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Tokyo Psycho AKA Tokyo densetsu: ugomeku machi no kyôki
R0 - America - Panik House Review written by and copyright: Gary Jukes (16th February 2006). |
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The Film
 Yumiko (Sachiko Kokubu), twenty-something owner of a small design agency, receives a disturbing letter in the mail. The letter, made from scraps of paper stitched together with piano wire, bears the ominous message "You were born to marry me". The next day at work she tells her friend and business partner Moe (Mizuho Nakamura) about the letter, but Moe seems more interested in her new boyfriend than in her friend's problems. A few days later at a junior high school reunion, one of Yumiko's former classmates shows her an old school photograph with a mysterious figure lurking in the background. It turns out the young man in the picture is Mikuriya, a former classmate of Yumiko's who had an unhealthy obsession with her during their school days. More packages arrive, one containing a bloodied photograph of Yumiko, another containing her old student pass, so she and her friend Mika (Yuka Hayashi) begin an investigation into their old classmate. To their horror, they discover that Mikuriya is rumoured to have killed his parents using piano wire, and that he may be living nearby. Will they find him before he finds them? Supposedly based on the real-life Otaku murders that took place in Japan in the late 1980s, Tokyo Psycho turns out to be a fairly standard thriller with almost no relation to the afore-mentioned crimes (which is just as well, given their gruesome nature). Directed by Ataru Oikawa, best known for the Tomie series of films, the story progresses in a routine, by-the-numbers fashion that rarely throws up any surprises (or scares) and has several 'weird for the sake of being weird' moments that are out of place with the rest of the film. The name of the stalker is revealed early on and there are no attempts to throw any red herrings our way. In fact, the only real surprise of the film (and it's not much of a surprise) comes when Mikuriya reveals himself to Yumiko and she discovers he was hiding in plain sight all along, having assumed a new identity to get close to her. Have you worked out who it is yet? Yes, it's Moe's suspiciously new boyfriend, whose appearance on the scene is a little more than coincidental. The perfomances of the female leads are generally good, particularly Kokubu, a popular Japanese idol. Sadly the same cannot be said for the male actors, especially Masashi Taniguchi who plays Mikuriya. His performance as the titular psycho is nothing short of abysmal as he veers from moments of extreme calm to either laughing insanely or screaming at the top of his lungs before reverting to calm again. Quite why the director didn't reign him in is a mystery. The camerawork is also fairly poor, with the director employing odd camera angles and meandering tracking shots through empty corridors in an attempt to create a mood to hide the film's low budget and weak script. Sadly, he fails. But given that the story was written by Yumeaki Hirayama, the man responsible for the truly awful Cursed, that's hardly surprising.
Video
Presented in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, the picture suffers from grain, edge-enhancement, and occasional artefacting. The film was reportedly shot digitally in a director-preferred 4:3 aspect ratio, so why Panik House didn't use that original master to create the DVD is curious. That said, it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference to the image quality. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are provided. The English subtitles are of a good quality and also offer limited translation of on-screen signs (though not the opening and closing credits, which is disappointing). As the transfer of the film is non-anamorphic, the subtitles are cropped slightly at the bottom when zooming the image.
Audio
The sound on both the Japanese 5.1 and 2.0 Surround tracks is functional - not bad, but not great.
Extras
A short Behind the Scenes featurette has interviews with the cast and crew made during and after the production, and includes some interesting on-set shots. There is also some footage from the Tokyo Psycho Premiere, introduced by the cast and followed by a Q&A session with the writer & one of the actors. There are several pages of text notes by Selwyn Harris titled True Crime: The Inspiration for Tokyo Pyscho, which detail the real-life Otaku Murders mentioned at the top of this review. Then there's an Audio Commentary from Panik House president Matt Kennedy and Japanese licensor Ko Mori, in which the two (well, Kennedy, mostly) chat about the film, the director, the real-life cases on which the film is based, and Japanese culture in general. Unfortunately there's far too much "off-topic" talk here, which, to be fair, is understandable considering how bad the film is. Yet despite the film's many obvious shortcomings, Kennedy always finds something in the on-screen action worth praising. There's also a Spanish language commentary from Enrique Calvez of Cine-East.com, but as I don't speak the language (and there are no optional English subtitles) I gave this a miss. The extras are rounded out with some brief Biographies, Poster & Still Galleries and a few Trailers.
Overall
Coming off the back of reviewing The Pinky Violence Collection, and as a huge fan of Asian horror, this was a major let-down. Credit to Panik House for attempting to put together the best DVD release possible, but the film is so bad it's hard to recommend this title. For fans of the director only.
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