By the time Japanese surrealist and horror
filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 film Pulse reached the United States, he was
already coined ‘the Godfather of J-horror’.
Minimalist, elliptical and methodically paced with an uncanny ability to
present modern day Tokyo, Japan as a rusty derelict in decay and ruin, the
prolific young auteur not to be confused with relation to the world-renowned
Akira Kurosawa rapidly carved out his niche in a territory overrun with new young
horror directors such as Takashi Miike, Shinya Tsukamoto and Takashi
Shimizu.
As with the aforementioned three filmmakers and
germane to the Japanese film industry, Kiyoshi Kurosawa didn’t limit himself to
primarily directing theatrical feature films, leaving ample room to dabble in
and out of V-Cinema and television features/series. In between his masterful 1997 crime thriller Cure
and the loosely related 2000 semi-sequel Charisma, Kurosawa returned to the small
screen with a quickie in the form of Séance, a film which continued in the
director’s tradition of surreal gothic horror.
Loosely based on the 1961 Mark McShane novel Séance
on a Wet Afternoon which was also made into a film in 1964, Kurosawa’s reworking
of the material transposes the setting to Japan with some slight deviations
from the source. Surrounding a psychic
medium named Junko (Jun Fukubi of Pulse) and her sound effects designer husband
Koji (Koji Yakusho), Junko finds herself life in shambles when her abilities to
communicate with the undead become at odds with her daily job duties.
Eager to prove the validity of her psychic
abilities to a skeptical world, she becomes involved in a police investigation
involving the kidnapping of a young girl in the hopes of locating her. However, in a bizarre turn of events, the
search lands Junko and Koji into deeper, hotter waters than they initially
bargained for and what initially began as an attempt to help the investigation
rapidly descends into a waking nightmare for the young couple.
Produced by Kansai Telecasting Corporation and shot
on film despite being intended for television, Kurosawa’s subtle reimagining of
the 1961 novel with slight alterations to the chain of events joins Cure and Charisma
by being an enigmatic, atmospheric thriller that poses far more questions than
it answers. As with the prior theatrical
features, Séance is heavy on bleak tonality with intentionally desaturated
colors and dense grain levels thanks to Takahide Shibanushi’s moody fullscreen
cinematography and frequent collaborator Gary Ashiya’s somber electronic
score. Performances from the two leads
are especially strong with Kurosawa’s favorite leading man Koji Yakusho
exhibiting a mixture of fear, anxiety and guilt with a careful choice of words.
While not overtly aiming for screams in the way his
Pulse did, Séance like Cure and Charisma creates a mood of palpable spooky
unease that burrows deep into the viewer’s subconscious, making the proceedings
and denouement far more difficult to easily dismiss. That many of the film’s most unnerving scenes
take place in broad daylight, including one shot of a spirit floating freely
and silently in a crowded public setting, are a testament to Kurosawa’s uncanny
ability to creep out the viewer with the slightest and subtlest of effort. Some may consider this to be one of the
director’s lesser works for being so small in scope and having to restrain
himself from his usual bevy of blood and gore to appease network censors, but for
my money it’s a stellar example of how much Kurosawa was able to do with so little
resources at his disposal.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki