It's time for reincarnation to be treated seriously by filmmakers. Rinne really is a crummy waste of talent. The idea of the killer acting in a film about the killings had great potential, but since the aim of this film was to be just another horror film, no important ideas on reincarnation are explored.
Um. It's a horror movie. That is just a dumb complaint. I mean look how many horror movies take Christian theology and shift it around for their own uses. Being a believer has nothing to do with it, it is just a plot device for a story.
shareYes, if you want to know more about reincarnation research it, but expecting to learn something about reincarnation from a horror film is a little crazy.
-Mike
Well it's not as if the movie was made by someone who was of a completely different religion. I have no idea what Takashi Shimizu's religion may be, but he got the idea down in an okay manner.
If you want ideas on reincarnation, maybe a documentary is what you're looking for?
Well to be honest, it really wasn't the killer himself who was acting in the film. It was his reincarnation, Nagisa Sugiura, who was. I found it a bit unfair that the current incarnation (Nagisa) and not the former one (the killer) was the one who was punished (being driven insane) since she didn't actually do anything except for being born with the soul of the killer, and has a completely different personality from the killer. In other words, a completely innocent person is being punished for something she only did in a past life as a person completely different from her current life.
Welcome to my Nightmare- Freddy Krueger
I had that problem too. I think it underlines why Westerners simply cannot understand reincarnation, and that this film really isn't for us. There is simply too much going on culturally, that's unexplained, for us to follow.
Reincarnation, according to our Judeo-Christian beliefs, is false punishment. A soul is a soul per life, it's not a chain of lives. If there's one life per soul, then that life is responsible for the soul. Reincarnation throws all of that out of the window, and forces people to be responsible for both their futures and pasts.
I understand this is not a place to explain reincarnation, but I thought I'd try and shed a teeny weeny bit of light on it! lol
Nah, this was a complete exaggeration of the concept of reincarnation. The concept of reincarnation does not mean you will be 'punished' for what you did in a previous life. There is not concept of punishment (at least in the Buddhist way of thinking, and yes, I am one). Have you ever heard of the buttefly effect? See http://crossgroup.caltech.edu/chaos_new/Lorenz.html. This is pretty much what the whole concept of rebirth and karma say. Whatever little thing you do in this moment will shape all the following future moments. Now this is clearly true for the one birth that most of us remember, but the concept of rebirth simply takes this further in to your next lives. Similiarly the family, country, race or religion you are born to, the status and wealth of your family, etc of this birth depends on what you have accumulated in your previous births. This is why people are born in to different situations at birth. The reason I am a strong believer of reincarnation is because it helps explain why while some people are born with so many chances and luxuries, other don't even get a chance at a proper life.
But it doesn't mean your future has been written by the past events (as this movie seems to depict). Its like baking a cake. You can have the best ingredients in the world, but if you don't use them properly, your cake wont come out good. Even if you don't have the best ingredients in the world, or even crappy ingredients, but you use them properly, with gentle care, you can get a really good cake. So, similiarly, its all about what you do with whats given to you. You see people who are born to rich families with great potential, but go bad and you see the other way around too. Most people believe reincarnation is this unconceivable, alien concept, but its just part of the ongoing cause and result effect! This has gone on for longer than I thought, and I apologize, but I hope you understand why this movie should NOT at all be taken seriously in terms of reincarnation! Its a good laugh though! And yes, I'm Asian (Sri Lankan) but I live in London, so a bit of both cultures? :P
Serious believer? OP, the writer and director is Japanese. They don't need to 'believe' this kind of thing. It is LIVED. If you don't know what I mean then trying living in Japan like I do. Christians in Western countries, for example, are all about BELIEVING and they make a big fuss. Japanese people would say that they are not religious at all yet if I had a dollar for everyone here that has told me that they or someone they know sees ghosts or something like that, I would be a rich man living on my own island. The spirituality of Japan is LIVED not BELIEVED. That is the difference.
shareThe OP simply does not understand reincarnation. Often times you will see groups of people reconvene with the purpose of reconciling that which happened in the past. These are called soul families. But often it is not because of something horrific that is the bond between them. See the professor was trying, in his way, to record the fact that people group together. It is unfortunate that he chose such horrible means to do so.
shareI don't believe in reincarnation, so to me its all a bunch of baloney. A horror movie simply uses it as a plot device, and that's fine.
But could the movie have done more with the premise? Yes, here I am in agreement. The twist at the end of the film is okay, but I was kind of hoping for a lot more. What if the killer was actually trying to prove that reincarnation is real, and tried to contact his reincarnated self? This is initially where I thought the movie was heading, but then it went somewhere different.
In retrospect, I think the angle of proving reincarnation would have made the movie more exciting. In the end the murderer is just an empty character with no clear motivation, and that's a missed opportunity. I kind of hoped that we would learn more about him, and understand why he murdered all those people. It would have been interesting if the murderer was close to an amazing discovery, regardless of his horrible methods.
I agree, the biggest cults like christianity and Islam can never understand it as they are more into disguising or confusing the people with their fake stuff...Eastern traditions are actual reality. Yes, reincarnation must be seriously dealt with in movies to show the actual reality. I was trying to find one good movie that explores reincarnation for its all glory and found NONE! WHAT A SHAME
My devil danced with his demon and the fiddler tune is far from over.