Ghost Train (2006)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Fantastic!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

'Ghost Train' may not be too scary, but still maintains the feel of a good J-Horror movie. Set mainly in the Tokyo subways, Ghost Train surrounds the mystery of a lost train ticket dropped by a woman named Yaeko Aonuma. When Nana Kimura's younger sister finds the ticket and disappears in the subway, she begins learning more about Yaeko Aonuma and searches for conductors and train engineers who may have knowledge of this spirit. 'Ghost Train' is actually very engaging and fun to watch. The CGI may have been awful towards the end of the movie, but before then, it's not really noticeable. Many similarities to 'Ringu' or 'The Ring', so if you like those, it's probably worth watching. Special mention to Erika Sawajiri, who did a surprisingly good portrayal of Nana Kimura (protagonist)

It's true all these Japanese horror films look alike, but I've only watched a few, so it hasn't bothered me much yet. Though to be honest, the scary child-ghost with too much make up has lost its appeal. The film isn't great, but it keeps your interest till the end. It has a couple of interesting twists but doesn't really take full advantage of them. The backstory is rather vague and needed a little more work because it could really give the plot an extra boost. Other than that, everything flows without many surprises but keeps you watching, with a voice in your head asking how on earth all the train stations happen to be completely empty whenever the characters are there..

"I want what's mine." A little boy named Takashi picks up a train pass off of the sidewalk and is told by a creepy specter that he will die for doing so. On board a train(all alone which is a no-no), Takashi is carried away from inside the train when it stops temporarily(due to a woman standing on the tracks)setting up the story for GHOST TRAIN. A rookie subway train conductor, Shunichi(Shun Oguri), continues to see the mangled body of a woman, yet when he tells his boss he's considered a little "off in the head" and reduced to working in the station house until he gets his head on straight. Nana(Erika Sawajiri) is the big sister to one of Takashi's classmates, Noriko. Noriko finds the pass and winds up missing. Nana and Noriko's mom has a serious heart problem. Shigeru finds a bracelet while he and some students are riding the subway home and gives it to Kanae(Chinatsu Wakatsuki) as a token of their potential relationship. This bracelet seals the fate of those who touched it like the train pass. Mizunashi tunnel is the place which seems to have been the setting for the fate of the ghost showing up to "kidnap" victims who turn up on "missing persons" boards due to the fact that they were last seen near the subway station. Through all this a friendship develops between Nana and Kanae. A young woman named Yaeko, whose name is on the train pass returned to lost and found over and over, could be responsible. Kawamura also works in the station house, and may know more than he lets on about Yaeko. Kanae narrowly escapes certain death thanks to Kumi(Aya Sugimoto),a woman who lost her son(and eye)to Yaeko. While Nana pursues the mystery in regards to Yaeko, and attempt to find her sister, she'll make another startling revelation within the tunnel, a secret buried deep. The ending is sentimental and saccharine as the power of love and friendship are embellished as Nana faces all sorts of peril and will need the help of others if she is to escape with Takashi intact trying to evade a whole mass of ghouls crawling all throughout the cavernous walls towards them. Shunichi will assist Nana in operating the train as the trio must avoid the ghouls as they descend upon them. What separates this from the formula Onyro films is that the final result strays away from the usual "appeasing the ghost by reconnecting her to whatever has kept her spirit restless all this time since death" because something even more sinister lies inside the walls of the tunnels. A heavy dependence on CGI is quite visible throughout, but Yaeko is quite a creepy presence, particularly in one scene where her reflection appears following Noriko on a window, recorded from a camera in the subway.

I don't generally like horror movies, I absolutely hate slasher stuff and the real gory horror movies too. But I occasionally do enjoy a good Japanese horror movie because most are long on suspense and pretty low on gore. The Ring and Ju-on being prime examples. I gave this one a try because two of my favorite stars are in it Oguri Shun and Sawajiri Erika, they were good but the movie in general is nothing special. One really cool thing about it though is that it used some of HP Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos, a carved relief in a subway tunnel and Erika's character is looking to goto school abroad at the Miskatonic University.