Dark Tales of Japan

(2004), Japan

Five japanese directors of horror films offer five different scary tales in only one film titled Dark Tales of Japan. Although announced as a work of five of the greatest directors of the J-Horror, names such as Hideo Nakata were not part of the anthology.

The opening short story, Spiderwoman, centers on a newspaper reporter who is selling a lot of magazines by reporting on numerous unconfirmed reports of a half-woman half-spider creature, always represented in a different number of ways, establishing the sense of myth surrounding her. Since most of the stories seemed to came from the same area of the city, the reporter is sent by his editor to do a follow-up story. Spiderwoman directed by the writer of Dark Water, could have been a pretty creepy story, but it just isn't. Halfway between annoying and considerably not well-done, pointed by a particular bad acting, the story culminates with a twist much more laughable than scary.

Crevices is the second segment of the movie, describing a man who has come to his friend's apartment to clean the place up after the disappearance of the latter. The landlord lets him in, only to discover the apartment has been all taped up in its every single gap with bright red masking tape. Although being probably the most scary of the segments, straight to the point and surrounding itself in a considerably creepy atmosphere, Crevices lacks nevertheless the slightest explanation of the occurrences, inflating an exaggerated acting of the protagonist due to the short duration of the story. A full-length version of the segment would have been somehow more interesting to see.

The Sacrifice describes the story of Mayu, a young woman, who seems to be stalked by her co-worker Fukuda, after rejecting him. At the same time, memories of her grandmother being eaten by the frightening apparition of a giant head, surface. The supposedly creepy character Fukuda is halfway between laughable and hilariously bad. The Sacrifice basically celebrates in a strange way a mother-daughter bond, under a mediocre pretext and a clearly underdeveloped story's plot, lacking in scares, similarly to most of the remaining segments, and slowly heading to its predictable end. 

Blonde Kwaidan is the segment directed by Takashi Shimizu (mostly known for being the creator of The Grudge), about a japanese man on a business trip to Los Angeles, who seems to have a great obsession with blondes. Funny thing, I was visiting L.A. when I first saw Dark Tales of Japan, so I must admit the first seconds of the story actually made me laugh. I probably laughed until the moment that it is proven that the main character of the segment is simply an annoying and obnoxious business man, with no further development. Terribly harmless and ineffective, the short story can indeed be considered as pretty embarrassing, without making any sense. 

Presentiment is the longest and by far the most developed segment of the five short stories. It's about a man who plans to steal some company confidential files before running away with his suicide-threatening mistress, becoming however trapped in an elevator with three very creepy looking people. Although the end seems to be quite predictable, the tension gradually rises as the film goes by. The actors performances also seem to be quite superior when compared to the ones registered in the previous stories. Possibly the most interesting of the five segments.

Effectively, Dark Tales of Japan could have been an interesting compilation of five different scary stories, but it's not the case. If you're looking for something scary with a suspense-filled plot, the five stories are not what you are looking for. Most segments make you laugh, some of them are most of the time specially annoying, becoming an exercise in patient.