Prayer Beads (2004)
AKA : Omoinotama Nenju
Year: 2004
Genre: Horror | Thriller | Suspense | Sci-Fi
Runtime : 9 half-hour episodes
Subtitles : English
Country : Japan
Language : Japanese
Director : Masahiro Okano, Shigehito Kawata, Naoki Kusumoto, Toshikatsu Kubo
Cast : Various
Links: SaruDama
Plot/Synopsis:
This is a 9 episode collection of Japanese horror vignettes, all either directed or supervised by CG/FX guru Masahiro Okano. With stories ranging from psychedelic sci-fi to traditional folk horror, from the sentimental to the macabre, this collections presents a number of entertaining tales with impressive cinematography. In relation to the other Japanese horror anthologies released in the West, this collection stands near the top in terms of cinematic quality and visual polish.
1st Bead: Prayer Beads
This is a moody and creepy tale involving a woman on the edge of her sanity, her suddenly missing husband, and a concerned neighbor. Their seemingly disparate lives come to a devastating convergence when an unexpected connection amongst them is uncovered. This is a ghost story taking place within a very urban setting and contemporary circumstance, and is thus aimed at driving home this entire collection’s motto: “The world we daily live in is brimming with horror.”
On several levels this is a tale about spiritual fallout and retribution caused by transgressions against others… and goopy zombies.
2nd Bead: Vending Machine Woman
A young (and horny) couple set out for a remote weekend getaway in a mountain cabin. But when they arrive and need assistance, they learn the landlord won’t leave his house after dark due to a local superstition. Needing some food and refreshment (to quiet his increasingly annoying girlfriend), they head out into the pitch black night in search of a convenience mart. By night’s end, all they are able to locate is an old and seemingly abandoned vending machine with a few remaining cans of beverage. Little does our couple realize that the energy drink this machine offers is akin to a triple dose of viagra, and then some.
This tale falls squarely into the genre of “arrogant tourists who fail to take local superstition seriously.”
3rd Bead: It’s Me
Yuki and his more volatile yakuza-wannabe friend are enjoying the quick rewards of a phone fraud scheme targeting the elderly. By simply calling and saying “It’s me”, the victim eventually suggests a name (Oh, is that you Fred?). Once they have a name, they describe some emergency requiring the victim’s immediate monetary help; saying a friend will be over shortly to collect the cash. Things run smoothly until local yakuza catch wind of the scheme and Yuki goes to collect cash from a particularly senile old woman who continuously mistakes him for her own grandson.
To me, this seemed the strongest and most impressive story of the entire collection. The sub-themes of yakuza violence and family sentimentality come through fully, and there is a really good twist involving a rather unique depiction of Shinto/Buddhist belief. Interestingly, director Naoki Kusumoto’s other story in this collection, which in my estimate is equally creative, though not nearly as impressive, also deals with the societal and spiritual role played by grandparents.
This is a ghost tale built upon Shinto/Buddhist notions of afterlife and the central importance of the “O-bon” or death anniversary rituals.
4th Bead: Real
After the bizarre, self-destructive behavior of a co-worker and increasing migraines, an otherwise aspiring surgeon finds his career on the brink of complete breakdown. Following the only path which opens to him, he subjects himself to back-alley psychedelics whose horrific visions he all-too-late understands.
This tale falls within the “sci-fi horror” genre with Matrix-like overtones.
5th Bead: Mushroom Hunting
Friends from an internet chatroom decide to meet for the first time and go on a weekend trip into the mountains to pick mushrooms. After a day’s drive to their destination they hike several hours up into the mountains in pursuit of the region’s renowned shrooms. But as night falls, they fail to heed an ominous messenger’s warning about a certain shack which should be avoided at all costs.
Of course, they stumble upon the shack and ask to spend the night, thereby discovering for themselves the severity of the mysterious warning.
This also falls into the genre of “arrogant tourists who fail to take local superstition seriously”, but with a couple of wicked twists (which I won’t divulge). Unlike the “Vending Machine Woman”, this one relies on the very well established, classic Japanese folk lore of “Yamamba.”
6th Bead: Eddie
Local gossip says young Ikou is bound to bring you bad luck. His kindergarten burned down, his parents died in a fiery crash, and a condescending neighbor just got run over by a bus. Now that he has come to live with his grumpy grandfather, everyone seems to be unhappy. But the attention is suddenly diverted from him when an overly cute seal suddenly appears in the nearby Edo(gawa) River. The residents and local media dub the creature “Eddie” (actually, “Edo-chan”, after the River, get it?). Little Ikuo seems to be the only one less than enthralled by the cute visitor. When more people who have had run-ins with Ikuo turn up with their heads missing, it looks like he is destined to be a social outcast forever.
This tale is basically a warning against a knee-jerk disgust and persecution toward someone with creepy supernatural gifts. The public’s eager adoration of the cute yet mysterious “Eddie” is juxtaposed to their similarly eager repulsion of Ikuo’s mysterious scowl. But as we all know, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
7th Bead: Echoes
When beautiful Yumika is violently murdered at the hands of a hooligan, her grandparents set out to track him down. It would seem a rather daunting task, but these grand folks are armed with some uncanny and formidable skills. Its not long until they are on the killer’s trail with an explosive conclusion in mind for him (Get it? Ha!)
This is director Kusumoto’s second “grandparent” tale in this collection. Here he explores the possibility and outcome of an entire family possessing psychic abilities.
8th Bead: Cat’s Paw
Young Shota’s life is dismal indeed. His father is abusive, his parents fight endlessly, he’s bullied at school, and now he is in very deep water with a couple of ruffian classmates for ratting them out to the principal. He’d simply like to curl up and hide from life, until he stumbles upon a children’s cartoon promising prophetic results. The cartoon’s main character is a humorous, samurai cat named “Nyan-chan” (In Japanese, nyan = meow) who promises a cartoon character boy, also named Shota, three wishes. Its not long thereafter that the real-life Shota discovers the cartoon overlaps with reality and that having one’s wishes granted can have grisly outcomes.
This is an interesting child-centric tale along the lines of Gakkou no Kaidan.
9th Bead: Apartment
An abusive father and husband brings his family and the entire storyline to an irrecoverable breaking point. This last tale attempts to tie together all the prior tales into a rather inexplicable and confusing whole. There didn’t seem to be much point or message to this tale other than attempting a wrap-up of the series with an emphasis on the collection’s motto: “The world we daily live in is brimming with horror.” Thus it shows the survivors of the previous episodes mingled in with the crowd gathered around an apartment as the SWAT teams descend in search of a serial bomber (???). Don’t ask me. I haven’t got a clue.
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