No country does ghost stories quite like Japan. The culture is so steeped in the supernatural from ancient times, but has produced a bevy of seriously good horror directors in the modern times, it's little wonder that they would specialized in ghost stories to such a great degree. This is really a kind of anthology, with the two larger parts being tied together by an actual rock band--and by actual I mean real-life. That would be Doggy Bag. The movie is known in the US by Shadow of the Wraith, but is much better known to the rest of the English speaking world as Campus Ghost Stories--and by "campus"--we're talking Japanese high school, post grad. Sort of an in between school from what we know as high school and college. It also surrounds an apartment complex that is next to the school were many, or most, of the students live
The first part is pure teen angst. I should blush to mention that no one does school girl stuff quite like Japan. So tie them together and you get first section of this movie. It is largely about obsession--that really creepy doe eyed long stare from a girl in a school outfit. The problem with this young stalker is that it's not quite entirely sure that she is still alive....or that she ever was in a "normal human form." One of the things that marks this as a stand out amongst ghost stories from Japan (and it's in Japanese with subtitles) is the soundtrack. It's a bit "John Carpentery"--and works in a really understated modern way to add to the significant creep factor that the movie tries to build on.
The second part is really about a classic kind of haunting and it a bit harder to summarize, but suffice to say that it involves a kind of vertical haunting of the apartment complex. Here's were most of the "foot action" comes in. A young girl is terrorized by some baby/child like creature/ghost in her closet were she stores her bedding. At first, like in so many other ghost stories around the world, she thinks she's loosing it, seeing and hearing things that are not there....only they are. This section has almost no ambient soundtrack at all--which adds to great effect the creepy sense that something really, really, really bad is about to happen.
Foot moment: First section, there is a little walking on broken glass. Second section, there is ALOT of ankle grabbing my spirits.
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