Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a made-for-TV anthology film from 2004. That movie is "Dark Tales of Japan".
And with that phrase alone, I have summarized the entire plot to you guys in a nutshell. It's an anthology film, and it has a few different short stories centered around Japan. Which might be prove to be interesting because I don't believe I've ever covered a live-action anthology film outside of the U.S. The only one I can think of is "Memories" from a few years ago, however, that was one was animated and, much like with this film, it was also from Japan. So this'll technically be the second anthology film I've covered from the Far East.
Now, I'm looking at the back of the DVD case here, and there's about 5 different stories here, along with the titles for all of these short stories. So the good news here is that I don't have to look it up online to figure it out because the back of the DVD case was kind enough to list them. So I can go over certain stories after I'm done watching the movie. Speaking of which, they've also listed each director for these short stories. Sadly, I don't really recognize anybody here, outside of one, who's named Takashi Shimizu. He's the gentlemen who produced the two Japanese "Grudge" movies, along with the American version. I've not seen any of the "Grudge" films, so I can't really comment on them. But he's the only one I recognized, thanks to the credits advertising what films he's made.
So, beyond him, and what I just talked about, I'm going into this film completely blind here. I'm hoping for it to be really decent, however, I'm not sure if will be or not. The only way I'm gonna find out for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Dark Tales of Japan".
3 minutes later
OK, so this Spiderwoman that I'm seeing here is apparently wearing red clothing and has white shoes on her feet. And while I will admit that it does look a little bit creepy when viewed from afar, it doesn't really look scary at all. Just thought I'd mention that.
2 minutes later
Okay, I will admit, that actually does look a little bit creepy there, just seeing more body parts growing from her body. Granted, the effects for it are rather cheap, but I still think it actually looks kinda impressive.
17 minutes later
All right, well, I will say that, while that story was a little bit dull, the ending to it was actually rather creepy. Again, the effects for it are a little bit cheap and goofy-looking, but overall, that story was OK. So, I guess it's on to story number 2.
7 minutes later
So the reason why this guy set up red tape all over his apartment is just so he can get evidence of this woman that he can't see that was always watching him, and most likely killed him, too. Granted, I'm not totally sure so why exactly he needed to use red tape of all things, but then again, I wouldn't even think of that to begin with if someone was always watching me like that.
3 minutes later
Wait, that's it? That's the whole story? That story sucked! At least the first story had something of a decent narrative to it. This one had nothing! Well, I'm certainly hoping the third story's gonna be better. Can only go uphill from here, right?
4 minutes later
OK, I have a question here. So this woman, Mayu, has discovered some kind of symbol on her apartment door, which was covered in blood, and there were also some dead flies on the ground in front of her door. And the next day, this guy, who I guess is suppose to be Fukuda, has a bandaged hand on him, and she immediately suspect that it might've been him who had made all that. How does she know that's it's him, though? Is it because of the bandaged hand? That, to me, isn't really conclusive evidence that he's the one who did that. I just think we might be jumping to conclusions here is all.
9 minutes later
OK, never mind, he *was* responsible for putting all that shit on her apartment door. And just based on what I've been seeing, he apparently has homemade VHS tapes of all the girls that he apparently "cursed", I guess. But wait a minute, how does Mayu's mother know about all this, let alone trying to sacrifice herself to save her daughter from being sacrificed? Am I missing something here, because I'm totally lost here, guys.
4 minutes later
OK, that was genuinely fucking creepy as hell, guys. Just...what the fuck was that thing?!
2 minutes later
O...K, well, that story ended on a rather odd note there. Still, I can't quite get over how creepy that face was. Anyway, I'm hoping the next two stories are worth it, because, so far, this anthology has been a little bit on the uneven side.
8 minutes later
Well, I was totally off on that one, guys. That story was actually worse than the second story. I didn't think that was actually possible, but somehow, this story found a way to suck even harder! I really wasn't expecting that.
7 minutes later
You know what I find a little bit off-putting, guys? It's that the 3 people who have been inside this elevator have not moved an inch from where they've been standing. Even when the guy who entered the elevator with them, they still haven't fucking moved at all. Yes, I understand that there's not much room to move around in an elevator, but I still find that really kind of off-putting, you know what I mean?
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Dark Tales of Japan". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. God, where do I even start with this one...? Well, um...I guess I can say that the movie was sorta average. I can't really say that it flat out sucks, but it's in no way amazing either. Like I said earlier, it's mostly ranging on the uneven side, if not just barely reaching on average.
Before I start talking about the movie itself, I actually want to start with something that I normally never talk about when it comes to these reviews. I want to start with the DVD menu system. See, guys, normally, whenever I'm watching an anthology, usually, those films are stitched together in one setting, thus making it a full feature length movie. However, this movie does it's anthology on a different level. Because rather than just going through the stories one by one in a normal setting, it actually brings you back to the DVD menu screen after finishing it's story. Which is a very odd way of doing it because I've never seen an anthology of any sorts do that sort of thing.
Now I normally wouldn't be complaining about this too much, if not for the fact that there seems to be some content missing. See, on the back of the DVD case, it has a synopsis where it describes the movie's supposed framing device of a bus picking up a lone stranger at midnight and she begins to tell her stories in a hushed tone. And none of that is in the actual movie! I checked, just to make sure of this, and it doesn't exist. The only things that are available are the short stories that are actually presented on the DVD menu screen and subtitle settings. The latter wasn't really an issue because I immediately got English subtitles while watching it in it's original Japanese audio. So what happened to the rest of the content that was supposed to be in this movie? I don't know what happened to it. My only theory is that it got cut out from it's original television broadcast in Japan and what was written on the back of the case here is just a misprint of something that was supposed to be in here, but isn't. Now mind you, this entire anthology isn't really that great, but I really hate it when there's content here that's supposed to be in this movie, and yet, for whatever baffling reason, doesn't exist here.
Now...seeing as how I can't talk about the framing device, I may as well just talk about the movie that's actually presented here. And seeing as how I'm talking about an anthology here, I'm gonna have to start off with the weakest story...which is gonna be a little bit of a challenge, because the selection of short stories for this anthology aren't really that great to begin with. If I had to pick the weakest story, it would have go to the fourth story, which is called "Blonde Kwaidon". In it, there's some producer who's supposed to be meeting up with an executive producer in the morning about an audition of sorts. As for our main character himself, he is totally horny for blonde girls, specifically, American blonde girls. And by the end, he has, I guess, hallucinations about a blonde woman, who eventually kills him by the end. It really didn't make any sense at all. And what's really funny about this story is that, for a movie that's called "Dark Tales of Japan", this fourth story does *not* take place in Japan. It takes place in Hollywood, because that's where the setting took place in as we see our main character being driven by taxi while calling out to all of the blonde girls that he sees passing by. Like I said, the story doesn't make any sense, and it's easily weakest story of this entire anthology.
The second weakest story would have to go to "Crevices", the second one. Mainly because the story just feels so rushed that you could classify this one as more of a school fan project than part of an actual anthology. The story itself is only 10 minutes long, and because it's so short, it really doesn't have any time to flesh out any ideas that it may have had. What I could pick out from it is that some guy moves into an apartment after the previous owner disappeared, or as it's revealed later on, he was killed. And we see that immediately upon entering the apartment, there was red tape plastered all over the the place. And at the time, I didn't understand why. Well, part of the reasoning has to do with the film's title. In case you're not aware. the title is in reference to something like narrow openings, which is why you see the guy in the video tape, taping up his apartment with red tape, which is how all of the creepy-looking hands come up and, well, kill their victims, I guess. Again, it really doesn't make much sense. But then again, seeing as how this story didn't have much of a narrative to speak of, I can't really say it's as awful as I had reacted earlier.
As for the best story, well, that's gonna be harder to decide, because I really can't pinpoint one particular story that I liked. "Spiderwoman" was probably the more cohesive story, if not a little bit on the dull side. "The Sacrifice" didn't really make too much sense, and honestly would've worked better as a regular feature length movie, and the last story "Presentiment", while it had an interesting concept, still felt like it didn't really take any full advantage with it's story. All three stories each had their share of flaws that it's really hard for me to pick out which one I liked the most. They all range on just being rather average at best, which is rather disappointing to say, because usually, I can pinpoint one story that I enjoyed from almost any other anthology film that I've seen. Well, except for "Fright House", because that movie was complete shit. This one, though, isn't complete shit, just a little bit disappointing, really.
So yeah, I think that by itself is how I feel about the writing in this anthology. It just feels, well, really uneven. Yeah, I understand that I've been using that word quite a bit in this review, but I really can't think of any other way that I can describe this movie to you guys. Something about it just feels off to me that I can't quite put my finger on. Again, it's not awful by any means, but with how it currently is, along with the missing content, just feels incredibly standard and unfinished to me. Now as for the acting itself, well, it's fine, really. Mind you, this movie doesn't have an English dub, so I gotta go by off what I've got here, and, like I already said, the acting here is fine. I can't say it's great, but it's certainly not bad either. I would say maybe a couple of the actors here sorta hammed it up a bit. But aside from that, the acting here is just fine for what it is.
Special effects in this movie are...OK, at best. Mind you, since this movie was made for TV, don't expect much here, as most of these movies were most likely filmed on a rather low budget. The first story I want to mention, in particular, because that one probably has the cheapest effects out of all 5 stories here. The one that's gonna stick out to you is the CG, which there really isn't a whole lot of here in general, but most of it doesn't appear until the end of the first story and it looks, well, rather cheap and goofy as shit. Which, honestly, I actually didn't mind the effects here being cheap, because they actually have a unique charm to it that helps make the movie stand out a bit from all the others. Not that the effects in the other stories are bad or anything, they're actually halfway decent for low budget standards. But to me, "Spiderwoman" had it best when working with it's low budget effects. Second place would probably have to go to that creepy-looking face in "The Sacrifice" Yeah, guys, I still can't quite get over how creepy that face looked, it really is *that* creepy-looking.
Camerawork here is pretty good, although I did notice something rather odd. See, most of the short films here were shot on video, which I can appreciate, because I feel like that's what also helps make this movie stand out a bit. The only exception to all this is "Blonde Kwaidon", because that was the only story there which was filmed more professionally rather than being shot on video. And while that's all fine and good, it also feels really jarring to see because you had three stories prior to that one being shot on video, and to see this one being filmed with a slightly higher grade camera just looks a little out of place to me. Maybe if this story was the last one I watched instead of the actual fifth one "The Presentiment", I probably would've not minded it as much. However, seeing as how this entire anthology is being presented one at a time via the DVD menu screen, it really makes the viewing on this anthology really an odd viewing experience. At least for me anyways.
So yeah, the camerawork here is mostly fine for what it is. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mix here isn't too bad. The score here I honestly don't remember, because there really isn't a whole lot of music to begin with. So I'm just gonna count it as being unmemorable.
So, with all that said, guys, when it comes down to it, am I able to recommend "Dark Tales of Japan"? Well...if you find it for cheap somewhere on DVD, then sure I can maybe recommend it there. However, just don't expect this as a traditional anthology film. You just have to go through the movies one by one via the DVD menu screen. Granted, I understand it's really strange, but, at the very least, it's quick and easy to access. I still don't like how there's cut content from this film, but it is what it is, for better or for worse. So yeah, unless you find this cheap somewhere on DVD, then you can probably just skip this, unless if you're a big fan of horror movies and you want to see something that's slightly different. For me, though, I'm not gonna be watching this thing again. It's really disappointing to me, and thus, I see no reason for me to keep it for my DVD collection. So with that in mind, I'm gonna go and watch something better. Perhaps maybe I'll just go and rewatch something like "Battle Royale" again. I haven't seen that one in a good long while and I now just got the sudden urge to go and rewatch again after eyeing it in my DVD collection. So I'm gonna go do that next after I get done uploading this review.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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