Director: Masaki Nishiyama
Year: 2026
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving at a new school, a half-Japanese student, bullied by her classmates for her mixed race and attempting to make friends with a fellow student, finds that she’s been targeted by a spectral being only visible on her phone and only audible through her headphones.
Review:
While there’s a lot to like here, this one also has some big problems. Among the more likable elements here is a straightforward storyline that presents itself as a solid homage to the genre’s conventions while also allowing for a more modern series of implications. Dropped right into her problems at school with the constant bullying and generally troubled existence at school due to her mixed heritage, making her an outsider to the rest of the girls, the cruelness and outright catty behavior on display make it easy to understand her shy, introverted, and vulnerable nature. The attempts by her friend to get her to open up and try accepting a sense of friendship make everything feel quite fun the more they hang around each other, helping her to stand up not just to the bullies tormenting her, but the growing realization that the spirit is also haunting her. This is a genuinely likable storyline that never dips into exploitative territory and is kept at a wholesome level, allowing for a more believable and likable turn from them that carries on throughout the first half.
That allows for this one to be quite enjoyable when it gets to the supernatural monster haunting her. Presented with a special ideological starting point of only being visible when seen through a smartphone screen and heard when she has headphones in, this makes for an immensely relatable techno-fueled nightmare that can be relatable to modern times. The interactions it has, from the initial confrontation communicating through the chalk on a schoolboard in the abandoned room she’s trying to hide in, or the encounter in the classroom where it stalks the one bully who’s completely oblivious, are immensely chilling and help to add a definable sense of tension throughout here. That’s continued into the finale, where they band together to fight it off in the dark, empty corridors and hallways in the school, resulting in some intriguing ideas to stop it that have a lot to enjoy overall.
Despite these factors, the film has some big issues. The biggest detriment is a failed storyline that doesn’t utilize the one great idea it attempts to bring up regarding her mixed heritage in a closely-knit Japanese society. The students in her class attack her for the fact that she’s not strictly Japanese, but beyond one line about her English father, the rest of the film goes surprisingly underexplored, despite race and identity being such a huge part of this story. It never deals with it in a complex manner, instead being represented through stereotypical bullying and everyday prejudices. It tries to do this in the finale by offering more of a straightforward ghostly series of encounters at the center of everything, but it’s not enough to offset how blandly it handles these themes leading into this section, and it feels too little too late to try anything. Moreover, it’s barely even relevant and never once comes into play regarding how she gets chosen to be haunted by the figure, as that’s quite random, and it never feels all that important to what’s going on beyond giving her a reason to be targeted and bullied by her classmates.
The other main flaw here is its pacing. The first act especially feels incredibly slow, as although the themes are all perfectly relevant, the cattiness and bullying among the students grow tiresome. We've seen this high school drama and meanness in countless other films before, as the catty girls trope feels quite tired in this day and age, and with this relying on it quite heavily, it becomes more of a hindrance. This one could have benefited from some slightly tighter editing and quicker pacing, at least in its first half, as the last act is quite good, but it takes way too long to get there, continually harping on this type of behavior for little genuine interest. The other drawback here is the slightly confusing nature of the villain spirits’ origins, not really spelling out anything about what it’s about, where it came from, or why it shifted from the other student to her, rendering the mechanics of everything a bit underwhelming. Otherwise, there’s not much to holding this down.
Overview: ***.5/5
Enjoyable for what it is, but let down slightly by some drawbacks, this one is a likable attempt at reviving the J-Horror movement, even though the negatives here are somewhat impactful. Those with an appreciation for the style or genre will have a lot to like here, while those turned off by these factors or not interested in it will want to heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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