TV / Radio Gekijourei Kara no Jotaijo (2015/10/16 - 2016/12/04)

Thank you for your hard work~ @Chiizujin

 

Thank you @Nagatsuki Nura @Chiizujin, very appreciated !

 

Regarding Renacchi's episode:

Spoiler

It has the same problem as Sakura's adrenaline. Rena's character while supposed to be shiny ends being kinda dull because she is outshined by the supporting actress.
It's like the typical two clowns acts here; Rena is the white clown and the supporting actress is the "August" (or whatever you call it on your side). The 1st one being all serious and the 2nd being all comic.
I think the staff should have thought twice before giving the roles. Maybe inverting them could have been a better idea.

 

@Nagatsuki Nura @Chiizujin Thank you for subbing the episodes!

This lowly commoner is just wishing that either of you guys would continue to sub this series.
If only I'm fluent in Japanese. Sigh.

 

@Chiizujin @Nagatsuki Nura Thanks for your hard work! It's very appreaciated

 

Episode 6 (Nakano Ikumi and Yui Oguri)
http://48video.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-2841.html

 

Spoiler

I liked this episode
Though, after the introduction scene, it is straightforward and it's no surprise all the characters fate will be the same. It's nice to have all those different traps, so the whole episode doesn't look too repetitive, even though the last one is a copy of the 1st. And by the way, thie liitle girl trap was really creepy, i didn't see it coming that way.
The girls acting is quite good knowing how young and inexperienced they are. It was a bit like "I recite my role" in the beginning, though their panic scene was well done. Their "voice acting" in the last part sounded more convincing. I suppose the director choosed these hand camera shots due to the limited girls's acting.

 

Forewarning: I'm a filmmaker, sometimes I do casting, so I'mma be a little more critical of the entire piece in my reviews, which includes their acting ability.

Renacchi - ep 4

Spoiler

Hilarious, dark, & entertaining. But also another case of a supporting actress outshining the lead [whose acting ability is supposedly on display]. Think of these short films as sizzle reels/teaser trailers for the AKB actress[es] involved, so that other filmmakers may see & possibly cast them. I believe the supporting actress worked with AKB earlier on Sailor Zombie as one of the better characters on that laughably bad [yet very enjoyable!] show. She's gold. The director & entire production team knew what they were getting into with idol horror, so I'm glad it they went comedy with it; it's fresh. As for Renacchi, she played her part fine. She's the tsukkomi to Tatsumi's boke. There are some spots there where she overacts, but mostly it's not enough to really jar the average viewer from being entertained. Definitely a step up from her MajiGaku stuff LOL.

Naochan - ep 5

Spoiler

Gosh. Naochan's acting is so smooth & natural, it's difficult to really define it? Her episode deals with some tough, complex, socially relevant material, so it definitely puts the onus on Naochan to bring the heat. It's a fairly serious role with enough complexity for Naochan to stretch some real acting muscles. The ace cinematography & decent writing really helps push her, but so much of the focus is on Naochan, that her acting really needs to sell. She plays a subtlety to her anguish, so that it feels believable & not boring; in someone else's hands, this role could be woefully boring. The final final shot is laughably bad & not satisfying enough, but I think it's fine. It's not really scary until the third act, but at this point, these shorts are less strict "horror" & more "thriller/suspense/mystery/horror," so it's not very apt to qualify this short as good/bad on its scare factor. Put it this way, it's scary enough in spots where it needs to be.

ALSO: *Naochan takes pic* ...that's fucked up, Naochan...

Yuiyui & Ikumin - ep 6

Spoiler

JESUSHCHRISTFUCK this is terrifying. The plot is predictable, everyone is so horror-tropey, but the jumpscares are executed FLAWLESSLY. The somewhat cyclical pacing really pays off in these jumpscares. Not only that, over the course of the short, they ramp up in intensity & length; smart storytelling. The cinematography is perfect too; not really artistic, but clean & effective at relating space, so we can feel we know the layout of the hospital. One low point: the actress playing the mother was iffy. She did her job, but if I had anymore familiarity with her work, I bet I could feel her acting... As for Yuiyui & Ikumin, they did really really well given their roles. The problem here is they're playing tweens, so the underacting adds realism to performance of "scared tween." Their screentime, given the time spent on the parents & behind the camera definitely obfuscate some of their performance, but I wouldn't mind seeing them act again.

Side note: MY LEVELS OF NOPE MAXIMIZED SEVERAL TIMES. I had to pause it on that little girl jumpscare. TOO GOTDAMN SPOOPY.

I'm glad I took time off to stack a couple eps together; eps 4-6 were all very entertaining, tonally different, with serviceable~quality acting all around. It's definitely reinvigorated my excitement for Gekijourei. I won't do a formal ranking until every ep is out, but eps 4-6 were some of the best idol horror short films I've seen between Gekijourei & Adrenaline no Yoru.

Remember to SPOILER your reviews until at least the next ep comes out, please!!

 

I agree with @CherryBonchan on episode six.

Spoiler

The jumpscares were really predictable, but they were still done well. I believe this was the scariest/creepiest episode from both this series and the Adrenaline series so far. The child running up to the mother and transforming scared the CRAP outta me. Literally! I was pooping while watching the episode lmao

I must say, I did not expect the parents to also be victims. In most cases, the parents never die in a horror series (or they were already dead before the events of the story). To have them die first was unexpected as well. The only flaw for me was that it's not fair that the family died. They only went to the place to get some help because their car broke down. Why is there a haunted, huge, unoccupied place in the middle of nowhere anyway? Someone should have torn it down. It might be a haunted tourist attraction since the people at the beginning of the episode seemed to have been aware of its existence.

Episode ranking from best to worst:

Ikumi Nakano/Yui Oguri
Yui Yokoyama
Nao Furuhata
Anna Iriyama
Rena Kato
Nana Okada

I've already talked about Yui's episode in an earlier post and you can read why I liked Nakano/Ogura's episode in the spoiler above. As for the others?

Spoiler

Nao: Totally deserved to get haunted by the guy who died. She shouldn't have done what she did. I wonder of the guys who attacked the man were haunted or even killed though. Regardless, I am a little disappointed that she lives, unlike...

Anna: She dies and she did nothing wrong! I also found it stupid how she kept following her friend even though the setting kept getting creepier and creepier. Run away from the scene and call the freaking cops for goodness sake. She also fell down WAY too long, I literally facepalmed myself. Why did she trip over nothing anyway?

Rena: I'm not a fan of horror-comedy, and the girl who was friends with Rena really annoyed me. However, it was still better than...

Nana: This episode stopped becoming scary as soon as it became clear the bad guy was the Grim Reaper. It's not like he was killing anyone, he just came to take the life of a dying boy. If you guys want a scary camera episode, watch "Say Cheese and Die!" from the Goosebumps TV show. That show is targeted towards children yet it can still creep out an adult.

 

episode 7 (Kitahara Rie)

http://48videodouga.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-2805.html

 

Spoiler

so aya-chan was pretty much haunted and went crazy I'm guessing after her friend died or so it seems well at least the people at the radio station thinks she went crazy

 

Adrenaline and Gekijourei spoilers below:

Spoiler

isnt it ironic that Annin's Adrenaline episode from a few days ago ended with her character being hit by a car, and this Gekijourei episode is about the ghost of a woman who was hit by a car?

It couldnt be any more coincidental how these episodes aired so close to each other.

 

Kitarie - ep 7

Spoiler

Damn, Rie gets some great parts & has a ton of range given her acting history (MVs, Joker Game, Esper Dayo, etc). This is a great part, because she has to play "visibly disturbed, but trying to hide it like she's not" & also "malicious backstabber," which is GREAT. Anyway.

The pacing is pretty great here: slow burn, mystery driven, then a focused/different take on the climax. The cinematography is really great at conveying space & keeping things out of sight. Too bad they stay too long on that shot of her friend at the end there-- the more you look at her, the less terrifying she is. The final two twists are a good play on the haunted trope-- Rie gets malicious, then it doesn't happen, but she ruins her career LOL. Two spots are weird & unintentionally funny? When the ghost blows her manager's hair like nothing LOL & when Rie is under the bench, she walks out of frame, then back in, then back out LOL. As for Rie's acting, she feels natural through & through. Nothing to really write home about until you get to that twist at the end; that's a role Rie [as far as I can tell] hasn't played before, and she did it perfectly. Just clean acting. Only spots where I feel she's forcing it are the scream "kyaaaaa" LOL and the maniacal laughter at the end. She just kinda trumpets those on cue :/

I DO love how she gets the fuck up out of there at one point, doesn't even turn around to look LOL

Mion's ep looks kinda...lame. I'm not looking forward to it [& I really dig Mion!]

 

Was Kitarie possessed at the end, or simply went mad ? It does look as though her friend possessed her with that laughter

 

Episode 8 (Mion Mukaichi)
http://48videodouga.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-2840.html

 

My ranking (slightly edited after more thought)

Ikumi Nakano/Yui Oguri
Yui Yokoyama
Nao Furuhata
Mion Mukaichi
Rena Kato
Anna Iriyama
Rie Kitahara
Nana Okada

Episode 8 spoilers:

Spoiler

As for Mion's episode, I'm confused about the plot. Are they in some zombie apocalypse world? Is she trapped in some dream? Is this like the movie Inception? It was very psychological. How/Why were the girls trapped in the first place?

 

About Mion's episode.

Spoiler

She is trying time and time again to save this little girl who is her sister but failing each time. The guy in brown comes to explain that Mion actually died in a fire back in 2005 (that was during the piano concert she found a flyer of). The explosions was from a gas leak and the siren the emergency siren, apparently people panicked and many died from the smoke. So she has been stuck there 10 years trying to save her sister. Mion actually was the one who invited her sister to that concert so she feels guilty. The twist is that her sister didn't actually die, Mion dropped her from the window to save her. Now the girl on crutches is actually the sister (injured from the fall). Also the sister "was supposed" to die in that fire but Mion saved her, so some other spirits are not satisfied, they still want the sister. Now the spirits try to get the sister and Mion has to save her again.

 

so what happened to that guy (priest? monk?) lol.

Spoiler

I'm guessing he was the caretaker of Sakura, and I also presume his enchantment failed so he died? The fact that he even returned with Sakura was REALLY stupid I think, but they obviously had to do it for the sake of the plot.

 

Spoiler

Yeah maybe he died or they just walked past/through him since they were after Sakura. I'm not sure about Sakura and his relationship nor why they were there. They talked some in the car and Sakura wanted to go back to be able to move on?

 

Mion - ep 8

Spoiler

Great mystery, poignant family drama, and some bullshit to tie it together LOL. This ep is written well, except for the glaring plot hole of "Sakura was meant to die" LOL. The pacing, from an "on-paper" standpoint, is great...but the director decided to go monotone, so the pacing feels LONG in areas where it shouldn't. Lots of exposition by people standing around, instead of people doing things. The cinematography is clean & effective, especially the repeated use of Mion waking up into a shot. Of special note is how they got those extras to be completely opaque black, while keeping the background lit nicely. The editor had a lot of fun piecing together Mion's tries; especially the use of jumpcuts when Sakura falls down the first time-- it's powerful, evocative, and speeds up the process.

Mion looked natural, except for the starting shot & some of the realization stuff. She kinda plays the realization off like its not affecting her, which is DEFINITELY better than overreacting to it, but did lead to a somewhat monotone performance. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the character is written one-note & the director chose SUPER SUBTLE over anything even slightly melodramatic, so I'd like to see Mion take on other, more complex roles in the future. That 'goodbye' at the end though takes the cake :3 hits all the heartstrings