Dead Waves
by Y?ichir? Hayama
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DVD details
Actor: Kanji Furutachi, Mari Sakai, Masaki Miura, Toshihiro Wada, Yukimi TanakaDirector: Y?ichir? Hayama
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 77 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-07-11
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Genius Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Dead Waves
DVD Review: These Dead Waves come pretty close to flatlining
Summary: 2 Stars
I guess it had to happen eventually. For the first time ever, I've watched a Japanese horror film and did not enjoy the experience. Shiry?ha (Dead Waves) just doesn't work. Neither the story nor the actors were the least bit compelling, there's no creepy atmosphere to speak of, there's insufficient lighting in many of the scenes, and - to be frank - the film just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Clocking in at a comparatively short 77 minutes, one wonders if some continuity-building scenes ended up on the cutting room floor at the last minute. To be fair, I have to say that - as far as I've been able to ascertain - this was writer-director Y?ichir? Hayama's first feature film, so I don't want to come down too harshly on him or his work, but the fact remains that I just didn't care for this film at all.
The story revolves around Hiroshi Usui (Toshihiro Wada), the director of the "exorcism corner" segments on the popular television show Spirit Sightings. The ratings for his segment are headed in the wrong direction, so he needs something good for the next show - and he thinks he's found it in the sister of one of the show's fans. Tsuyoshi Nagao (Masaki Miura) says that his younger sister is possessed and needs an exorcism. You don't have to be Dr. Phil to see that Tsuyoshi isn't right in the head, as he twitches along and swallows antacids by the handful in nervous agitation. Runa (Shihori Kanjiya), who actually seems pretty normal compared to her brother, doesn't want to be put on television, but the deal is done nonetheless.
Around this same time, we learn that Horoshi's girlfriend recently killed herself, a week after being treated in a hospital for depression. This - and the disappearance of one of his crew members who called him claiming to hear unknown voices on some of the footage from the Nagao house - fuels Hiroshi's desire to help a seemingly more desperate Runa (whose exorcism didn't really work). Unfortunately, the deeper Hiroshi gets involved in all of this, the less sense the movie makes. At times, it's not obvious whether a scene is taking place in the present or if it is just a flashback, and subsequent viewings of Runa's exorcism reveal really unusual things going on that were not visible the first time. It's pretty easy for a viewer to lose his bearings - I know I did.
In what should be a fascinating twist (but isn't), a psychiatrist informs Horoshi that suicide rates have jumped sky high in the hour after each week's episode of Spirit Sightings. Runa herself suggests that awful things will happen if her exorcism video is aired. The idea of "dead waves" (which basically amount to dead spirits riding on television waves into viewers' homes) would seem to hold a great deal of promise, but the film narrows its scope considerably as the end approaches.
Even with such a flawed story, the film should have been more interesting and enjoyable than it was - but, with the exception of Tsuyoshi Nagao, the characters are little more than empty shells, and there's just no atmosphere to speak of at any point in the film. Basically, what you have here is a confusing horror film that is neither scary nor interesting.
DVD Review: Decent amateur production
Summary: 3 Stars
The first thing that will strike you about "Dead Waves" ("Shiryoha") is the low production values. This appears to be an amateur film, shot entirely on digital video using mostly amateur actors making their first film, and probably edited on someone's home computer. Every now and then, the effects seem to have been forgotten, and there is one scene where the two actors are talking in front of a blue screen and one wonders if they simply ran out of cash. Blood is sometimes colored blue, or yellow, and that also makes one wonder if it is intentional or just a post-editing error.
That being said, "Dead Waves" works for what it is. The director and cast did their best to work within the limitations, and created a pretty decent little flick. It is by no means great, and isn't theatre-ready. While a few of the actors are experienced, like Kanjiya Shihori (Swing Girls) and Kurosawa Asuka (A Snake of June), everyone else is making their first screen appearance, and are probably friends of the director. Nobody does a bad job, but the inexperience does show.
One of the cool things about cheap video technology is that almost anyone can get their friends together, write a plot and some characters, and enjoy the creative process of making a movie. "Dead Waves" is much more ambitious in terms of story and effects than the similarly made The Blair Witch Project, and because of this it doesn't work as well. The story is a bit too confusing, and a simpler conception would have made better uses of available resources.
I don't know if too many people will really enjoy this as a standard movie. The production values just aren't there, and the amateur nature shows through everywhere. However, if you are a fan of self-made flicks and want to see what some folks put together with their digital camera and no money, than "Dead Waves" is pretty cool.
DVD Review: Good, for a J-Horror
Summary: 4 Stars
From all of the J-Horror and horror I've been watching lately, "Dead Waves," while it seems to suffer from a low-budget, really is much more interesting and intruiging.
I thought this film had an above average atmosphere, acting, and storyline. Some of the scares are genuinely creepy.
Watch this, and avoid some of the other films out there like "Carved" for instance. I would also recommend "Rampo Noir."
DVD Review: Enjoyable...but faulted
Summary: 3 Stars
I found this film to have a very interesting idea...but confusing in delivery. My first issue with it was the subtitling. It flashes to fast to read some of it. There are also sections of dialogue that there are so subtitles for, so you have no idea what was said. Sometimes the main character drifts in and out of a dream world, but you just aren't sure if what is going on really did happen then or another time, or is he just acting fruity and didn't notice a dead body in front of him. I didn't understand the laughing woman who opened a door several times and laughed or shrieked. By the climax of the story, I was confused as to what happened.DVD Review: Dead solid creepfest
Summary: 3 Stars
I try not to judge books by their covers, but I have to admit, the picture on the cover of this movie was so intriguing, I had to see what it was about. What I expected was an intense, terrifying journey, what i got was a solid little frightflick. But i digress:
Dead Waves is about an ambitious young director(Kanji Furutachi) of an Exorcism show whose popularity is waning and he's asked by the network head to spice things up a little. He doesnt believe in the paranormal, he believes the people that he films are mentally ill as opposed to possessed, but anything that keeps people watching he's willing to do. If that means pretending that he and his crew are performing exorcisms, so be it. We also learn that he has just suffered a devastating loss; his girlfriend who had a history of depression committed suicide by jumping from her apartment balcony. Add to this the fact that his next episode features a girl very similar in situation to his former lover who insists she is not crazy, that there are spirits haunting her and her visibly distraught and controlling brother. He begins to take her case personally and makes it his mission to get her the medical help he believes she needs. As he is doing what he beleives is right for her, he has to re-evaluate what he thinks he knows about the spirit world, possession and his own show and how it could possibly affect not only him, but the world.
Dead Waves is an intriguing combination of alot of other Asain horror movies. While watching it I saw shades of Ringu, Kairo, many others that i probably havent even seen. It does have its own feel, but at times the scares seemed a little too borrowed. The movie over all though has alot of good creep moments and I like the conflict it presents internally to the lead character, especially when he learns what connection he may have had to his own girlfriends death. I also like what it has to say about television as voyueristic excess. How far is too far when your filming real peoples personal difficulties and boxing them up as entertainment? It poses some great questions about the power the meduim has over all of us and how destructive it has the potential to become.
The problems the movie has are few, but large. As I said before there are several moments that seem lifted directly from other Asian horror and personally i would like to see more of these types of stories told with a real desire to set themselves apart from the rest of it's established J-horror brethren. Second, the performances as a whole are engaging, intense and underplayed nicely, with the exception of the brother, who plays his role so twitchy and traumatized that it became a characterization of some sort of insanity as opposed to anything beleivable. Third, Im all for a director expressing himself ansd trying unorthodox things to do it, but there were a couple of things that I simply didnt get that obviously were suppose to mean something, the mian one being that there are several scenes where someone is cut or bleeding and the blood is very clearly presented as a different color, green or a vibrant yellow.That had me scratching my head. And lastly, something very apocolyptic is indicated in the movie and most of the movie is built up to this. When that moment finally arrives, the possible threat of said event stretching out to society as a whole is hinted at and then dropped like a hot potoato, I would have liked to have seen that acpect carried through to fruition, but alas, twas not to be.
Overall, it was an enjoyably creepy movie with a solid plot and some really good performances, but it felt like it promised more. More could have elevated the film to at least four star status with me, but as it stands, its a recommended movie, but not a must-have.
Description of Dead Waves
Hiroshi Usui is the producer of a hit TV show about exorcisms but ratings have lately been falling. To combat this the producers visit the Nagao residence and perform an exorcism on a young woman said by her eccentric family to be possessed but the procedure goes horribly wrong. Meanwhile Hiroshi is party to information about "dead waves" signals from malign spirits that combine with television waves which he begins to believe in when he realizes that increased numbers of local suicides--including that of his ex-girlfriend--coincide with his show.System Requirements:Running Time 77 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?HORROR Rating:?NR UPC:?796019794329 Manufacturer No:?79432General DVDs
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