Sensei Sensibility

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind, yearning to devour Asian horror themed cinema; I am the (questionably) Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. I have a question for you. One Missed Call. Originally the novel Chakushin Ari by Yasushi Akimoto, later adapted for film in 2003 by enfant terrible Takashi Miike. (Audition, Ichi the Killer - to name but a few.) IS IT ACTUALLY ANY GOOD? What do you think? Let us discuss further, dear reader… One Missed Call is one of those movies that feels like it should be excellent. It’s a 2004 J-Horror centred around an exceedingly eerie urban legend, filmed by a renowned director -  who at the time was still in his ghoulish prime.  It ticks all the boxes. It should, in theory, be the number one J-Horror of all time. So what went wrong? Let me pause there, and rewind. One Missed Call focuses on the beautiful, young Yumi Nakamura. (Played by none other than Ko Shibasaki who also portrayed the ...

  Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind, yearning to devour Asian horror themed media; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei , more than happy to satiate your televisual appetite. Much like yourself, I’m a fanatical connoisseur of Asian horror. In particular, the Ju-On franchise to me was not just the gateway into horrific Asiatic obsessions, but the whole haunted house and backyard to boot. Despite spawning three noughties American remakes as The Grudge  -  (yes, the Buffy Grudges – which were a decent effort) and one absolutely appalling reimagining in January 2020 (more like a generic Insidious universe spin-off than anything remotely Grudge related)  - as far as western modern mainstream cinema was concerned: Ju-On , was nothing more than a nostalgic relic from the golden era of J-Horror. A relic, and franchise, that stayed by and large in its original era. Those in the know, however, knew that from 1998 right up to 2016, Kaya...