Asian Horror Rulez!
Story: "Would you like to meet a ghost?" This foreboding question is posed to a young man by his own computer, suddenly able to dial up to the Internet--by itself. Unfortunately for the characters in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's PULSE, inquisitive PCs are the least of their problems. What begins as the seemingly isolated suicide of a computer hacker in Tokyo leads to a series of mysterious disappearances and deaths in this bone-chilling thriller. As Michi (Kumiko Aso), a young woman working on a rooftop plant nursery, attempts to find out what happened to her deceased friend, a slacker named Kawashima (Haruhiko Katô) reports his computer's unusual behavior to Harue (Koyuki), an attractive tech specialist. Separately, they witness an unraveling horror which manifests itself in haunting digital images, coal-black stains, doors sealed with red tape, and lingering apparitions--all leading to a steady decrease in Tokyo's population. Like RING, another prime example of Japanese horror, Kurosawa's PULSE manages to take a B-movie plot and elevate to a level of both terror and artistry that's rarely, if ever, seen in the West. Rather than relying on gore and special effects, the film uses expert cinematography (courtesy of Junichirô Hayashi, also the cameraman on RING and Kurosawa's CHARISMA), bleak backdrops, creepy music, and the good ol' power of suggestion to create what eventually becomes an existential nightmare. To call PULSE "scary" would be a grave understatement; most viewers will never look at a roll of red tape the same way again.
Comments: Asian Horror Rulez!
In my opinion today's horror movies aren't REAL horror movies, but more comedies of a sick mind.
REAL horror are movies like ''Hellraiser'', ''It'' and ''The Thing'' for example.
Horror Movies are movies that you are supposed to get nightmares of.
When a teenager committed a murder and said on national TV that he did it, because he saw it in a movie, filmmakers weren't supposed to make movies anymore with that mutch horror-effect unfortunately. At least, U.S. movies!
In Asia no such thing, the Asian horror-movie makers never had this heavy burden on there shoulders and were free to experiment in there movies as they liked.
Today Present day More & more people step off from the ''USA Rulez!'' hype and go discover some other countries like Asian countries, Japan, China, Korea, etc.
And in movies. Especially when in a blockbuster movie it is mentioned somewhere that it originates from a Asian movie, and now with internet so easily accessible and easy to buy alot are expanding there movie-collection to Asian movies ( As have I ) .
Unfortunately i cannot speak ( YET ) Any Asian language, nor read it, though you CAN learn a great deal from these Asian movies slowly, but watch enough asian movies and you can speak it, as how majority of foreign kids learned to speak english in foreign countries.
I have the asian version of ''the grudge'' and ''the ring'' , i DID find those movies a BIT more scarier then this one though, but the STORY is better in this one and involves a modern subject ''loneliness due to modern technology''.
I think the message of the director was ''Do not try to escape in computers and internet, instead shut it down and hang with your friends, else you'll die alone''
In todays society we all depend to mutch on technology and it shuts us off from other people.
A good warning this movie, low budget, but NOT a average B-movie.Read full review
