Crossfire (2000)

Translated from Japanese to English, Pyrokinesis is a fun little thriller film to watch at a party or sleepover. Pyro means fire in Latin; pyrokinesis literally translates to 'fires by force of the mind'. The film follows a woman with a strange ability with an unexplained cause; she can set fires with her mind... can set anyone on fire. After a brutal murder claims the life of one of her friends she becomes outraged when the law fails to help out. She uses her wild talents to go beyond the force of the law and becomes a vigilante with one thing on her mind... justice. Alright, admit it, the film DVD cover looks pretty cool. A woman on fire, coated in a sea of burning flames, the flames under her control! But all these films featuring humans with strange otherworldly powers end up the same. The production companies go out of their way to display a show of their CGI and SFX, showing these powers in an unrealistic way, showing off their film effects rather than work on the story itself. Let me see, I recall Village of the Damned (1995), Lucy (2014), Push (2009), Firestarter (1984), Akira (1988) and Carrie (1976). Each film does the same type of thing. Pyrokinesis is no exception, really. It's fun to watch but not really all that interesting. Expect some crazy light show of flames, it's full of 'em.

First of all, this one is filed as "Horror", but I didn't find this too much of a horror, not much enough for claiming it to be a pure one. It felt more like a b-thriller, but it had its moment for sure. This movie is a bit special, and it is weird because I can't really put my finger and point out the elements that made this film good (average). When it was all over, I still felt touched by it. The plot is quite neat with some interesting conspiracy ideas, and besides the b-effects (who were a bit "too" much, ehm) there were some moments that I did found quite charming. It didn't turn out to be the movie I expected, but still a good time-killer. 6/10.

Crossfire, or Pyrokinesis, is a movie made by the person who resurrected the Gamera movies. If you have seen any of those, you know what Shusuke Kaneko can do with old ideas.This calls to question if Crossfire is a some sort of remake of Firestarter. The answer to this was best given by the director who stated that he was well aware of the movie Firestarter while making Crossfire, but didn't want to do a remake. Instead he was going for more of a mature story focusing on the character emotions to a greater extent, and leaving the pyrokinetics as a secondary aspect. The good news is that he succeeded. Crossfire provides characters that are very complex. Often in asian cinema the hero is not just your average "good person" as in many American movies of this type - instead you have someone walking in a sort of grey zone. This is the case with the lead character Junko. What she does to exemplify this is... well.. watch the movie.Needless to say, I liked the film a lot (even with difficult to read subtitling - white on white sometimes.) There has been a lot of crap following in the footsteps of The Ring trying to be Japanese horror hits, but Crossfire stands out with its engaging storyline and amazing special effects.

The recent flow of horror films from Japan will be greatly helped by this entry! Not only does it suceed as a good story, but the special FX and action does nothing to deter from this.A girl, Junko, with pyrokinesis (the ability to set things on fire with mental strenght) takes revenge on some teenage, who run a snuff film business, and have killed the sister of one of Junko's friends. The first half of the film runs like a cop-thriller (like SEVEN) with two detectives tracking the killings of the teenagers, then the burnings that follow. The second half, however, lends itself more to horror-action sequences and could very well be some of the most beauitful footage ever filmed. Though a little slow moving, not so much, though, as other Japanese horrors such as the first RING film and TOMIE, it still manages a nice pace and suceeds on every level, not just as a genre film, but as a great movie all around.Catch it if you find it near you!