KAIRO (2001)
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Haruhiko Kato, Kumiko Aso, Koyuki
Genre: Horror
Running Time: 125mins

Rating:

The ghost world is now full. The spirits of the dead have nowhere to go but here, with us on earth. Wandering lonely through their isolated existence they seek company, but take with them the lives of the living. Through a combination of sightings, physical encounters and a mysterious website, the spirits cause the living to reach desperation, desolution and eventually suicide.

Amidst this, Michi - a worker for a rooftop horticulturalist and Ryosuke, a technologically inept student are brought together by the fate of the spirit curse, which gradually takes hold of those close to them in a downward spiral of self-inflicted death and destruction. Together they must find a way to escape the rapidly spreading curse trying desperately to survive amidst a world in chaos.

Kairo is a horror masterpiece.

No other horror film has left me so much in awe and so breathless by the end credits. A film that chills you to the bone while also clinically explores our dependence upon technology and its anti-social, isolatory connotations, Kurosawa's film is a remarkable achievement. Continuing to let the story dictate the pace of the film, Kairo gradually builds ratcheting up the tension and suspense to almost unbearable levels.

Kurosawa's mastering of frame composition is once more used to spine tingling effect with Junichiro Hayashi's cinematography providing some lasting images that will haunt you long after the film has ended. Tireless effort has been put into the film to create a subtle, haunting atmosphere to make viewers shudder without having to resort to graphic detail. Painfully slow movements join shadows in the forbidden room, we can only watch aghast.

In one particularly powerful scene a woman leaps to her death from a factory tower, the moment is observed from afar with a wide shot yet follows her fall all the way to the ground in what appears to be a seamless, heart stopping take. Kurosawa adopts all the techniques at his disposal to create moments that will simply take your breath away leaving with only one option: to gasp in horror.

However, the expert sound design will truly make your skin crawl. The haunting sore that accompanies the spirits will linger long after the closing credits, while the subtle use of dropping all background noise to a stage of deathly silence is effective to the point of paralysis. Whoever thought that "tasukette" (help me) could be so nerve-wracking.

A large part of what makes me love Kurosawa's works is, ironically, the same thing that many discredit him for.

The ambiguity.

Kurosawa is not going to make it easy, and in a number of instances he won't explain ideas at all, but that is part of the challenge with his films. We each take something different from them, we all come to our own conclusions on what it all means (from the red tape on the door, to the apocalyptic finale).

Admittedly there are grey areas in Kairo, specifically is the genre trapping that occurs when characters continue the cliche of entering rooms and areas where any logical person wouldn't. However, the conviction of the largely youthful cast is strong enough to surpass these momentary lapses in logic. Furthermore, time is invested so that we actually do care about the fate of these characters. Whether it be the innocent, slightly naive but charming Kawashima (played by Haruhiko Kato), the distraught Michi or the lonely, desperate Harue all involved are indispensable to the plot and as such it would be all the more tragic to lose one of them regardless of who it should be.

Kairo has everything you could ask for in a horror film, a chilling sense of dread that in my opinion surpasses that of Nakata's much celebrated Ring, but also an intelligence and sophistication both in terms of plot and philosophical theme. This combination of cerebral and visual terror makes Kurosawa's film a truly satisfying experience.

Highly recommended.