PULSE
Directed & Written by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Produced by: Shun Shimizu, Seiji Okuda, Takeshi Inoue & Atsuyuki Shimoda.
Director of Photography: Junichirô Hayashi.
Edited by: Jyunichi Kikuchi.
Music by: Takeshi Haketa.
Released by: Magnolia.
Language: Japanese with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Japan. 118 min. Not Rated.
With: Haruhiko Kato, Kumiko Aso, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka, Masatoshi Matsuo & Kenji Mizuhashi.

After a young botanist suddenly commits suicide, his co-workers find in his apartment a mysterious disk, a website URL, and a piece of paper with the words "The Forbidden Room". Using his computer, they discover choppy webcam films of their deceased friend standing, pacing, staring, and moving slowly. One by one, all the co-workers succumb to their own isolation after being psychologically tortured by the technology that surrounds and separates them. As more and more online ghosts infuse listlessness in the living, the more the living want to die. Soon, all of Tokyo is dead.

The most common argument differentiating Japanese from American horror is that the American genre is based on shock value where its Japanese counterpart is based on nuance. But this perspective is a bit lopsided. Just because a film is not inundated with hungry zombie mobs does not mean it's subtle nor does a zombie flick preclude subtlety. A film depicting the Internet as an isolating vehicle that kills through supernatural loneliness has little room for nuance, particularly when its characters basically announce such metaphoric points out loud for those three members of the audience who haven't caught on.

Pulse was released in Japan years before Ringu or Shou ji, and began the "apocalyptic fables of millennial technology" trend. Even so, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's premise feels pedantic in comparison to its imitators. Although the death sequences are distinctive (like the paralyzing face of a ghost, smiling, as it slowly emerges from behind a couch), they become so overused after nearly two hours that Pulse starts to resemble Ju-on with its tiring repetition.

On the other hand, Kurosawa instills his characters with depth and humor, which has made his films stand out. Their humanity makes their helplessness all the more horrific. And the film's expansive ending, as schlocky as the special effects may be, is unusual enough to be unsettlingly memorable. The narrator's seemingly innocuous last line yields a certain satisfaction in its implications, making the viewer wish the preceding hours of dialogue had held the same delicacy. It's a far cry from Kurosawa’s Cure and Seance, but Pulse is still in a league so far above The Fog and The Exorcism of Emily Rose it would need binoculars just to know they were there. Zachary Jones
November 9, 2005