Welcome - horror to choose from! Studying Japanese art and culture, I drew attention to the fact that in fact “trash” by Western standards, scarecrow films are of great interest to the Japanese audience. For the life of the Japanese is so regulated, structured and confined that in the midst of this mundaneness, something is required that will hit the nerves, stir up the feelings. So I came across the "Shop of Fear" and... was pleasantly surprised.
For in the first episode, the girls of the schoolgirl get off the bus, one calls the other to the store, she is terrified of something, retreats, the truck vigil - all to pieces, blood... Thrash? No way. The film is strange in places, sometimes sad, sometimes lyrical, and in general ...
In general – go to the store and you will see on the shelves all the “horrors” of the average Japanese.
Strange shopkeepers who resemble either dead or robots. They can move almost instantly from one point to another. Dead calm can be replaced by wild hysteria. Why? There will be no answer - "strange hosts" - this is one of the types of Japanese "scary" stories.
And the hooded boy? No face! Ghost is a ghost who can try to pull on the tracks, under the train, where the guy died. And that's exactly the Ghost.
There's another horror on the shelf. A ball rolls out of the empty corridor and a child’s voice asks you to pick it up. And you'll go find out what it is. And go into the empty dark room! No, you won't be jumped by someone with long hair. You'll just ... disappear.
Do you want to take an empty dark room off the shelf? What about the hammer maniac? Remember dreams? You run away from him, he moves very slowly, but there is no escape. Take it! There he is. You will have time to enter the elevator, and it (with a lame and heavy hammer!) will almost catch up with you. And you drop the key! But you will have time to raise the maniac in front of your nose. And run into the room. And don't let him open the door. And he won't punch her! And come in... from the balcony. Sayonara... Goodbye.
Have you seen the eyes in the glass cabinet? And into the drain crevice? You're laughing, and the sales guy was already very out of his mind with fear. Whose eyes? There's no answer, it's just Japanese fear. There are eyes, and no Japanese knows who it is.
The appearance of a dead girl on TV is already tired. But from the fridge! You open it, there's a tunnel to nowhere. And the girl climbs out of the fridge. Think a ghost like a hooded guy? No way! It's different. After all, the hand that falls on the shoulder of a frightened woman will not be the hand of a ghost. And she'll kill her lover by mistake. Who was a ghost with a girl. Revenge of a ghost is another “product” on the shelf of a fear store.
But there will be long hair, too. Though they'll fool the viewer. For who lost them in the Japanese bath, who (the woman is visible, but who is this?) was in the next bath, who left the blood, the mystery will not be revealed. And the viewer will be caught twice! First, the victim must be killed by the ghost of a drowned woman. Yeah? No way. But the victim slipped on the invisible hair and fell! To death? No way! And then the cute skinny owner of the bath will come, you will tell him that everything is fine with you, and he ... will smash your head on a sharp edge! And he'll be laughing at your bun.
And all three cases (in the bath, in the kitchen and near the railway) go simultaneously.
There is also a character who sees ghosts. Only two are experienced and used to it. And the other just gets acquainted with all these horrors without leaving the counter. However, it is she (according to the laws of scary stories) who will pull the salesman from the network of horror.
But among these terrible stories is sad-lyrical. When the boss of the heroine loses his legs in an accident and it oppresses him. And the torment on this man's face... But here's the phone call. She responds... The deceased can’t speak directly (also one of the Japanese features), but on the phone he can’t. "It's good here." She sees him, he stands on healthy feet and smiles sadly. He doesn't need the wheelchair anymore. This is not a terrible story - although it is included in the list of "goods" of the fear store.
There is also the solution of the store. The earth was taken from the graves when cement was made. And tell about this strange madness with a baby stroller (in which a doll, but not simple). But why do birds fight to the death in the window? And to break the "window of souls" is not possible very large crow. Dead birds are another fear.
The movie is "ringed." For the events of the first frames are repeated in the final. And here we will see the window window through the eyes of a schoolgirl. We will see the faces of the dead.
Of course, all the fears of the average Japanese can’t fit into one movie. However, go to the store, look at its shelf. Just don't buy anything! Or make sure you don’t get a lot of money... Like 666 or 999. Though. One of the heroes “had to” buy a cake up to the amount. So you better just look.
This is one of the films that I recommend to those interested in Japanese culture and “scary stories” in particular.
And I'm going to give the film a pretty high rating - for a good set of "Japanese fear." And for the good performance of the actors (remember, I do not approach their performance from a European point of view, I have already seen more than one hundred Japanese films). The film is not perfect, but it is very good.
8 out of 10