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What's the Story, Mornin' Glory?
Shikoku
(1999)
Hinako Myoujin (Yui Natsukawa) and her two best friends Sayori Hiura (Chiaki Kuriyama) and Fumiya Akizawa (Michitaka Tsutsui) grew up together. Hinako saw that Sayori had a special power to be possessed by the dead in order to communicate with the living. She made Hinako swear never to tell anyone. One year Hinako’s family moved to Tokyo and Hinako never saw Sayori or Fumiya again.
Many years later Hinako returns to her hometown of Kochi to sell her parents house. While there she discovers that Sayori had drowned when she was sixteen. She reconnected with her old friend Fumiya and he fills Hinako in with all the details since she’s been gone. Hinako mentions that she saw someone in Sayori’s house, but Fumiya declares that impossible because Sayori died drowning, her father is in a coma after he fell off a cliff, and her mother does a pilgrimage (which is where she circles an island on foot and visits 88 temples) every year, which she is embarking at that very moment.
That night Hinako sees Sayori at the foot of her futon. She thinks it’s a dream until she finds a trinket that she had given to Sayori when she moved away in the very spot she saw her. When she tells Fumiya about it he tells her that he’s seen her too and that the rumor is that Sayori didn’t drown, but invoked an evil spirit that killed her. After a little mystery solving they discover that Sayori’s mother plans to raise her daughter from the dead, but if her mother’s plans are finalized, not only will Sayori rise from the dead, but so will all of the dead. Can Hinako and Fumiya stop Sayori's mother in time?
You Learn Something New Everyday...
 Small villages always have a fenced off area that's only for the damned.
In Japan, the light from flashlights are red.
The best way to piss off your dead friend is to sleep with her only true love.
When a woman mutters "let me go", she really means "slap me."
The newly alive dead run really fast.
Zing!
"She said you were like shit that sticks to goldfish. Her words." - Hinako's elementary school friend about what Sayori said about Hinako after she left.
Survey SAYS...
This movie moved pretty slowly. I think the reason it moved so slow is because the back of the movie says that Sayori’s mother plans to raise her daughter from the dead and her friends don’t think it’s a good idea. What really happens is that it takes them almost the entire movie, save the last ten minutes, to figure this out. I really lost interest in the movie about half way through. I though that something cool would happen after Sayori was brought back to life, but she just whines to see Fumiya the whole time and every time she gave someone she loved a hug, she killed them. Boo. It was all very anti-climatic and lackluster. It’s classified as “horror”, but I’d categorize it more as a mystery plus love story. Not scary, but very Nancy Drew / Scooby Doo. They kind of tried to make it spooky, but not really hard, like they gave up half way through.
So, at one point, they meet this monk guy who says that if Sayori is raised from the dead, so will everyone who’s been dead. No one else shows up. Sayori shows up, whines a whole lot, bitches out Hinako (whom, apparently, she’s hated since they were kids), kills her one true love, and then the monk guy flies in like a super hero and hits her with his monk stick. I think the guy just made it up to get them to stop the ceremony.
It was funny, the town that the movie was shot in looked exactly like the town in Shenmue. Haha. I’m such a dork for noticing that. Anyway, Sayori tells Fumiya that she wants to get out of the town. Aren’t there some complications with being brought back from the dead? How is there no catch? Also, how do you tell your new girl that you’d rather be with your newly resurrected ex-girlfriend after having all that big talk about forgetting her. Yeesh. Jerk.
If you like...Japanese movies with English subtitles, forgetting about loved ones sex, designated areas for the damned, dead people jello, crazy monks, romantic jargon, and pissed dead girlfriends…This is the flick for you. As for us...we give Shikoku
That Wasn't so Bad Was It?
I was left Feeling: Bored
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