Had a chance to watch Kabe Otoko today, starring my favorite actor, Sakai Masato. It's a horror movie, but more along the lines of creepy rather than scary, which is typical for Japanese horror.
The plot involves a reporter, Kyoko, (played by Ono Mayumi) who specializes in fluff pieces, reporting on "rumors". Her boyfriend, a photographer, Nishina, (played by my boy Sakai Masato) has a nightmare about her investigating an urban legend called "The Wall Man". Strangely enough, the next day, a letter arrives at her office telling her about the legend, a letter with an address, but no name.
BEWARE: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!!!
Kyoko decides that The Wall Man would make a good story for her show, so she goes to the address on the letter, only to find that it's the basement of an abandoned shopping center. The place is creepy, but she finds nothing substantial. However, she keeps running into people who have heard the legend and have leads to follow, so she continues with the story.
In the meantime, her boyfriend Nishina has become intrigued with the Wall Man story. He picks up the theme of walls for his next photography exhibition. His previous one, Inner/Outer, was all pictures of faces and hands. In a flashback, it is revealed that the Inner/Outer exhibition is where he met Kyoko. She was there as a reporter, and he took pictures of her. He was especially drawn to her right hand, which was scarred. Walls, Nishina thinks, are neither "inner" or "outer", but somewhere in between.
As Kyoko investigates the Wall Man, Nishina takes pictures of walls and examines them for traces of the Wall Man. Kyoko, however, becomes afraid. The story that she has reported has set off a media frenzy. The few real leads that she receives are disturbing. A man is supposedly injured by the Wall Man when his apartment wall collapses. The taxi driver who gives her the man's address is later injured in a car wreck. And Nishina is beginning to act very strangely.
Determined to contact the Wall Man, Nishina gives up taking photographs and puts up post-its of alphabets all over his walls, not only kana (the phonetic characters of the Japanese language), but Roman and Greek letters as well. To each letter, he attaches a bell. Kyoko leaves him, and he spends all his time in his room, waiting to hear back from the Wall Man.
It turns out that the original letter about the Wall Man was a hoax, made up by one of the cameramen who works for Kyoko. But the legend has taken on a life of its own now. A disturbed fan goes to the basement where Kyoko originally searched for the Wall Man and threatens suicide if she won't speak to him. She goes there, but gets no answers as the man is captured by the police as they talk. Later, she admits to her cameraman that she was relieved that the crazy man in the basement wasn't Nishina.
The cameraman (who was the guy who started the hoax) is on the verge of confessing, but then asks if Kyoko wants him to go with her to check on Nishina. They go, and find him laying on the floor, his head bashed into the wall. While the cameraman goes to get help, the bells on the wall start ringing. The letters spell out that Nishina is already dead, and when Kyoko asks who is ringing the bells, the answer is the Wall Man.
And then there is the trick ending, but it's difficult to explain. Suffice to say, the urban legend dies down, but the Wall Man remains, and Nishina is waiting for Kyoko to join him.
Again, creepy rather than scary, but a very interesting movie. The director managed to make ordinary walls seem ominous. The acting was great and the script was rather deep for a horror movie. There was a lot of examination of the concept of in-between and media. Urban legends have been used for fodder of horror movies before, but rarely in such a thoughtful way. In some ways, Kabe Otoko reminded me of Candyman, although not quite as gory.
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The plot involves a reporter, Kyoko, (played by Ono Mayumi) who specializes in fluff pieces, reporting on "rumors". Her boyfriend, a photographer, Nishina, (played by my boy Sakai Masato) has a nightmare about her investigating an urban legend called "The Wall Man". Strangely enough, the next day, a letter arrives at her office telling her about the legend, a letter with an address, but no name.
BEWARE: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!!!
Kyoko decides that The Wall Man would make a good story for her show, so she goes to the address on the letter, only to find that it's the basement of an abandoned shopping center. The place is creepy, but she finds nothing substantial. However, she keeps running into people who have heard the legend and have leads to follow, so she continues with the story.
In the meantime, her boyfriend Nishina has become intrigued with the Wall Man story. He picks up the theme of walls for his next photography exhibition. His previous one, Inner/Outer, was all pictures of faces and hands. In a flashback, it is revealed that the Inner/Outer exhibition is where he met Kyoko. She was there as a reporter, and he took pictures of her. He was especially drawn to her right hand, which was scarred. Walls, Nishina thinks, are neither "inner" or "outer", but somewhere in between.
As Kyoko investigates the Wall Man, Nishina takes pictures of walls and examines them for traces of the Wall Man. Kyoko, however, becomes afraid. The story that she has reported has set off a media frenzy. The few real leads that she receives are disturbing. A man is supposedly injured by the Wall Man when his apartment wall collapses. The taxi driver who gives her the man's address is later injured in a car wreck. And Nishina is beginning to act very strangely.
Determined to contact the Wall Man, Nishina gives up taking photographs and puts up post-its of alphabets all over his walls, not only kana (the phonetic characters of the Japanese language), but Roman and Greek letters as well. To each letter, he attaches a bell. Kyoko leaves him, and he spends all his time in his room, waiting to hear back from the Wall Man.
It turns out that the original letter about the Wall Man was a hoax, made up by one of the cameramen who works for Kyoko. But the legend has taken on a life of its own now. A disturbed fan goes to the basement where Kyoko originally searched for the Wall Man and threatens suicide if she won't speak to him. She goes there, but gets no answers as the man is captured by the police as they talk. Later, she admits to her cameraman that she was relieved that the crazy man in the basement wasn't Nishina.
The cameraman (who was the guy who started the hoax) is on the verge of confessing, but then asks if Kyoko wants him to go with her to check on Nishina. They go, and find him laying on the floor, his head bashed into the wall. While the cameraman goes to get help, the bells on the wall start ringing. The letters spell out that Nishina is already dead, and when Kyoko asks who is ringing the bells, the answer is the Wall Man.
And then there is the trick ending, but it's difficult to explain. Suffice to say, the urban legend dies down, but the Wall Man remains, and Nishina is waiting for Kyoko to join him.
Again, creepy rather than scary, but a very interesting movie. The director managed to make ordinary walls seem ominous. The acting was great and the script was rather deep for a horror movie. There was a lot of examination of the concept of in-between and media. Urban legends have been used for fodder of horror movies before, but rarely in such a thoughtful way. In some ways, Kabe Otoko reminded me of Candyman, although not quite as gory.
