Surprisingly Good!


As a remake of the original 2004 Thai horror film, newlywed Ben and Jane Shaw have traveled to Tokyo, where photographer Ben is investigating a potentially lucrative job opportunity. While driving on a dark road at night, the couple runs over a mysterious woman who seems to appear out of nowhere and can't be found after the accident. Over the next few days, Jane goes sightseeing while Ben works, only to see strange apparitions that also appear on the photos she takes. After Ben's photos show the same ghostly forms, he confesses that he knows something about the woman they ran over, but it may be too late to stop her trail of terror.

I was surprised. I really was. Well, the idea of me liking this movie isn't a bit improbable, because I always seem to never loathe the new surge of Asian horror remakes that have been coming out the last few years. In fact, I seem to be enjoying most of them, but I was still surprised. Throughout the film, I found myself entertained and intrigued. Scared? When are they ever? Nevertheless, the film was entertaining. Do I keep my standards low? You can answer that yourself.

I have never seen the original film (whoever does?), but I found the premise very interesting. I was hooked and never found a boring moment in the film...ever. Now that says a lot. Maybe the idea of spirits trying to contact humans from photographs is interesting. It sounds plausible too. It's not as if a tape is going to kill you in seven days, right? Just look at the infamous photo of Abraham Lincoln standing behind his wife after he died.

The scares are kept at a minimum here, which is no surprise. After all, it's PG-13, geared towards a certain young demographic. However, there are still some moments of suspense and scenes I found disturbing, probably due to the extra five minutes in the unrated version I've seen. Also, the movie doesn't try to scare the audience with pop out
moments. Doesn't that just annoy you? Thankfully, there aren't any here, or at least any major ones that I can remember. There is one fantastic scene that is pretty memorable and can get underneath one's skin. I'll not spoil it but I'll just say it involves a camera (duh). The scene is really well done which then leads me to the technical aspects of the film.

I've got to say, I was impressed by the overall look of the film, most of it shot in Japan. I found the scenery just beautiful and gorgeous. The cinematography was great along with an actual score that I found stunning. I also liked the fact that there were little uses of CGI and big set pieces. The movie feels contained in its own world and it doesn't depend on CGI to make audiences feel uncomfortable. What made this movie not linger in the "bad area" were the leads. Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor were both great in the film. I really liked them.

In the end, the movie also managed to trick me in one or two plot twists I didn't predict. Sure, the scares are mostly nonexistent, save two or three scenes, but what can I say? I found myself thoroughly entertained and intrigued from beginning to end. The leads were also pretty good. Overall, if you usually enjoy these PG-13 Asian horror remakes, movies like THE RING and THE GRUDGE, there's no doubt that you'll enjoy this too. For others, if you loathe these remakes, well, you know what to do. 6/10

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