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Dom Robinson reviews
Tartan Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: TVD 3679
- Running time: 92 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 0, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: Japanese
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras:Tartan Trailer Reel, Trailer, Erika Franklin’s film notes
Director:
- Takashi Shimizu
(The Death, The Grudge 1 & 2 (US remakes), Ju-on: The Grudge 1-3, Marebito, Parasyte, Reincarnation, Tomie: Re-birth)
Producer:
- Takashige Ichise
Screenplay:
- Takashi Shimizu and Masaki Adachi
Music:
- Kenji Kawai
Cast :
- Nagisa Sugiura: Yûka
Matsumura: Kippei Shiina
Some people believe that Reincarnationhappens to all of us and that once you die you’re not just gone forever, but your spirit liveson and enters another body just about to be born. Others reckon it’s a load of nonsense, butas to who’s right, well, no-one’s ever been ‘re-born’ and given conclusive proof that they hada life before their current one.
However, Nagisa Sugiura (Yûka) believes she lived a previous life and regularly hasflashbacks about it. She’s also a struggling young actress and looking to break into the big-timein one of the lead roles for horror director Matsumura’s (Kippei Shiina) latest flick retellingthe real-life events about a spooky-looking hotel where a man went on holiday with his family, he wentnuts and murdered eleven people in the building, including his wife and children, before finally committingsuicide. Could this, therefore, have as high a tension factor as – and be a Japanese take on – Kubrick’sclassic The Shining?
The rampage of death all took place just before Nagisa was born and as preparation for the moviebegins she has apparent flashbacks making her believe she was there at the time, but was she, asshe’s increasingly starting to believe, the last girl to be murdered in the hotel – the part she’sbeen cast for, albeit as an older age, since she’s about 18 whereas the girl was around 6 – orhas she just been reading too many books about the subject while picking up this and that aboutit along the way?
The latter is the notion put forward by a professor giving a lecture on the topic, a lecture attendedby college girl Yayoi Kinoshita who has also been dreaming of the same place and wants to find out more.It comes across as two separate stories which will make sense as the movie progresses, but until thingsslot together Reincarnation does feel rather disjointed as a whole. No wonder Nagisa appearsto wig out more and more throughout, her heightened state obviously attracting the director, makinghim think she could do “frightened” better than any other choice for the role.
Overall, while this is definitely engaging in the final third, it’s not particularly scarythroughout, just rather odd. This could be explained because it uses a lot of ideas I’ve seen before.Some wind blows on the back of a girl’s head to attract attention that something’s wrong(e.g. Final Destination),when spooky faces appear they look like they’ve escaped from a Chris Cunningham video for Aphex Twinand there’s a creepy doll who also has a central role in the film (e.g. Child’s Play).
Similar toPremonition andInfection,there’s more to enjoy than there is to criticise so I look forward for certain to future titles in this”J-Horror” collection, although – again – one sneaky thing about this release is that whilethere’s an 18-certificate emblazoned on the cover, the film itself is actually a “15” according to theBBFC’s website, so the increase must be accounted in the trailers, not all of which I’ve watched asI don’t want to spoil a future viewing experience.
Oh, and there isn’t much of a cast list above as I couldn’t find a proper one on the IMDB and I can’ttranslate Japanese from the closing credits.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen and looks clean and free of defects, portrayingwell an eerie and drab look to the set of the hotel and how things change in the mind of Nagisa.
Soundwise, I went for the DTS 5.1 audio track, which has many fantastic deep bass rumblings in thesoundtrack and is a brilliant demo piece. It’s also massively clever how it starts off being quietwhen just dialogue is taking place, then can thunder that bass in like you won’t have experienced fora long time.
The extras fairy must’ve taken the ‘teeth’ of the supplements away from this DVD as there’s notmuch to tuck into:
Original trailer (1:15):Presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen, it gives away too much so don’t watch until you’ve seen the film.
Trailer Reel:Five more trailers for other Tartan terror movies: Premonition, Infection, Old Boy, Lady Vengeance,Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Three… Extremes
Overall, a film that passes the time but with very disappointing extras.Inside the box with the chapter listing can be found Erika Franklin’s film notes.
There are subtitles in English only, plus the option to remove them which is good as a video would haveto have them burned into the print. There are just 16 chapters, but something needs to be done about theseas many run between 6-10 minutes which is too long, really. Finally, there’s a short piece of the musicand CGI on the main menu with a swirly set of images that doesn’t spoil the movie.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.