Kokkuri (DVD)

After listening to the mysterious host of a late-night radio program, three schoolgirls — Mio (Ayumi Yamatsu), Hiroko (Hiroko Shimada) and Masami (Moe Ishikawa) — are inspired to conjure the Kokkuri-san, a spirit capable of answering any question. Setting up sort of a Ouija board using a piece of paper and a coin, the girls get the answers they seek, but are unprepared for the spirit's disturbing revelation: One of them will be dead within a month.

The movie follows the parallel stories of Mio, Hiroko, and Masami; and the radio talk show host, Michiru… who is actually Mio playing a role, unbeknownst to her two close friends. In the Michiru persona, Mio is tough, streetwise, and sexually knowing. But in her everyday life as Mio, she's much less sure of herself… and worse, she is in love with Masami's boyfriend, Akira. Needless to say, this creates a lot of tension when the secret affair is finally revealed. Just when the girls need to stick together the most, they are at odds and in danger from the malevolent spirit.

Who is the spirit? Is it simply a manifestation of the negative energy flowing around the girls, or is it really someone who's died? Mio's mother drowned when Mio was just a tot, and Hiroko's friend Midoru accidentally drowned in a bathtub. Could it be one of them?

Personally, I couldn't muster the interest to care who or what the deadly force was. By the time the final frame faded, my imaginary Ouija board was pointing to "Yes!".

Kokkuri does have your standard little ghost-girl, lots of leaking water, and black hair clogging a bathtub drain, but it actually has a lot more in common with Pulse or Memento Mori than it does to The Grudge or Dark Water. Unfortunately, I didn't much care for any of those four comparison movies.

Kokkuri really didn't do anything for me storywise, but for fans of A-horror this is one of the better presentations. It's well-directed, well-acted, and it looks great (slick cinematography, smart framing, intelligent use of symbolic color, and so on).

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson