An early entry in the new Japanese horror movement that includes such terrifying (and American-remade) films as Ringu (The Ring) and Ju-On (The Grudge), 2000's Séance is also one of the most subtly effective thrillers of its kind. Adapted from the British novel Séance on a Wet Afternoon (which was also made into an acclaimed British film in 1964), but with several significant changes--including the frequent appearance of ghosts and doppelgangers--the film focuses on a happily married sound-effects engineer (Koji Yakusho) and his psychic wife (Jun Fubuki), whose ordinary lives are shattered when they become inadvertently involved in a young girl's kidnapping. When they discover that the missing girl had hidden herself in one of the husband's equipment cases while he was recording wind sounds in a nearby forest, they devise a plan that will turn the wife into a public hero and reliable crime-solver for the local police, but fate has other plans in store. A near-perfect mood piece of dread, suspicion, and simmering anxiety, Séance grabs the viewer and doesn't let go, and while the horror is never graphic or forced, it definitely gets under the skin. DVD extras include a video interview with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to the great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa). Highly recommended. [Note: Kurosawa's 1999 film Charisma is also newly available.] (J. Shannon)
Séance
Home Vision, 97 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.99 Volume 20, Issue 4
Séance
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