Seven years after his wife dies, Shigeharu Aoyama takes his con's advice and begins looking to remarry. With help from a film producer friend, he sets up a mock audition looking for a woman to play a part that matches his image of his future wife. Whittling the list to 30, he picks the one that strikes a chord with him and, despite not knowing a great deal about her, starts to see her and fall in love.
I had heard a great deal of hype about this film even the announcer on tv said it caused `outrage' in Japan when first shown. So worried was I that this film would freak me out, that I waiting until a weekend morning to watch it so that I could have daylight everywhere for hours after seeing it!
However, I must admit to having been misled; this film is a very slow little chiller rather than a horror as described. There are horror style moments but overall this is a chilling little tale of one woman's past. The build up is excellent, at times it almost comes across as a comedy; but the film does lay it on a bit thick that `something is not right' at times while not totally explaining things until near the end. That said it is still enjoyable and a little creepy, but you should prepare yourself for the fact that this is not a very fast film it has a patient pace and you need to be into that; I was a little impatient for the first 15 minutes but after that I settled into it.
The cast are pretty good. Ishibashi is a strong lead male and it is easy to emphasise with his character. Shiina is very good despite the fact that she has to clearly show things beneath the surface. That said, she does a good job of keeping her character real and making the jumps acceptable rather than out of the blue. The telling of the story helps them both out though, keeping it slow but eerie.
Overall, I was a little disappointed with this film as I had hoped to be scared more and freaked out as much as I can be by weird stuff. As it was, this was a well told little creepy film but it is not totally deserving of the reputation it has gotten.
