and flash backs do make it a jarring experience, and forces you to work hard at piecing the fractured stories together, which didn't help when you allow the paradoxes to set in, or have the visuals interfere with solving the mystery of what exactly happened during that fateful day when the children decide to head off on their own to the labyrinth.

But to give credit where it is due, the story does try to add some depth to its characters as we navigate through their individual guilt trips of their involvement pertaining to Yuki's mystery, and even found some time to thrown in some romance into the mix, which on one hand may seem unnecessary, but provided a contribution to motivation on why things do go bump in the night. It examines that collective repressed memories that we tend to bury deep within our subconscious, and what more when this is shared amongst a group who wants to best forget what they're all directly and indirectly responsible for, becoming in turn the victims of their guilt and recipients of their just desserts which the resident spook of the film piles on.

And it is the execution of Yuki's revenge that exploited the best of its atmosphere within the confines of a house of horrors (strangely the title here) that comes complete with porcelain mannequins with grotesque features. The film possesses an incredible depth of field as well to bring out the best of its 3D, while not overdoing its attempts in throwing everything toward the screen, opting to instead take it really slow, like a hand reaching out slowly to grasp something. The character Rin also provided some opportunity to mimic the radar prowess of Daredevil's, which I thought was strange since she could actually see, and probably provided actress Ai Maeda some reprieve from trying to act blind all the time.

Most of the surprises and inevitable twists happen in the final half hour of the film, and while probably not reaching the standards set by the best in J-horror, The Shock Labyrinth certainly does have its moments, other than what you see from the trailer that contained relatively raw looking special effects, and with its numerous bunny scenes made it look rather fluff in treatment.

I really would have loved to like this more. And I tried to stay with it, as long as I could. You could argue about the 3-D or not. I will leave that aside and concentrate on the movie. A movie that starts off quite nicely. But as it progresses and with more riddles and things happening out of nowhere, you will loose focus of the movie and it's main characters after awhile.

And although it has a good idea as it's stronghold, it still is too long, for it's own good. It feels as if the running time, is twice as long, as it actually is. While not much is happening and you still loose the plot/focus of the story, it's hard to find many good things in this. I still liked the cinematography overall (not the 3-D effect mind you) and some story beats it took. But as many people here, I was expecting much more of this.

For a Japanese horror movie, then "Shock Labyrinth 3D" failed to live up to many of the other Japanese horror movies on the market, in the sense that it wasn't really scary and making you look over your shoulder every five minutes or so - that is, if you are expecting this movie to follow the 'standard formula' of a Japanese ghost movie.

That being said, then don't get me wrong. Even though this movie is not up to par with other Japanese horror movies in the same genre, then "Shock Labyrinth 3D" delivers anyway, and it plays well on having an interesting story that keep evolving and adding new aspects and angles to the same story all throughout the course of the entire movie. And that is what made "Shock Labyrinth 3D" work out so well.

Not forgetting to mention that they actually managed to pull off the 3D effects quite nicely. Of course it is nowhere near the spectacular effects of the 3D version of "Avatar", but still "Shock Labyrinth 3D" managed to deliver to nice effects and work the psyche just the right amount to actually creep under your skin.

I will not venture into reviewing the story, as this movie has the type of story that needs to be seen to be enjoyed in all its fullness. And if you enjoy Japanese movies, horror movies that is, they you should definitely check out "Shock Labyrinth 3D" as it brings something new and interesting to the horror scene. This is more of a psychological thriller with just a hint of horror, than it is actually a horror movie, because it plays so heavily on the psyche.

The story takes place in a run down building which is actually quite disturbing and confusing in itself, in its construction layout and with all the weird stuff that is placed inside it. Plus, the way they made use of the effects and visuals really helped to bring the mood of the setting to live in a great way. There were so many nice details in almost every scene.

As for the people cast for the movie, then I can't really claim to remember having seen any of them in other movies, at least not right on the top of my head. And people did good jobs with their roles, especially Misako Renbutsu (playing Yuki) and Erina Mizuno (playing Myiu), their performance was quite memorable and really played out with their hearts poured into their characters.

The musical score for the movie worked out well enough too, to help add to the mood of the movie. It was just subtle enough to be there in the background, and put in the front when something bizarre was taking place.

If you have the chance to watch the 3D version of "Shock Labyrinth 3D", go for it, don't settle for the regular 2D version, because this was meant to be enjoyed in 3D. I warmly recommend "Shock Labyrinth 3D" to anyone who is looking for a new breath of air to the Japanese horror scene.