Ki-re-i? (2004) Reviews

• Another Decent J-Horror Entry...

  EVOL6662006-08-02

  I honestly wasn't expecting too much going into KIREI? as I'm a big fan of the Director's (Katsuya Matsumura) ALL NIGHT LONG series, but was pretty disappointed with his film SCHOOLGIRL IN CEMENT. I had a feeling that KIREI? could go either way, and although it isn't a "great" film - it was entertaining enough, and some of the themes and the basic story-line of the film was original enough for a newer J-horror film... Yoko is a young and successful plastic-surgeon. Materialistic, shallow, ambitious, beauty-obsessed - the personification of the stereotype of someone in her field. Yoko runs into trouble when a strange woman named Yoshie pays her a visit for a consultation. Yoshie is everything that Yoko is not - ugly, self-conscious, and timid...the only thing she DOES have, is a lot of cash for reconstructive surgery. Yoko, sensing a huge pay-day, agrees to work on Yoshie after-hours and fix her face. But when the face is not enough, Yoko is caught-up in Yoshie's delusions and obsessions and things begin to go hay-wire when Yoshie can't be appeased or satisfied by the surgeries... KIREI? is a decent film that deals with legitimate subjects such as humanity's obsessions with beauty, money, power, etc...There are some tense moments in the film as the audience can feel the tension between Yoko and Yoshie, and knowing that the situation will not turn out happily. The performances are passable, though nothing truly noteworthy - and the film isn't quite as splattery as I'd have hoped, though there were a few "good scenes" towards the end. J-horror fans will probably dig this one, but those familiar with Matsumura's other works shouldn't expect the nihilistic splatter-fests of the ALL NIGHT LONG FILMS, nor the ultra-dark, violent tone of SCHOOLGIRL IN CEMENT. KIREI? - though "strong" at points, is a far more "mainstream" type of J-horror film...7/10

• "Yes, you're hot. Now shut up!"

  noizyme2006-01-16

  I watched this movie because a friend was getting really into these Japanese horror films that have become the rage of a foreign film industry since the ring. Gross scenes of weirdness have graced all types of households over in America since, and this film tries a new approach to grossing out an audience but with a message attached to it. Basically, the film is about a plastic surgeon in Japan who receives many clients. One client comes in who has acute deformorphophobia (a real fear?) and insists that this plastic surgeon take care of everything that's wrong with her for 8 million yen. When all that the surgeon did is not seen as enough to this client, she becomes enraged and starts getting revenge for not meeting her expectations. She even steals the surgeon's boyfriend, has sex with him, and kills him after claiming that "that was her first time she'd ever been touched like that," referring to her having sex because she now thinks she's beautiful. Like most of these horror films, there's always a never-ending quality that the evils of beauty and the search for eternal, perfect beauty will haunt someone from every generation until you make the conscious decision to stop. The movie was OK, at best. It had a message to the horrors of self-beautification (something here in the States is also a perfection in Japan, I guess) in society, and it made for an interesting premise in a film. It really feels like a nightmarish setting for a surgeon's life to go through, as well. But the writing, at times, was way too over-dramatic for my taste, with no music to heighten any given moment. The horror in this horror film was the lack of shock or interest in such a monster that this client was. There was really nothing wrong with her until she started getting surgery, which might've been the true message. All in all, I didn't really like it. I gave it a 5/10 stars because it was average, at best, film-making. There were no special quirks that make it stand out except for the story, which gets tiresome because its the only story going on in this movie. Go check it out if one of your friends has it, but I wouldn't waste your time on seeing it.