Kakashi (2001)

best movie i've ever seen.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Although the premise of the story is good, the story starts to fall apart because it's obvious that what's moving are not scarecrows, but human actors, and the reason for Izumi to come back was somewhat weak.The movie would have been better if it didn't have the love connection between Izumi and Tsuyoshi, and was a strait laced horror movie, like the night of the living dead. The story's angle on what Kaoru wanted in the end was nice.But overall, the reason why this all happened was weak. It had good material, but intrigue was low because of this.It's not a bad movie, but not special either. It was a typical Japanese horror movie.

I love a good horror or thriller, no matter how long and dragging the dialogues, but this is not one of those. It's more of a drama with one of the most irritating protagonist I've had the misfortune to come across. Seriously, I wanted to slap the beejeezus out of her. But if you like squeaky, fickle-minded women who consistently makes bad decisions and runs like a lame chicken, you have a winner here.I was initially excited by the movie concept. Scarecrows are one of my top choices when it comes to horror "monsters", for lack of a better word. Early on, I caught the plot of the entire movie and the probable spin they'll make in the end. I thought it was nice, nostalgic even, since it reminded me a bit of Pet Sematary. Sadly, the movie did not rise to its full potential, but fell flat on its face with a loud thud.It was like they couldn't decide which direction to go, long-haired ghost woman or scarecrow zombies...in the end, it fell short on both.If you really want to believe the positive reviews, go ahead, but it would be wise that you don't spend hard-earned money on this. You just might bang your head on the wall right after.

I bought this movie 2 months ago because I like Japanese cinema plus it was cheap(and from the director of Ring 0: Birthday. Yes the Japanese series is superior to the American remake. Even Rasen is more interesting than 'The Ring'.). However I didn't watch it until tonight mainly because it didn't get too many favorable reviews on IMDB. That sad I was bored and decided to watch it. And from the first scene I was drawn in... This movie has a rather creepy but melancholy tension thoughout. It's a slow movie yes but boring? Definatly not. The pacing is just right. It amplifies the mystery of the story. Most people who watch scary movies nowadays just expect cheap scares instead of a truly eery atmosphere thoughout. So I think that is what makes a lot of people dislike this movie. This movie isn't big on the scares, it has some but not many, but what it does is make the viewer wonder.The movie basically is about Kaoru(she's a very pretty girl btw) whose brother is missing. He seems to have gone to visit his girlfriend in a little rural village in the middle of nowhere. That's the last he's heard from. As Koaru goes off to search for him there she finds that things are odd in the village... Everyone seems to be obsessed with a festival(Japan has a lot of festivals for many spiritual things) about scarecrows. And everyone seems to want her to leave and is unwilling to help her... The ending I found wasn't a dud like someone mentioned but more like a very sad one. More I will not say about this movie. You have to watch it for yourself.This isn't a movie for people who like cheap scares. But someone who likes mystery and eery things happening will probably like this movie. very reccomended.

I haven't read the Kakashi manga by Junji Ito that this movie is based on, but I've never known Ito to put a foot wrong yet. I've read a lot of fairly awful reviews of this film - slow, boring etc. - but I kind of have to disagree with them. Yes, Kakashi is a slow-paced film, not much in the way of horror... but it does work very well as a kind of weird drama, although some of the scarecrow scenes are a little... silly, perhaps? The cinematography is lovely, the story is sensitively handled, and the soundtrack is beautiful... and Kou Shibasaki is even more evil than her role as Mitsuko in Battle Royale ;)I enjoyed it a lot and I'd definitely recommend it, but more on a drama basis than a horror - it's really not very scary IMHO, compared to some other Japanese films.