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Over the last
few years, Asian cinema has become more
and more popular in the United States. Films
such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
paved the way for action flicks and "The
Ring" introduced mainstream American
audiences to the extremely creative Asian
styles of filmmaking. Of course, in the
case of the latter, it was actually an American
made remake of a popular Asian title. Nonetheless,
these movies are growing in popularity.
There are only a handful of DVD studios
that are taking up the cause of Asian cinema
in the States, and Urban Vision (primarily
known for releasing high quality Anime titles)
has recently joined the ranks. Their new
line, AsiaVision, starts off this month
with the title "Curse, Death and Spirit,"
which is a collection of three stories directed
by Hideo Nakata. Nakata, for those of you
new to the genre is a highly regarded Japanese
director, who was the behind the popular
"Ringu" series, which became the
aforementioned American remake "The
Ring." Having compared "Ringu"
to "The Ring", there is no question
as to who delivered the more frightening
film.
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The three short films presented in "Curse,
Death and Spirit," were directed for Japanese
television by Nakata, and as such admittedly lack
some of the punch that his feature films deliver.
This is in no way a cut on his talent, but more
because of the budgetary constraints that he was
obviously out under. Some of the effects are not
the highest quality, and having filmed them entirely
on video diminishes some of their visual impact.
In spite of these issues, all three stories are
well worth watching.
In "The Cursed Doll", a young girl shares
a story with her friends of a doll she found hidden
in her house. Finding the doll would not have
been so bad, except that following the discovery,
she begins to hear voices in her dreams. Even
worse, the voice sounds as though it might belong
to her deceased sister. It is a fairly straight
forward story, and would have been a little bit
more frightening except that the acting isn't
very strong. It does get better towards the end,
so it does make for a fine start to the trilogy.
"The Spirit of the Dead" finds a widow
and her young son out on a camping trip. The mother's
hope is that she will be able to reconnect with
her little boy, who is still grieving over the
loss of his father. What should be nice family
outing, is turned on its ear (Hideo Nakata style)
when they are visited by an eerie woman who claims
that the boy is hers and will stop at nothing
to take him away.
Finally, we have "The Haunted Inn" where
we have three friends who opt to take a break
from the everyday routine. They choose to spend
the weekend at an inn, unknowingly picking one
that has a bit of a sordid past. What should have
been a quiet retreat turns into a nightmarish
experience for the girls, who are forced to repeat
the events that occurred before.
All three stories are well worth watching, though
there is noticeable improvement as you move through
each one. The last two stories are the best of
the three to be sure. I had actually hoped for
a little more from the Doll story, as I have a
thing about creepy dolls. The DVD delivers the
stories in their original Japanese language, with
the option of English subtitles. I definitely
prefer this as there always seems to be a lot
of quality (and in some cases… sense) lost
when these films are dubbed. Unfortunately, this
might keep the release out of the hands of a lot
of American viewers who simply cannot stand the
thought of sub-titles, but there is no real loss
here because most people that fall into this category
can't read to begin with.
"Curse, Death and Spirit" may not represent
the best of Hideo Nakata's work, but you can still
get a sense of his style present in each story.
It's a fine first release for AsiaVision, and
as a fan of Asian cinema I cannot wait to see
what comes next.
Directed by: Hideo Nakata
Extras: Trailers, Image Gallery
Specifications: Full Frame (1.33:1), Dolby Digital
2.0 Surround Sound
Studio: Urban Vision
Release Date: 3/7/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website
Website
We'll give Curse, Death And Spirit a B.
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