Dream Cruise (2007)

While the first episode contributed by a Japanese Director, Takashi Miike's "Imprint" (Season 1, Episode 13) stands out as the absolute highlight of the entire "Masters Of Horror" series, this thirteenth episode of the second season, and second 'Japanese' MoH episode, Norio Tsuruta's "Dream Cruise" is mediocre at best. While one has to admit that "Dream Cruise" delivers acting talent, atmosphere and even genuine creepiness, the episode completely lacks one important element - originality. An avid lover of Japanese cinema, I am personally still not too fond of the majority of the recent Horror-output of this great cinematic country. There are many exceptions, of course (such as Miike's Horror films), but it seems that ever since the doubtlessly original "Ringu" had such huge success, the same formula has been repeated to a tiresome degree. And seeing "Dream Cruise" is just another repetition of the countless "Ringu"-clones, many of which instantaneously get remade as annoying Hollywood blockbusters. While the episode definitely has its creepy moments, everyone familiar with recent Japanes Horror films will inevitably have the impression to have seen it all before. Japanese Businessman Eiji (Ryo Ishibashi) takes his wife Yuri (Yoshino Kimura) and his American business-partner Jack (Daniel Gillies), who is also Yuri's lover, on a cruise. While the wife and the business-partner are not sure whether or not the husband knows about their relationship, the luxurious Yacht also seems to be haunted by something else... As stated before, the episode has its moments and the imagery is often chillingly creepy, but the lack of originality still lessens this one's value a lot. Ryo Ishibashi, who is probably best known for his role in Takashi Miike's "Audition" (1999), is a brilliant actor and he is once again great here, as is beautiful Yoshino Kimura as his wife. I can't say Daniel Gilles' performance impressed me, but he wasn't bad either. The greatest praise has to go to Miho Ninagawa, who is incredibly creepy in her role. Still, this does not entirely save this. The lack of originality is tiresome, and there is a stupidly sentimental sub-plot which annoyed the hell out of me. Even so, this is worthwhile for fans of the series.

Although I did enjoy the movie, it was nothing new. A woman with long hair is done wrong and now reeks pain and suffering on anyone who enters her house, oops, I mean space of water. Long hair getting into everything, possessions, did it or didn't it happen situations etcetera, etc. I did enjoy the movie like I said earlier, but I think it is time for J Horror to come up with something new. Expand the genre. Didn't care much for the the DVD extras either by the way. By the standards out today, there is not an excuse to not have deleted scenes or bloopers or separate actor and director commentaries. What the original writer thought would have been nice. Use a camcorder if your worried about extra cost. If Brain Damaged movies can do it, they can too.

J-Horror's career can be summed up by the audience's potential fright at being confronted by the righteously malcontent spirits attempting to breach their world for ours. However, visions of decrepit, deformed stringy-haired Asian women slowly reaching out to take our lives is no longer anything haunting because of their ubiquity in the early 2000's. Therefore, it'll have to take a memorable narrative twist, or unique emotional characterizations to be affected by their work. Neither are found in this exercise because of the director's erratic tendency to play temporal puppetmaster whenever he sees fit. The lack of faith I placed on the director's control of what is dream/what is reality led my mind astray and distracted me from the strengths of the singular setting. You get bits and pieces of the three main characters lives...but nothing sincere enough to create a lasting impression. Also, I found Ryo Ishibashi's acting to be cheap and second-rate though his character's breakdown is less involving and more two-dimensional than the other two leads. The film-making and the eerie green colors reflecting the malevolent spirit is fine...but the storytelling's too shoddy and incomplete to matter. An addition of western/genre plot reveals would have added more pleasure to this experience.

Let me say first off that the fact that this episode is a slow build had nothing to do with my giving it a low rating. I love a film that builds its story and suspense. Some of the best horror films do this. My problem with Dream Cruise is that its all been done before. What we have here is your standard Japanese ghost story (see The Ring, The Grudge, ad nauseum) combined with a limited cast on a boat (see Dead Calm, etc.). In fact, there's really not a lot going for this episode in my opinion. Oooo spooky Japanese ghost with long hair. That's scary. Mediocre acting from a so-so cast. Wow. The only thing I really enjoyed about this episode was the end. As in it was over. The episode looks great, but looks alone can't save a ship from sinking. Leave this one in dry dock.