Cast: Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Aso, Koyuki Katô and Kurume Arisaka

Do you want to encounter a ghost? Well, you will watching Kairo...in fact, not just one ghost but several. A strange website is discovered, one that has unusual effects on those who view it's contents. They begin to form acts of depression far passed all hope. Sound like a website you want to check out, thought so. From start to finish  Kairo resembles many of the Japanese horror films flooding the market in the last few years, Ringu (The Ring) especially. Smeared with haunting imagery, depressing scenarios and strong storylines. Although not quite as strong as Ringu, Kairo certainly has it's moments as well. Visually stunning scenes, even the less important ones stick right out. This being my first foree into the world of Kiysoshi Kurosawa, I must say it's a good start. His vision of a persons struggle to avoid the feeling of loneliness and despair drives it way into making you look deeper into your own mortality. Is death the end result or is it the next stage and do you go through it alone. This is the main message Kurosawa conveys throughout Kairo.

A group of college students discover a strange website. Once discover, people start to act weird and finally committing suicide. Ryosuke Kawashima (Haruhiko Kato) begins to set up his internet service on his home computer, when this website pops up without command. Mainly consisting of eerie images, Kawashima is alarmed and shuts it off. He decides to seek the help of a computer expert from his school's computer class. Enter Harue Karasawa (Koyuki), she is curious as to what this strange website might be. Together both Kawashima and Harue try to figure out what the website means. Throughout this process, Kurosawa weaves two linear stories together and crosses them at the end, which is pretty much the beginning. Things begin to fall into place, but is it too late. Both the suicide and dead numbers begin to multiple until there are just a few living souls left, almost resembling Richard Matheson's classic novel "I Am Legend". 

Kurosawa brilliant use of jagged, non-linear visuals add to the already very stagnate atmosphere. The dying, who are shown as their body's cell structures breaking up and spreading out with the wind. This process brings chills to your very own skin. Then when having passed through that gateway between life and death, the dead roam in the Forbidden Rooms often sealed with symbolic red tape. Again what is real seems too real, the brunt images on the walls aren't what they seem. Kurosawa manages build up tension with the simplest of ways. A women who starts to walk towards you in a very awkward fashion, sneaking up on you like a snake. It's the faces that cause the most shivers, their ghostly images are the very symbol of a life gone by.

Kurosawa use of the dead communicating with the living is a strong symbol of the depression one goes through life and I suppose into and after death.  The dead's faintly eerie whispers for help brings chills to even those of the thickest of skins.  This film actually makes one sit and ponder while trying to figure out the same things that of the main characters try too. Although there are many films that this may resemble, Kairo delivers a very different feel. One that will bring chills to your bones.