Release Date: January 7, 2011 Length: 61 minutes Director: Kousuke Muroi
Straight to video release
Main Cast:
Aika Mitsui as Yukiko
Mao Kobayashi
Tomoyuki Hanazawa
Shino Mai
Manabu Hosoi
Small cast which is to be expected from a very, very low budget film. No special effects nor were there many different locations as most of the movie took place in one small house. Also a bit low on the dialogue as there wasn't all that much to the script though the music was kind of creepy at times. This could be the first of many reviews as I'm finally getting to that huge 'to watch list'. At the top is the trailer for the movie.
So-so film that started off well, kind of went downhill in the middle but rebounded a bit at the end. As it says above this wasn't released in theaters as it went straight to DVD. One of the hardest things to do was to find out who the cast was, knew about Aika but all of the others were unknown to me and even the film's site had zero info on who played what character. Five days after the movie came out on DVD Aika celebrated her b-day. There was a mini party for her as on the date plus there was an event for the film's release. With her is Risa who is one of the most popular MM members ever, she was at the event as she too was releasing a DVD.
Aika doesn't look all that great in those pics but she really is a fine looking gal or at least her looks really have improved since then as she seemed to be a bit chunky back in 2010-11. On to the film and Kakurenbo in Japanese means hide and seek, there's been many films with the theme. I seem to recall playing that game in my youthful days and usually I was the winner. Hmmmm, upon further reflection the others may not have been looking for me.... 😞
Kakurenbo is commonly played with two or more people but this version is played by yourself. There's certain rules when you play alone and there are many of them. Here's a few of them that were described to us in the opening scene.
That's how you begin the game, somehow the stuffed animal is supposed to find you. After an hour if the person hasn't been discovered they hold salted water in their mouth, grab a knife, gingerly stab the animal after saying 'I Found You' and repeat three times 'You're It'. When that happens the game is over, doesn't sound too exciting but with urban curses and ghosts anything can happen.
The story starts off with a flashback scene for ten minutes, it's October 3rd going into the fourth and the year is 2007. The main star is Aika who plays Yukiko, she's conversing via her computer with her friend Misa. It's getting close to 3:00 am and Misa has told Aika she's going to try playing the game of Kakurenbo. Both Yukiko and Misa are seventeen, Misa is about to begin and is quite scared.
She follows the directions to a T and hides in a closet which is in her bedroom. An hour later nothing has happened and Misa starts the procedure to end the game. But when she leaves the closet the TV starts acting erratically, becoming even more frightened she dives back into the closet but quickly jumps back out as she found an eerie burnt photo of an unknown person.
Misa eventually makes it to the bathroom where the stuffed bear is lying in the bathtub. It slowly begins to sink in the water and Misa reaches down to prevent it from going all the way down. That may have been a huge mistake on her part as Misa is pulled down violently into the tub and that's the last we see of her living though her spirit makes a few brief appearances.
Now it's present day in the film which makes it October 2010. That's Chiho above who was a classmate of Yukiko and Misa, she now works for a small film agency. The boss has received a strange e-mail and thinks it could be the basis for a script and asks Chiho to read over the entire message. Which she starts doing and the story she reads is what the rest of the movie is about.
The e-mail/story was sent by Yukiko, she's now twenty and it's two years after her high school graduation. She's not alone as Yukiko is accompanied by her friend and classmate Sanae. The pair along with Tomoki who we'll meet soon have recently been having frightful nightmares. All have been the same as it's with them playing Kakurenbo, with each nightmare a figure who is about to kill them creeps ever so closer. Yukiko and Sanae have deduced that Misa is the cause of the horrid dreams, they head to her house and neither knows what became of her following the night of
October 4, 2007.
The pair start snooping around, nowhere to be found is Misa's brother who was supposed to be living alone in the house. With no one there to stop them the duo head up to Misa's room hoping to find some clues about her disappearance. The day before Misa had played the game she had shown her four friends the website she discovered with the rules for Kakurenbo. That was a lie though as Yukiko and Sanae have found out that it was Misa who had created the site, why is unknown for now.
Yukiko and Sanae continue talking about their nightmares and what they had found out about the website. During that conversation Tomoki had called, he didn't know how to get to Misa's house so Sanae tells Yukiko she'll go get him, both have a crush on their ex-classmate. Upon leaving the house Sanae briefly noticed a figure in an upstairs window but thought it was just the sun reflection. Us viewers know better though and it was the ghost or grudge of Misa.
Tomoki had done much investigating about Misa's family and has discovered so much. Her brother just two weeks ago had hung himself in the house, Yukiko had noticed the noose which was still in his room. Also both of their parents had died shortly after Misa's disappearance, could the house be cursed? The whole family is deceased as right around the time of her brother's death Misa had committed suicide in a hospital. She had returned home one year after she had lost the game of Kakurenbo and that fact was unknown to all.
The night Misa played Kakurenbo by herself so weren't Yukiko, Sanae, Tomoki and Chiho. But now it was finally revealed by all that none of them had played as they were all too scared, to them it seems Misa knows of that and now has a grudge against them which is causing their nightmares. This part of the film kind of dragged as the conversation was very long though we did learn much about everyone's past.
Yukiko accused Sanae along with another girl of bullying Misa, seems it became so bad Misa created the website with the Kakurenbo instructions for payback. Sanae denies it but even if it was true it's too late now for forgiveness, what the trio needs to do is find a way to get rid of the grudge. Seeing as how none of them played the game Sanae has the non-bright idea of all of them playing, Yukiko and Tomoki don't think it's such a wise idea.
Sanae is determined to get rid of the curse so she's decided to play the game alone and now it's a waiting period until 3:00 am. Yukiko and Tomoki take their leave and wait out in his car, Sanae says she'll call if she's in trouble as if calling them will save her. Tomoki still has so much info about the past as he tells Yukiko before Misa's family moved into the house the previous owners had died mysteriously in a fire but no one knows the actual details. Yukiko saw a picture of the wife that Tomoki had and it was the same burnt photo she found in Misa's room, could it be that family haunting the house?
Getting close to the end, will try to wrap up this up quickly. Sanae followed the game instructions exactly but things aren't going as smoothly as they should. That figure above is the ghost of Misa's mother, she also sees the father crawling on the floor and enters a room where Misa's brother is about to hang himself. Sanae flees the room but in the process drops her phone which is picked up by the spirit of Misa. She texts Yukiko and Tomoki pleading for help, they're still waiting in his car and the time is 4:00 am. The pair rush into the house and split up trying to find Sanae.
There wasn't much success finding Sanae at first but there were some eerie happenings. Yukiko saw a vision of the previous owners of the house, in the dream like sequence she saw the wife kill her husband, pour gasoline on him and set the house on fire. Yukiko panicked and left the scene to head downstairs to find Tomoki. She did find him but it was just a moment too late as Yukiko witnessed a demon ghost(Misa?) devouring him, is Yukiko next? She eventually finds Sanae who was safe but not for too long.
There was a figure behind Sanae who was the grudge of Misa. Yukiko didn't stick around too long to see what happened and fled the residence, a coward perhaps but she'll live to see another day. And on that 'another day' she sent the e-mail describing all of the events to Chiho who the others hadn't seen since they graduated. She's also been having nightmares of the Kakurenbo game and after finishing Yukiko's story is very frightened for herself as she had no idea that the ghost of Misa could be after her for revenge.
Misa's ghost was as in the final seconds of the film it appeared behind Chiho, it was now night as it must have taken her ten hours to read the story, That was the last we saw of her as the grudge made her the next victim, all we don't know is what became of Yukiko as the short film came to a close.
Didn't mention it but many of you may have been able to deduce it was a Hello Project film. Can't say it was one of their better ones but for the most part it was enjoyable though not overly scary except for the first ten minutes. Least the story was solid and it was even a bit complex as it seems to be one of those films that needs to be viewed twice which I'll probably do.
Will give it a rating of 7.5/10, not a must watch but if you're an Aika fan they you'd like this film, still have no idea about most of the other cast members. Think some drama recaps will be coming up soon but them again do want to watch another H!P film which is 'Keitai Deka 3' that stars some members of Morning Musume and is supposed to be an underrated movie. Plenty of screenshots here to help you follow the plot better but don't think any major detail was omitted.
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