Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek (2005)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Shuhei Morita

Writers:

Shiro Kuro (screenplay)
Shiro Kuro (story)
(more)

Release Date:

26 October 2007 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Ready or not...here they come

Plot:

A young boy named Hikora enters the ruins of a forbidden city with a group of other children to play "Otokoyo" (a game of hide-and-seek where the players are said to be kidnapped by ghosts and demons) to find his missing sister.

Plot Keywords:

Hide And Seek | Kakurenbo

Cast

Dan Green	...	Yaimao (voice: English version)
Mika Ishibashi	...	Tachiji (voice: Japanese version)
Akiko Kobayashi	...	Suku (voice: Japanese version)
Rei Naito	...	Noshiga (voice: Japanese version)
Rei Saito	...	Noshiga (voice: Japanese version)
Sean Schemmel	...	Noshiga (voice: English version)
Michael Sinterniklaas	...	Hikora (voice: English version)
Masami Suzuki	...	Sorincha (voice: Japanese version)
Junko Takeuchi	...	Hikora (voice: Japanese version)
Veronica Taylor	...	Suku (voice: English version)
Makoto Ueki	...	Yaimao (voice: Japanese version)
Tom Wayland	...	Tachiji (voice: English version)

Directed by
Shuhei Morita

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Shiro Kuro		screenplay
Shiro Kuro		story
Shuhei Morita		screenplay

Produced by
Shuhei Morita	....	producer

Original Music by
Reiji Kitasato

Film Editing by
Shuhei Morita

Art Direction by
Daisuke Sajiki

Costume Design by
Daisuke Sajiki

Visual Effects by
Shuhei Morita	....	visual effects

Production Companies

• D.A.C.
• YamatoWorks

Distributors

• Central Park Media Corporation (I) (II) (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• YamatoWorks (2005) (Japan) (all media)

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Company:

D.A.C.

Kakurenbo: Beautiful but ....

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The graphics are amazing. The characters are well spoken. The storyline... well...

The issue is not the story itself but the lack of structure with such a short film. Had this been the start of a series than perhaps it would make more sense as you would expect to get the rest of the information needed to answer the many questions you are left with in the end throughout the series.

Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek is a story of a young boy who is looking for his sister who went missing playing a game of demonic hide and seek. Why are children playing this game at night and where are their parents? What is the motivation to play it in the first place? For three of the children it was the adventure, for one other it was the need to find his sibling, however, what about the other three? You are not told this nor are you told why children knowingly go and play after hearing of all the children that have gone missing before them.

The ending was not much of a surprise but the very last images in the last scene left you thinking a new game had started. There is no explanation as to why it was starting over nor what happened to the winner that passes on the mask. Did she get to go home? What saves this movie is the beautiful graphics. The story is well told, what there is of one, and it does have a haunting feeling of a story that would be told by a campfire or on Halloween.

I do recommend watching it for yourself but do not have expectations that you are getting a full story as it ends up feeling more like a clip from a full length film that never came to fruition.