If the ghosts are living in slow motion, then their loneliness is even longer felt. They experience literally more time alone

The Japanese original was a social commentary about Hikikomori (Shut-in) sufferers in Japan, and how the internet completely altered society breeding more shut-in's through it virtual connections. Hikikikomori were like the living dead, and the internet gave them a new connection to the world. The cries for help are pleas for other to save them from being alone shut-in. "Death was eternal loneliness"

16:34  It's aaaaaaaaaall direction. The ghost in that scene is portrayed by a professional dancer who is so in control of her body and the fluidity of any and all movements she makes, the result is the viewers brains can't comprehend how something that looks so normal and moves just enough like a person that we assume it's a human being weird, only for the "stumble" to occur and then it's very clearly "NOPE. NOT HUMAN."

I watched this on the family computer in ~2005. It was the middle of the day. The ending thesis (we are forever alone no matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise and that despair is a universal experience we will never escape) promptly sent me (a SEVERELY depressed teenager) into one of the worst depressive spirals of my life. Great film, watched it again once as an adult, never will again.

One of my favorite scenes in this movie is the one where Junko just helplessly cries and says "help me" over and over again because she's so trapped in this all encompassing loneliness and despair. As a person who deals with a lot of mental illness and has a hard time articulating what it is that's bothering me, I feel like that scene just encompasses how isolating that can be; trying so hard to ask for help but not even knowing where to begin, how to ask, or even fully knowing what's wrong. I think this movie touched on a lot of things people deal with today, including the incorporation of computers and technology. These cold, empty items are meant to bring us closer together but (ironically) just end up isolating us further from one another.

I'd be happy to see more j-horror that western audiences might not be as familiar with! Japan was on tech-horror in the late 90s/early 2000s. One Missed Call could be interesting

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) could also be super interesting if you want something extremely surreal and moody

I think Japanese horror is some of the very best. Would love to hear you continue to talk about more of it. I so enjoy the way you cover movies and your always pleasant voice and delivery.

i screamed when i saw the title omg. a kiyoshi kurosawa film on MY comfort horror movie review/analysis channel…would love to see you cover more of his work in the future (especially cure) or other foreign horror films/directors

I loved this movie, it's so eternally bleak and quietly horrifying in a way only J- horror can pull off. I couldn't sit through it ever again

11:00 It also feels very much like how we tell ourselves we're not alone because everyone is online with you, but the loneliness doesn't fade. We're all alone together. We're all already dead.

Love this movie. The scene of the female ghost in the room with the red tape is still one of the most genuinely frightening, & nightmarish scenes i've ever seen in a horror movie. It actually reminds me a lot of Lake Mungo in it's atmosphere & themes, & Lake Mungo truly terrifies me so it's not surprising to me that i still find Pulse so unsettling.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has always had his finger on the pulse (!) of modern societal struggles and how people bear the weight of them; his film catalogue is astounding.

7:00 it is very lonely in many ways not being on most social media. I use one and only one and its tumblr. Not having tiktok or instagram or facebook literally cuts me out of many conversations. I hate the sites more than i hate the being lonely though.

This is my favourite depiction of ghosts in a film

This almost feels like a precursor to Death Stranding. Makes me appreciate both works even more now

This was the first horror movie that made me cry. I saw it like 20 years ago during the J-horror boom of the early to mid-2000s. Something about those ashy shadows on the wall, left behind when people disappear, absolutely destroyed me. The isolation and loneliness just permeates this film, and I feel it is a masterpiece in many ways. Please do A Tale of Two Sisters! That is another Asian horror masterpiece that is underappreciated imo.

Yes! Please cover more foreign horror films! There are so many overlooked foreign films that get missed because they aren't American and/or they aren't in English. Rec is such a good movie, and I love that it and Feast are on Tubi. I keep seeing the English remake of Pulse on Amazon but haven't watched it yet. I also don't know how it compares to the Japanese version. I took a foreign film comedy course in undergrad and that class really made me appreciate foreign films, Delicatessen is one of my favorites from that class. French dystopian dark comedy that is absolutely beautiful and funny while also being dark and uncomfortable.

One of the finest films ever made about existential dread. It will never leave your mind.

6:05 I got a brainrot TikTok-style video game ad immediately after you said this and it took me a second to realize you weren’t providing an example

I would love for you to talk about more J-horror. It's one of my favourite genres of horror and the way they tell stories.