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Rinne
Reincarnation
Japan 2005
produced by Takashige Ichise, Kazuya Hamana (executive), Yasushi Kotani (executive) for Oz Co., Toho, TBS, Entertainment Farm
directed by Takashi Shimizu
starring Yuka, Karina, Kippei Shiina, Tetta Sugimoto, Shun Oguri, Marika Matsumoto, Mantaro Koichi, Atsushi Haruta, Miki Sanjo, Mao Sasaki, Hiroto Ito, Takako Fuji, Yasutoki Furuya, Tomoko Mochizuki, Hiroshi Okazaki, Taro Suwa, Shoichiro Masumoto
written by Takashi Shimizu, Masaki Adachi, music by Kenji Kawai
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Two stories that will only eventually become one: First there's Yayoi
(Karina), who has strange dreams about a hotel she has never been to, but
eventually she learns that 35 years ago, 11 people were killed there by a
man who made experiments in reincarnation. Eventually, Yayoi pays a visit
to the hotel, and rather surprisingly, the events seem to repeat
themselves, enacted by a gang of spirits and or zombies, and Yayoi is
somehow sucked into the events and killed. The second story conerns
Nagisa (Yuka), a young actress who has just landed her first big role in a
film about the events that happened in the hotel 35 years ago, and almost
immediately she starts to have weird dreams and strange visions about the
murders - which eventuatlly lead her to believe she is the reincarnation
of the character she plays in the film, the little daughter of the killer
who got killed last. Eventually, she too is sucked into the events, but
when she runs from the killer, she has to find out her role has
already been taken by somebody else, by Yayoi, and gradually she has to
realize she's actually the reincarnation of the killer himself, and the
souls of those he has killed have come back to haunt him ... well, haunt
her. In the end, she goes crazy.
A very creepy Japanese ghost
story that features quite a few interesting and unexpected plottwists ...
but somehow, the film also tries to be too smart for its own good on one
hand - when the killer's experiments in reincarnation are explained to the
audience, it kind of gets silly -, and on the other hand, it tries way too
hard to make its point, which only leads to shock motives repeating
themselves again and again. But maybe I'm just a little picky here or try
to make too much out of the movie, because as a simple gbhost story with
quite a few surprises, Reincarnation works rather well - just don't
expect a classic of any kind.
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