It Will Cook Your Brains ^ Wow! This film begins with a simmer heats up slowly and ends at a full boil.
It is a psycho killer murder mystery and a metaphysical reflection on the human condition and the nature of evil.
There is lots of gore, action, plot twists, interesting characters, etc., etc., etc.
Not being Japanese or having knowledge of Japanese culture and philosophty, I no doubt was unable to fully appreciate the themes, but they fascinated me nonetheless.
There is a quote from the Holy Bible at the beginning of the film which led me to believe that the film had a Christian world view, but it actually a blending of several philosophical and theological ideas. Reading the Fangoria magazine article which is included as a special feature on the DVD helps to illuminate what the film-makers intended.
Evil as a creature with intellect and will that acts in the world of the senses is here coexisting with the interior evil inherent in every person, both of which must be contended with. This struggle with passive and active evil is the conflict that drives the film and it is displayed in many of its manifestations, from sadistic murder and rape to self-love and judging by appearances, among others.
The content of the English subtitles for this Japanese language movie appear to be poorly done, which is too bad for a film where dialog is very important.
I have only viewed the film once and I ought to view it again to understand it better. After one viewing my brain is a stew.
This is the kind of movie where you should leave your brains alone when watching, since there is one heck of a credibility leap. It tries to be too many things at the same time, a crossover between murder mystery/suspsense/scifi/horror. Eiguchi Yosuke fans probably won't be disappointed. Also...do not watch on a full stomach unless you have one made of iron.
Very dull movie ^ I bought this movie on ebay; watched it; found it very boring, and it's in the trash--literally. I thought Fangoria lowered their standards not a little, but a great deal. There was very little gore in it, in fact. Not much of a plot, either. A few times I was nodding off and had to struggle to stay awake. In fact, I found the movie so boring I had to turn it off a few times and resume it later. It was simply impossible--due to how boring it was--to watch all at once.
I honestly believe high school students can make a movie better than this.
Some Japanese horror was very good, but lately there is a horrific stream of extremely boring ones. This is another one of them.
It's good to watch if you can't fall asleep at night. It will bore you to sleep in no time.
Another Heaven is good horror cinema ^ Another Heaven is bloody and grotesque enough to please most horror fans, but the film's attempts at humor (how many times do you have to be shown incompetent policemen running from a crime scene to throw up?) undercut its resonance. Yosuke Eguchi is charming in the lead role, and there are some well-staged scenes of mayhem, including one in which the killer brutally attacks two young men who have picked her up, and one in which the killer, at this point a man, fights with Manabu (Eguchi) on a rooftop. But the film's resolution is corny and unconvincing. Horror films do work when the filmmaker has a vision, even if he or she doesn't take the material too seriously (Evil Dead 2, Dead Alive), but Another Heaven's tone is all over the map. It's good for a A alot of laughs and alot of jolts , highly recommend this film.
Some Good Acting - Lame Script ^ After seeing Ringu, Ju-On and The Eye, I decided I was a Japanese Horror Fan. I picked this one up out of a $5 bin at Walmart thinking I had found a wonderful bargan. I was greatly disappointed.
The movie begins with an excellent opening scene - there is comedy mixed with horror and an original M.O. for the first murder (spoiled, by the way, by the "summary" on the back of the DVD case). However, about 40 minutes into this very long movie, it begins to lose momentum. I suppose it was the acting that made me care enough about the characters to tough out the painfully lame script and watch the rest of this 2 hour, 12 minute movie. The essential plot elements could have been adequately presented in 60 minutes. About half-way through the movie all I could think of was "WHEN is this movie going to END?"
WARNING: If you decide to watch this movie anyway, do not read the summary on the back of the DVD case. It gives away the too-few interesting aspects of the plot, including the origin of the murderer, which *could* have been a "pay off" for sticking out the movie, but, alas, I had already read this on the back of the DVD case and there was no additional information in the movie to make it worth wasting 2 hours and 12 minutes of my life. Instead, I found myself wondering when the police were going to find out the facts that I had already read about in the summary, and feeling cheated when I learned there was nothing more offered in the movie itself.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
