Chime

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.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Chime" is a chilling 45-minute psychological horror film that masterfully blends mundane settings with a growing sense of dread. It tells the story of a middle-aged school teacher who is haunted by a recurring sound, a chime, that fills him with a strange sense of foreboding. As the film progresses, the teacher's life begins to unravel, and he becomes increasingly obsessed with the source of the sound and its unsettling implications.

Kurosawa's signature style is on full display in "Chime," with its deliberate pacing, unsettling atmosphere, and focus on the psychological state of its protagonist. The film's minimalist approach, with its sparse dialogue and focus on visual storytelling, creates a sense of unease and leaves much to the viewer's imagination. The sound design is particularly effective, with the recurring chime serving as a constant reminder of the unseen threat that looms over the teacher.

The film's ending is ambiguous and open to interpretation, leaving viewers to ponder the true meaning of the chime and its impact on the teacher's life. Some may interpret it as a descent into madness, while others may see it as a reflection of the teacher's own inner turmoil and anxieties.

"Chime" is a powerful and thought-provoking film that stays with you long after the credits roll. Its exploration of fear, paranoia, and the fragility of the human mind is both unsettling and unforgettable.

Kurosawa proving to us in just 45 minutes that he is still one of the best horror directors working today. Chime is a masterpiece in creating dread and paranoia told through Kurosawa's incredible talent of making the mundane feel absolutely terrifying, by flipping the genre of horror on its head and completely averting audience expectations, creating such a horrifying experience.

Watching this right after Cure highlights how closely they serve as companion pieces to each other. Just like Cure, this produces a spectacular audio-visual storm full of fear and anxiety which lingers in your mind long after it's ended. It offers zero explanation for the audience during the short runtime it gives you, leaving you in complete ambiguity, providing any answers only in interpretation. It creates a sense of reality and normality in some scenes, to be entirely replaced by an abrupt and intensely disturbing act of violence, leaving you unable to trust that any scene is safe. Extremely unsettling and philosophically haunting, one of the best horrors of the year.

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.

Renowned Japanese horror filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa returns with a distinctive and chilling addition to the genre. The story centers on Matsuoka, a former chef who conducts cooking classes while he seeks new employment. One day, a student voices his distress over an inexplicable sound that he cannot escape, which appears to be altering him internally, leading to a loss of self-control and even violent outbursts. The particularly unsettling aspect of this noise is its ability to propagate from one individual to another without any forewarning, rendering each moment of the film fraught with unpredictability and tension.

In a mere 45 minutes, Kurosawa employs a myriad of techniques from his extensive repertoire, crafting a film that achieves a level of creepiness and intensity in just a few scenes that surpasses the efforts of many horror films released this year.

"Chime" does not conform to the typical jump-scare format; rather, it evokes a lingering sense of dread that may resurface days later, leaving viewers with an unsettling image from the film etched in their minds. Watch this film of a filmmaker that's at the top of his game!