Kairo

(Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)

Ostensibly, this is a horror film about an overpopulated ghost realm spilling its occupants over into the real world. But the actual horrors with which Kurosawa is concerned appear to be far less supernatural: loneliness, isolation, social breakdown, and their relationships with technology. This makes Kairo one of the most highly metaphorical horror films you’re likely to see. For this reason, I have to say that I respected it. Whether I actually liked it is another question. The metaphysics underlying the story (i.e., how exactly the ghost realm and the real world are supposed to be interconnected) are virtually impenetrable; so it feels like fighting an uphill battle trying to figure what the hell is going on from one scene to the next. A large part of this is, undoubtedly, due to the film’s being steeped in cultural meanings and references that are bound to pass well below the radar of a Western viewer like myself. (According to this entry in Wikipedia, for example, Kairo is critiquing Japanese cultural trends such as Hikikomori and suicide pacts; a fact—if it is one—that I had no idea about when watching the film.)
On the whole, then, I feel obliged to blame myself rather than Kurosawa for the fact that I found his film difficult to like. I also find myself forced to re-evaluate my opinion of his more recent Rofuto (aka Loft), which I originally dismissed as total shit. I’m now more confident that Rofuto, like Kairo, is working on some highly figurative level as a statement about fears and obsessions the interpretation of which is heavily culture-dependent, and not at all easy for a Western audience to appreciate.*

Kairo @ IMDb (UK)

*Like several other recent J-Horrors, Kairo has been subject to a US remake. I haven’t seen it, so can only assume that the Japan-specific metaphors have been lost, and the plot has been rendered comprehensible for the average multiplex-going American. Would that mean I’d enjoy it more? Sadly, I fear the answer could be ‘yes’; but the real question is: would I respect myself in the morning?