Tales from the Dead

USA 2008
produced by
Nick Rossier, Monique Yamaguchi, Rui DaSilva (executive), Mathius Mack Gertz (executive), Andra Nita (executive) for Cinemonster Films, Half Fictions Productions, Rum Runner Films
directed by Jason Cuadrado
starring Nikki Takei, Leni Ito, Kiyoko Kamei, Masami Teramoto, Kei Hirayama, Daisuke Tomita, Toshiya Agata, Hidetoshi Imura, Yutaka Takeuchi, Mark Ofuji, Makiko Konishi, Hiro Abe, Mari Endo, Eiji Inoue, Kie Ito, Sachiyo Kanbayashi, Masami Kosaka, Yumi Mizui, Natalie N. Okamoto, Satomi Okuno, Hiro Saito, Arthur Shinomia, Daisuke Suzuki, Yoi Tanabe, Eriko Yamaguchi, Miley Yamamoto, Masayuki Yonezawa, Kazumi Zatkin, Evan Himes
written by Jason Cuadrado, music by Valerie Opielski

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Shoko (Nikki Takei) has just been acquitted at a murder trial, but on the way home, her car breaks down, so she hitches a ride with Tamika (Leni Ito), a slightly weird but friendly girl who claims she can communicate with the dead, and tells her four ghoststories, just to pass the time:

• A couple (Masami Teramoto, Kei Hiurayama) and their newly retarded son (Daisuke Tomita) live at a house that's supposed to be haunted. Tamika is called in to investigate and she finds out the son has actually killed the previous owners, but drinking some poisoned tea at the location of the crime got him into his retarded state, and now the ghosts of the owners have their revenge ...
• Detective Minohiro (Toshiya Agata) investigates a murder he has actually committed, which puts him into the perfect spot to alter and obscure evidence. But then the dead man (Hidetoshi Imura) has his revenge.
• After losing his job and his girlfriend, Yoshi (Yutaka Takeuchi) wants to commit suicide, but then he meets shady Ebisu (Mark Ofuji), who offers him a ridiculous amount of money for some of his lifetime he will sell on to the dead. With the money, Yoshi could have everything, but so much time is siphoned off of his life he becomes an old man in a mere matter of hours, and approaches death before he actually had a chance to really live. Once dead, he can't but buy back time from Ebisu.
• The fourth story is Shoko's story. She has been a member of the Black Widow's Club, a club of wives who kill their husbands - and she sure enough killed hers (the crime she was acquitted of at the beginning of the film). But hubby has called upon Tamika to bring her to him, and thus Tamika has poisoned Shoko ...

Now there's something you don't see every day: An American-produced movie with an entirely Japanese cast shot in Japanese, which is in style somehow reminiscent of Japanese horror movies. Now I don't know why someone thought this was a good idea, or if watching too many J-horror movies has just cofused writer-director Jason Cuadrado's image of filmmaking as such ... but actually, Tales from the Dead is a pretty decent anthology movie. Sure, the stories are not half as fresh as they are intended to be, and there's virtually nothing distinctively Japanese about any of them, but they are at least well enough written to keep one interested.

In all, the film might be no masterpiece, as neither writing nor direction offer anything really special, but it's good genre entertainment all the same.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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