Pulse (2001)
aka Kairo
Written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Half thriller, half existential stage play, Pulse is Ringu by way of No Exit, or perhaps something along the lines of Richard Linklater directing Peter Straub's Ghost Story. The conceit is that the land of the dead has filled up, and so the "lost souls" trapped between here and there have found a way to return to our world … through some convoluted combination of the internet and red tape (if it made sense, I missed it).

It's a memorable movie, even if it doesn't really get the job done as a horror flick. The eerie and suspended tone makes it feel more like a tone poem on the lack of human connection than any kind of "vengeful spirit" sort of thing. The use of funny "woooooooooo" ghost sound effects makes an attempt to up the supernatural-thriller aspect, but Pulse still comes off more like a work of philosophy than a ghost story.

Toward the end, the film abruptly turns into The Stand, quite unexpectedly, but it never loses the theme of choosing life over loneliness. Overall, I enjoyed Pulse, though I'm not surprised that the inevitable Hollywood remake amped up the "horror" quotient. Though I wonder whether they were able to make any sense of the plot. Red tape? Eh?

Review by Freddy Justice