Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of my favorite directors, but Kairo/Circuit/Pulse always tripped me up a little. It was one of his more talked about films, kind of making a cult splash over on this shore resulting in what was probably a shitty remake. I've seen it once before and was bored. It didn't seem nearly as interesting as his other movies. I had always kind of assumed I missed something or that I was a little distracted during my viewing (which I was). So I gave it another shot, years later... this time around, my opinion is about the same. The initial premise of the Spirtual World leaking into our own through electronics as well as the theme of disconnection in our MODERN WORLD are interesting but they don't really seem to manifest in an interesting way. I'm willing to admit that many of my favorite Kurosawa films share similiar problems with Pulse. For example, the plot develops strangely, often making it difficult to keep up and causing some pacing issues. He often blends genres but it doesn't seem to work out this time around. He hops back and forth between horror and drama without really giving either the attention they might deserve, resulting in sudden horror sequences (that to be honest, didn't really get me all that much) and pretty on-the-nose dialogue as characters consider their mortality. I think to some degree it feels too much like a straight J-Horror movie. There's no real playfulness about it. Not that I require playfulness, but it helps and always felt like something he did very well when handling tough or intellectual subjects. It's clearly a Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie and in that, it's probably more interesting than your usual J-Horror fare, but I feel like it's a poor example of what he can do
AAAUUGGHH!!! C'mon man, clean up after yourself!
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