Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Pluskylang Great Film overall

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The Movie Diorama Now the more knowledgable ones amongst you may know that Hollywood remade this a few years later after this was originally released in 2001. Do yourself a favour and do not watch it. I repeat: Do. Not. Watch. It. Instead, go out and get the original. A group of young people in Tokyo start to experience strange phenomena including missing colleagues, technological glitches and unusual happenings. As suicide rates increase, three strangers scavenge the city to find answers. This is not your usual J-Horror. Yes, there are ghostly illusions that slowly creep towards the camera (which freaked me the hell out) but beneath this is a central metaphor regarding loneliness. How the utilisations and ever-growing prominence of technology will only serve to isolate us from reality. Exploiting social media and the internet into a horror film was inspired, and director Kiyoshi Kurosawa injected a sense of existential dread within every scene. An incredibly original concept back in 2001 that has clearly inspired many newer small budget horrors (Friend Request, Unfriended etc.). Kurosawa features some haunting cinematography, with the help of Junichiro Hayashi, which really hones in on the horror elements that the film required. I mean, who knew staring at computers and waiting for images to move could be so unnerving!? A few ambiguous scenes, like a website that asks the compelling question: "Do you want to meet a Ghost?" which for the most part work. Seriously though, if you see that...smash the computer with a hammer, burn the remains and bury the ashes. Don't just unplug it! Fools! Unfortunately, the third act loses all intrigue and suspense that the first two acts built, and settles for an apocalyptic tone. Personally, far too grandiose for a story that feels better on a smaller scale. I also felt too disconnected with the main characters, struggled to become invested in them. Having said that, Pulse is a great modern J-Horror and a dark reflection of our growing digital world.

Mark Turner In the early 2000s a string of horror films were made in Japan that has been referred to as "J-horror". These films were huge hits there and made their way to the US where fans were fascinated with them. So much so that Hollywood took notice and began remaking them left and right. Probably most famous of these are THE RING and THE GRUDGE. Another early entry was PULSE starring Kristen Bell but it wasn't as well received. Now Arrow Video has released a great version of the original film on blu-ray for fans to enjoy.The story involves two separate groups of friends experiencing paranormal encounters that are leaving a mark on them, some literally. The first group works together in a business that supplies plants to buyers. When their tech guy fails to show for work or answer his phone, they check up on him. While there, he walks into another room and hangs himself. Gruesome enough but then they begin to look at a disc he left behind which shows ghostly images from his apartment. A return visit has them exposed to his ghost as well.The second story involves a college student who finds something odd going on as well. When he asks a professor to help, they too discover ghostly images online. These images have an effect on some that view them and they begin to disappear. As someone hypothesizes what happens to souls when they leave here? Do they go to another dimension? And then the question is raised what happens when, after the millions that have died over time, that dimension begins to fill up? Do they try and make their way back? Eventually the two stories intersect with the leads of both uniting to try and discover the answer to these questions. It is their journey and what they discover that makes the film more chilling than you would expect.Some will be turned off to the way this story unfolds. The back and forth between tales, the dismal look of the entire landscape and the somber tone that it emits start to finish. This is not an in your face or jump start scare style film. It is one that creeps into you, crawls under your skin and makes you look over your shoulder even though you know nothing is there. It takes the ghost story we've become acquainted with and melds it with the world of computers, even if these computers look cumbersome since the movie was made in 2001. The pace is slow as the horror unfolds before your eyes. This makes for a movie that deserves attention.Arrow Video, as always, presents this in the best form possible with a hi def 1080p transfer. The extras include a new interview with writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a new interview with cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi, THE HORROR OF ISOLATION a new video appreciation featuring Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, an archive making of documentary, premiere footage from the Cannes Film Festival, cast and crew introductions from the opening day screenings in Tokyo, trailers and TV spots and a reversible sleeve with newly commissioned artwork.

Robyn Nesbitt (nesfilmreviews) "Pulse" is a compelling, haunting, and insightful portrait of disconnection, loneliness, and the impersonal nature of technology. From the opening shot of the lone vessel adrift on a vast, turbulent ocean, Kiyoshi Kurosawa establishes a pervasive sense of foreboding and unnaturalness. The sequences throughout are effective in their restraint -- Kurosawa has no interest in shock scenes or excessive gore."Pulse" follows two intersecting story lines. One involves a young woman (Kumiko Aso) who works at a plant nursery in a high-rise building, whose investigation of a colleague's suicide leads her to some very murky places. The second strand follows a computer-illiterate student (Haruhiko Kato) who teams with a female geek (Koyuki) who's researching paranormal phenomena on the Internet. These characters encounter mysterious and frightening images on their computer screens. The images are linked to various disappearances.Significantly more original than American internet-related horror films, Kurosawa effectively focuses on the fear and melancholy resulting from the urban isolation that the Internet promotes. He is able to establish a sinister atmosphere with dark interiors, diffused tonal lighting, shadows, and delayed focus shifts. Kurosawa is less interested in tying up loose ends than in creating a sense of melancholy and depicting psychological states like dislocation. A bit redundant, but philosophical, atmospheric, genuinely scary horror films are few and far between. "Pulse" serves as a relevant social allegory on the dichotomy of human interaction and the self-induced alienation inherent in contemporary urban existence.

Dan Ashley (DanLives1980) Not to be mistaken with the empty and misdirected Aphex Twin video-styled American remake, the original Pulse is one of the creepiest films ever made. It's one of those horror films that catches you off guard by first coming across as an orthodox kind of ghost story before taking you way beyond the barriers of abnormal and just outright chills you to the bone.Japanese University students happen upon a phenomenon of student suicides triggered by something on the internet. Considering that Japan is rife with suicide amongst the young, this becomes the theme for much of the film.Lives become entwined when the close friends and family of the leads either disappear off the face of the earth or go on to kill themselves as the vastly overpopulated city they live in quickly becomes the loneliest place on earth, but then it becomes a global phenomenon.The few people left go about their lives regardless, getting lonelier by the day as the city becomes a haunting ground for the dead but it isn't long before they discover that somebody used the internet to find a way to look into the afterlife, which started the phenomenon. In a desperate race against time, the survivors look for a way to survive even though their will grows weaker every day as the haunting ghosts of the passed away quickly come to outnumber the living.Kiyoshi Kurasawa makes a point of living being no better than being dead if you become lonely enough. When the dead reach out to their victims, it isn't death that takes them but the loss of their will to live in loneliness when life becomes defeatist. By the characters' refusal to let their loved ones go and the refusal to see death as a tangible threat or something that exists where it shouldn't, they repel death although they don't want to live in this world anymore.Not only is loneliness unacceptable to the young, they cannot face the fact that in life, it comes to consume us all at one point sooner or later and so it seems to be about the fear of losing one's soul and identity to a life worse than death.The film takes its time in delivering the story and the shocks like a true ghost story and the little chills sometimes work the best or at least help to deliver the creepiest moments in film history. There's something about Japanese acting that sets you up for every moment realistic or absurd. It's all so well delivered and even if you're reading from subtitles, the point is put across in all devastating simplicity, making Pulse not only a creepy horror but also a tragic drama of epic proportions.The scenes of the city streets deserted and looking war torn when civilisation has simply vanished deliver some of the most impacting scenes in film and I guarantee that after this film you will be left feeling haunted.No cheap thrills, Pulse works hard to get into your mind and deliver an important message at the same time!