MovieChat Forums > Kairo (2005) Discussion > The story didn't seem to be executed wel...

The story didn't seem to be executed well

posted 16 years ago by lufia20
29 replies | jump to latest

I really wanted to like this movie. I thought it had some really good scenes, but ultimately the movie just didn't flow well for me.

1.) Some character's actions didn't make sense to me. For example, Harue running away didn't seem logical to me. "The graduate student" somehow knowing all the absurd, completely random facts about ghosts all of a sudden didn't make sense to me. He magically guesses exactly what is happening? Yeah...ok.

2.) The movie kept switching between character stories and it just felt weird trying to keep up with who I'm supposed to "care" about. Perhaps it's due to Japanese style storytelling, but the whole switching between characters just didn't flow well to me. And don't get me wrong, I'm not against multiple character stories, it's just the one in this did not feel right. The two characters meeting towards the end seemed tacked on.

3.) The scope of the story towards the end just was not well built up. I know they're trying to get this grandiose, almost apocalyptic towards the end, but the complete story before that felt NOTHING like that at all. It was mainly these small stories about a few people and then all of a sudden they pop this world in chaos theme on me suddenly.

4.) Overall, the story just seemed way too convoluted and contrived. Too many themes trying to run through the story and too many failed story executions, especially the big "ghost motivation" reveal.

What's odd is I saw this movie on TMC and then the next day I caught the ending of the US remake on another channel. Of course, as expected, the ghosts in the US version went for a typical hollywood in your face scary, at least in the snippet I saw.

[–] WeeTotyMau5 16 years ago

I've just this minute finished watching it and I couldn't agree more with your points. That's exactly how I feel about it! It Didn't make much sense overall at all. I'm all too aware of the theme regarding loneliness, death and the Internet, but it did have some amazing effects, like the way the camera followed the woman jumpimg off the tower to the ground; brilliantly realistic!

Anyhoo, enough from me, just wanted to respond to the above post.
~~~~~
"Rats...Rats...RATS!!! Thousands, millions of them! All these, will I give you..."

[–] suz-mal 14 years ago

-- I'm all too aware of the theme regarding loneliness, death and the Internet, but it did have some amazing effects, like the way the camera followed the woman jumpimg off the tower to the ground; brilliantly realistic! --

That was a stunt woman on a bungee rope...

[–] prb1966 15 years ago

I think you nailed this film exactly. A strange mess. Like you I wanted to like it and thought it had some fine ideas and moments but overall too illogical, too long, too many blank characters trying to find each other. I thought the remake was a mess as well but at least it had some narrative drive to it. Anyway, thanks for your critique.

[–] HarmenB 15 years ago

I'd say 70% of Japanese films I have seen have a convoluted, weird plot. So it didn't come as a surprise to me.

I'm learning to accept it and not be disappointed. :)

[–] VigBit 15 years ago

1) Japanese culture has a rich history of ghosts and demons, and a kind of reverence for the past culture has developed there with recent modernizations. Just like children in America, it should be no surprise that they know things about random subjects. Besides, when someone goes looking for answers about the soul, they are sure to wind up reading about ghosts: They are the ultimate 'proof' of the concept of the soul. About the other character's actions, I can't really say. Personality quirks?

2. I will agree that the the ending seemed to be kind of a last minute "oh *beep* I forgot!" kind of thing.

3. It's a low-budget J-Horror film. I think for the money they had, they did a hell of a lot better than many others did.

I agree they could have done a lot more with it, but getting a philosophical ideal across while keeping in a tight budget WHILE keeping enough of an audience to get sale is a tough job.

I think for what they had, they did brilliantly.

I really wish they would do an up-to-date version by the O.G cast&crew. I think it would be much better.

However, it does make me nostalgic for the days when my PC made that sound connecting to the internet.

Lol.

[–] dredgman 14 years ago

The atmosphere was incredible, and at first I was intrigued. Then when everyone in the world just started disappearing, it made me think of that awful Left Behind movie that Kirk Cameron did and I just couldn't take it seriously.

Very disappointing.

[–] Tushar_Vasnik 14 years ago

This movie seemed like something made in some amateur film academy. There was absolutely no link between the characters, which i think the director wanted to portray, but failed to put some sense into it.
I think it should have been made clear that this was a drama of the parallel cinema kind more than a horror movie. Pushing philosophical thoughts across in a horror movie just didnt go well.

When watching a horror movie a viewer like me has a certain mind set a certain expectation. If they had promoted the movie as more of a drama then I would've watched it in those terms and who knows might even have enjoyed it.
The ending was a disaster. It did seem like someone remembered at the last moment that they forgot the global scale scenario.
The character portrayal is horrible in the politest sense. They ranged from absolutely clueless, dumb to emotionally non responsive (as if a ghostly or paranormal phenomena is the most common thing) and seemed to only deliver their line and forgot to react to other's. Some examples.... Stupid guy 1 (yabe) walking on a bizarre whim into the empty red taped room as if it was his own property. Stupid guy 2 (Kawashima) running after a ghost boy after being told by some guy (the purpose of it failed me).

I am a huge fan of japanese movies, especially horror movies. Hollywood should learn from Japanese movie making instead of just copying. But when a parallel cinema (art movie) is being sold in the name of J-horror it does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

[–] suz-mal 14 years ago

--I am a huge fan of japanese movies, especially horror movies. Hollywood should learn from Japanese movie making instead of just copying. But when a parallel cinema (art movie) is being sold in the name of J-horror it does leave a bad taste in the mouth.--

The first time I saw Retribution I came out the same as you did here. I've since seen many more Kurosawa films, and am ready to tackle it again. I'll probably enjoy it this time.

This often seems to happen with Kurosawa's films. He is very much an art Director, but is always linked in with the J-Horror crowd. I remember a while back lots of peo...Americans... were saying Cure was just another Ring clone, which is ludicrous as it's completely different (and older). It couldn't be less of a J-horror.

[–] SeethesignS 12 years ago

completely agree that this was a poorly made film, despite one or two good ghost shots (the slow-mo one was brilliant).

But i think it is telling of how contrived and amateurish the story was that the truth about the ghosts is revealed to us by one of the characters (the student who somehow knew about ghosts).

I mean, first off, you should always show something instead of having a character convey it to the audience, but this film does even worse than that by having the info related to us by a character who COULDN'T POSSIBLY KNOW that information. Seriously, while we are told this is an educated guest on his part, it is unbelievably contrived writing since he doesn't have the knowledge to even make that guest.

the fact that that guess is also never confirmed or disproved is just plain bad, since it implies that the guess was correct, since that guess is all we have to go on, and as i said before, that character could not possibly have just guessed it right away.

"I am the Man With no Name, Zap Brannigan."

[–] jmbwithcats 12 years ago

The movie definitely has its moments but it is so convoluted that it feels like a five hour movie. It just goes on and on and on, droning ever onward... I liked Harue, should could have been the Naomi Watts from The Ring, who figures it all out, but instead she succumbs, it was sad to see that, I really liked her. Then the plane crashes, and I thought, how much detail are they going to put into this film? Without really satisfying the plot or characters or the audience?

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[–] JazukaiX 12 years ago

Couldn't agree more

--
"If I don't understand it, it's a plot-hole!"
-Typical Reviewer