Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan I often look forward to every Takashi Miike film. Still, a person knows how to work in the genre of horror, and not only. At the same time, Miike every time manages to surprise the viewer, does something new and constantly improves himself, as well as his works. In the film “Only over your corpse”, Miike decided to work in the old Japanese genre – Kaidan. True, the director made a move by a horse and slightly combined the genre, expanded the narrative on two full-fledged stories, they are quite strongly intertwined with each other, although in fact they occur in a different time period.
The plot of the film will tell us a standard story for the Kaidan genre - about love, revenge and death. The main characters rehearse a rather popular theatrical production - Yotsuya Kaidan. But as the play progresses, they gradually begin to notice that mystical events begin to appear more and more in their daily lives. Not only in it, but on the stage of the theater itself. The fates of the actors begin to intertwine very closely with the fates of their own characters in the production.
Miike decided to experiment in the long-standing Japanese genre and it seems that he did not lose. To the unprepared viewer, the picture may seem boring and rather mediocre, just because nightmare creatures do not come out at every minute and do not try to scare the viewer with constant creaks. The atmosphere is pumped very slowly, events twist by as slowly. In fact, we can see two stories. And as one story evolves, so does another. In principle, they are both interesting, but personally I really liked the theatrical production itself. Quite an interesting plot, created in the 18th century, it is still able to intrigue the viewer. Which is exactly what happens in Mika's painting. It is a pity that the director did not reject all superfluous and did not film the production fully. Either there was some lack of budget and Miike got out theatrical production, or it is just one of the original moves of the director. Nevertheless, it turned out quite well, “Yotsuya Kaidan” here was very pleased, which I can not say about the rest of the picture, because in my opinion, it turned out quite strained.
The actors were selected as always with dignity, I was very happy to see the beauty Ko Shibasaki. The image of her here is quite sinister and she more than adequately felt it, and also was able to bring to life. Shinosuke Ichikawa once again was able to play the role of a samurai quite well, although it is not necessary to talk about the second role here, little is remarkable, alas.
If you are at least a little familiar with the Kaidan genre, have heard or read about it, then the film is definitely a must-see. If not, but the work of Miike still intrigued, I strongly recommend reading about the genre and believe me, when watching you most likely will not be disappointed. The picture was shot clearly for a narrow audience - fans of the genre and the director's works, of which there are not that many of us. Not everyone will like it, because it is very specific even by the standards of Japanese horror films. At the same time, the alternative story that happens here with the main characters in their daily lives, apart from the theatrical production, turned out to be somewhat faded, especially in comparison with the play itself. But nevertheless, this color makes us understand that great works never become obsolete and are relevant even in our time.
6 out of 10