Ame no machi (2006)

Director:

Makoto Tanaka

Writers:

Hideyuki Kikuchi (short story)
Makoto Tanaka (screenplay)

Release Date:

March 2006 (Japan)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Cast

Noriko Eguchi
Moeko Ezawa
Asami Katsura
Hideyuki Kikuchi
Naruyoshi Kikuchi
Masayasu Kitayama
Kojiro Kusanagi
Yoko Maki
Ken Mitsuishi
Mitsuki Nagashima
Riko Narumi
Tôru Shinagawa
Tsutomu Takeshige
Ryota Tsuchiya
Shungiku Uchida
Kôichi Ueda
Toshihiro Wada
Ken Yasuda

Also Known As:

The Vanished (International: English title)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Japan

Scary Children Spoiled A Scary Movie

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I will tell ya, nothing spoils a good Japanese horror film than a bunch of scary children running around. Take them out and what you got is a atmospheric spooky movie that bring back to the ice cream days of Ringu, Ju-on, and One missed call. The movie is about a group of people who disappeared all at once at a mountain side village in rural Japan 30 years ago. They were never found. Now, during the raining season, those people who went missing are coming back to the dying village and aged not a day older. The thing is the people who came back are just a facsimile of what they suppose to be. Something is very wrong with them. The remaining villagers lock their doors at sundown, fearing the people who walk in the night, and in all this mix is a burned out tabloid reporter from Tokyo trying to figure out who are these mushroom people.

Doesen't sound too bad I might say, but why the missing people have to be children? Thus, setting up the movie up as another average J-horror flick. This movie has the style, direction, and story of a good creepy movie, but somebody has to say, "bring in the scary children! And make those scary faces!", and this film somehow becomes unintentional funny at times. Please! No more scary children.