Shikoku (1999)

Movie Rating NR Contains: Strong Language Violence Sex Nudity Mature Situations

Director: Shunichi Nagasaki Movie Genre: Horror, Drama Country: Japan Shikoku Score Card The following scores are based on a 0.0 to 10.0 rating scale Hover your mouse pointer over the name of each scoring category below for a description Direction: 3.0 Writing: 2.4 Acting: 4.8 Cinematography: 3.7 Sound and Score: 2.0 Functionality: 3.2 Presentation: 3.0 Genre Comparison: 2.0 General Comparison: 2.5 Overall: 3.0 Reviewed 2007-04-27 22:36:24

Shunichi Nagasaki's Shikoku is a Japanese ghost story deeply rooted in the folklore of the rural island of Shikoku. The narrative starts off when Hinako returns to her old hometown on the island of Shikoku and realizes that in addition to the death of her childhood friend, Sayori Hiyura, a great deal has changed since her family moved. Upon her return, Hinako is reunited with her old friend Fumiko. After Sayori’s ghost visits her one night, she tells Fumiko and discovers that he has been visited by Sayori’s ghost.

Every year since Sayori’s death, her mother has gone on a pilgrimage to the 88 temples that make up the perimeter of the island. When this pilgrimage has been made and all of the temples are visited in numerical order, a seal that protects Shikoku from the land of the dead is created. When the temples are visited in reverse order, as Sayori’s mother has, the seal is undone and a gateway from the land of the dead to the living world is opened. Sayori’s mother made this "reverse pilgrimage" for each of the previous 15 years to bring Sayori back from the dead.

One of the most noticeable aspects of this movie is cinematographer, Noboru Shinoda's extensive use of handheld and close-up shots. Many photography directors employ these techniques in horror movies to give the audience a claustrophobic, disoriented feel. In the case of Shikoku, these techniques are clumsy, overused, and they come off as more annoying than anything else. Also, the colors are washed-out and bland. This may have been done to give the movie an otherworldly quality. Instead it looks like Shinoda should have used higher quality film stock.

It is possible that Shikoku has been mistakenly marketed as a horror movie. Even taking that into consideration, this movie fails to deliver on all fronts. The narrative is painfully slow with many parts that make little or no sense. The screenplay for Shikoku was adapted from a children's novel by Masako Bando, so perhaps he is to blame for the glaring flaws in the narrative. The recent insurgence in the ghost population and its relation to Hinako's return is never explained. The priests and scholars in the town are terrified that if Sayori's mother completes her 16th pilgrimage, the dead will roam freely in the world of the living. Instead, Sayori is the only person resurrected and she is the least threatening zombie ever filmed. She spends the majority of her new life pining for Fumiko and longing for the relationship that they had when she was alive. After her return, Sayori is physically unchanged. Only two people die by her hand and that is only when a crying Sayori hugs them.

This picture is difficult to categorize. When taken as a horror movie, Shikoku fails to provide even the slightest scare. When viewed as a dramatic ghost story, this movie comes off as bland and uninteresting with little to hold the viewer's attention. Sadly, Shikoku is so devoid of merit that even the most obsessive Asian film fanatic will want their 100 minutes back.