Other Titles • Kairo (Pulse) • Kaïro (2001) • The Circuit • Pulse
Synopses for Kairo (Pulse) (2001)
1.
Often referred to as one of the scariest films ever made, Pulse tells the story of a group of young friends rocked by the sudden suicide of one of their own and his subsequent ghostly reappearance in grainy computer and video images. Soon, there are more strange deaths and disappearances within the group, terrifying rooms sealed in red tape, and the appearance of more ghosts as the city of Tokyo-and the world-is slowly drained of life.
(39 votes)
2.
Michi is a young girl who works at a flower shop, and one day finds one of her co-workers dead. Beneath the body, is a large black spot. Meanwhile, all over Tokyo, people are dying, and leaving this strange mark beneath their corpse. In another part of town, Kawashima is hooking up his computer, and connects to a strange website, even though he is not on the internet. The site shows many webcams focused on depressed people asking for help. When he goes to his friend for help about his computer's strange behavior, they both notice that many people have been going missing in Tokyo. As they investigate, they make a horrible deduction linking the website to the missing people.
(38 votes)
3.
"Would you like to meet a ghost?" This foreboding question is posed to a young man by his own computer, suddenly able to dial up to the Internet--by itself. Unfortunately for the characters in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's PULSE, inquisitive PCs are the least of their problems. What begins as the seemingly isolated suicide of a computer hacker in Tokyo leads to a series of mysterious disappearances and deaths in this bone-chilling thriller. As Michi (Kumiko Aso), a young woman working on a rooftop plant nursery, attempts to find out what happened to her deceased friend, a slacker named Kawashima (Haruhiko Katô) reports his computer's unusual behavior to Harue (Koyuki), an attractive tech specialist. Separately, they witness an unraveling horror which manifests itself in haunting digital images, coal-black stains, doors sealed with red tape, and lingering apparitions--all leading to a steady decrease in Tokyo's population.
Like RING, another prime example of Japanese horror, Kurosawa's PULSE manages to take a B-movie plot and elevate to a level of both terror and artistry that's rarely, if ever, seen in the West. Rather than relying on gore and special effects, the film uses expert cinematography (courtesy of Junichirô Hayashi, also the cameraman on RING and Kurosawa's CHARISMA), bleak backdrops, creepy music, and the good ol' power of suggestion to create what eventually becomes an existential nightmare. To call PULSE "scary" would be a grave understatement; most viewers will never look at a roll of red tape the same way again.
(36 votes)
4.
A simplistic way to describe this creepy, atmospheric entry into the J-horror genre would be to call it Ringu (and its Americanized cousin, The Ring) with computers and the Internet standing in for telephones and videotape. Pulse certainly has the right credentials of psychological drama and existential technique to make it a standout of the scary style that has made this variety of Asian film so popular worldwide. The mysterious ambiance is heightened by several intersecting stories that outwardly have little connection and add up to a real head-scratcher of an ending. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa brings a consistently enigmatic touch to the disturbing plot threads. One of them concerns a young man who starts seeing strange onscreen images that appear to be ghosts trapped in his new computer. Being somewhat technologically illiterate he enlists a woman at the local university to help him interpret the bizarre visual messages he receives. The vibe becomes increasingly more unsettling, especially as his modem starts connecting itself to the Internet for communication from beings that seem to be trapped, unable to do anything but mumble chilling pleas for help. Startling suicides, shadowy smudges of human forms that appear on walls, rooms sealed with red masking tape that are opened to reveal unseen terrors, and deserted backstreets of a noir-tinged Tokyo are just some of the thematic images that make Pulse such a spooky, unanswerable entry into the world of first-rate J-horror classics. --Ted Fry
(33 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
Movie Database
In Theaters
