Iki-jigoku

According to the predictions of some of my horror colleagues, Living Hell should have made me throw up, crap my pants and maybe even given me a heart attack. Fortunately, none of that happened, but I have to admit that people of a weaker nature will not sleep well after watching it. Shugo Fujii managed to make a horror film that (especially in the climax) feels incredibly evil, nasty and insane, while at the same time generating genuine fear and tension. That was actually a surprise, because in many scenes, it’s clear that his directorial skills have a lot of room for improvement. About the script, I was ready to say that it’s incredibly stupid (even if you put together ten very silly American horror flicks, you won’t see so much lack of logic, weirdness and stupidity as in Living Hell, and though the differences between western and eastern mentalities do play a role, it’s not enough to explain all that stupidity – for instance, the character of the journalist), but that impression is significantly improved by the climax, which (maybe) explains all the previous events and takes the wind out of the sails of potential critics. It’s not very fair on the part of the creators, but well… Overall, I’m very satisfied, it’s a film I can recommend to horror fans. It’s not very well known, which is a shame. (06.01.2012)

Das haben die Japaner wirklich gut gemacht! Bereits ab den ersten Minuten bringt Living Hell den Zuschauer mitten in die gnadenlose blutige Hölle, aus der er in den nächsten hundert Minuten keine Chance hat zu entkommen. Die enorm unheimliche Atmosphäre, die beeindruckende Musik und die verrückten Praktiken von psychischem und physischem Terror haben sich so tief in meine Haut eingegraben, dass ich nicht einmal gewagt habe, auf die Uhr zu schauen. Die Belohnung ist ein interessanter Wendepunkt und ein gutes Gefühl im verdrehten Sinne des Wortes. Wenn man keinen Gorefest im französischen Stil à la Inside erwartet, wird man sich perfekt unterhalten. Psycho, Spannung, echte Angst. Das darf man einfach nicht verpassen. (22.03.2011)