Ghost Train (2006)

It's true all these Japanese horror films look alike, but I've only watched a few, so it hasn't bothered me much yet. Though to be honest, the scary child-ghost with too much make up has lost its appeal. The film isn't great, but it keeps your interest till the end. It has a couple of interesting twists but doesn't really take full advantage of them. The backstory is rather vague and needed a little more work because it could really give the plot an extra boost. Other than that, everything flows without many surprises but keeps you watching, with a voice in your head asking how on earth all the train stations happen to be completely empty whenever the characters are there..

To start with, i would like to say something about Asian horror movies in general. Like the westerns horror culture; the Asians got their own style on their horrors; as we have seen under the years which has passed; Long hair, cellphones, nails, small kid (almost always boys) and girls dressed in white. White means "Death" in many Asian cultures, as Black in our culture often refers to death.In Western we got serial killers that rapes women or killers that enjoy killing teenagers after their beer-party mixed with characters that looks like been picked directly from a Play Boy paper. So there's two stereotypes in the Horror movie culture we have on both side of the globe.This particular move we're gonna talk about, is indeed a bit of a Asian stereotype movie - but it also have some parts that makes it a bit unusual. Many views here has judge it as a bad movie, which i think could be a bit of a miss-leading and unfair. The plot of this movie wasn't all about to scare the soul out of your body; it had a undergoing line in it's story; friendship. By that i don't mean that kind of friendship that all Asian horror movies seem to love to show up; a bunch of kids that bullying one other; or fails the other one. This showed a lot of times, the great fear of loosing one you keep very close to the heart; and also how someone want to become friend and actually succeed - if only for a short time. That is actually very rare in Asian horror movies. And there between all the ghostlike things happens. The only thing that really destroyed the movie was when Kanae died - in order to save Nana's life from the hunted tunnel. However; that "mistake" to brag Kanae her life by a very stupid accident, Director Takeshi Furusawa made up well for at the very end of the movie. By shutting down the sound and just let the moment go between Kanae and Nana gave me creeps - not of fear, but of sympathy for real friendship. For me, that made the whole movie. As a horror movie, it didn't really worked. I got the feeling of watching a TV-series, and that Takeshi Furusawa was a bit of a "beginner" when it comes to real acting. The CGI could have been better. But, the idea behind the story was good - even better than One Missed Call. Everyone says it's a regular Japanese horror movie, but if you look at the details, it isn't a very regular story after all. First of all, almost whole movie, was filmed inside or around a train station. It wasn't that much screaming and spacey sounds, or strange "burps" from ghosts. No ghost coming out from TVs. Or hair that grows with the speed of light. Or for that matter; small white painted boys/girls; it was actually very sparse with that in this movie. Takeshi Furusawa has seen lot of movies and based the design on this movie from that; but he got a story that after a bit of polishing and construction could have been a fantastic movie. It isn't too many Japanese horror movies that actually has train as a main "line"; and it is very few J-horror movies that i've seen (or any Asian horror movies for that matter) where two friends actually becomes friends, where the other one is a "bad guy".Here's what this movie have, that all other H-movies from Asia ones DON'T have: Train as main "line". Succeeded friendship (No failures, revenge or bullying). Cellphones that DON'T causes deaths. A Guy that really does take actions against "the problem" at the end - and succeed. A touch of realism, even tho it's a ghost story. And it's probably the first movie i've seen that the School students wearing Different types of uniforms in the very same classroom! My grades: Over all: 5/10 Horror: 3/10 Dialogues: 4/10 Acting: 4/10 Story: 6/10 CGI: 4/10 Ending: 8/10Thanks for me! Enjoy the movie - try to see it from a different point of view!

Oh noes one of these attack of the Japanese ghost girl movies... i don't even remember how many i've seen. maybe it sells... but not to me. not scary at all. the japanese horror movies are have been very similar since the first one of these... also the pulling of the kid. i have seen that pulled under scene so many times in so many horror movies. cellphone scene is also nothing new... the dramaticness of the guy getting hit by a train kinda sucked... i mean it lacked all dramaticness... OK this is for kids 14-16 who listen to japanese rock and think they are so unique... we'll let me tell you. there's a million of you =D this is one of them. 3/10 i've seen worse but you won't be missing anything by NOT seeing this!

I don't generally like horror movies, I absolutely hate slasher stuff and the real gory horror movies too. But I occasionally do enjoy a good Japanese horror movie because most are long on suspense and pretty low on gore. The Ring and Ju-on being prime examples. I gave this one a try because two of my favorite stars are in it Oguri Shun and Sawajiri Erika, they were good but the movie in general is nothing special. One really cool thing about it though is that it used some of HP Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos, a carved relief in a subway tunnel and Erika's character is looking to goto school abroad at the Miskatonic University.