Word: shimizu
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Directed by Takashi Shimizu...
...Takashi Shimizu, director of both the original Japanese release and the American remake, exhibits a deft hand in the film’s opening third, combining Ozu-like pacing and Hitchcockian suspense with images reminiscent of Thomas Struth’s Shinju-ku (Skyscrapers) series. Indeed, Shimizu’s Tokyo (like Struth’s Tokyo) is an infinitely complex urban cityscape where all the disparate, chaotic elements seem to coalesce in a single symbiotic moment...
...this passive philosophical notion of our random interconnectedness perverted into a chilling precept of horror. Shimizu makes the most of this, generating tension and genuine terror with a slow, sweeping camera that seems to glide across the traditional Japanese interiors with neither rhyme nor reason; he uses frequent long takes with symbolic tableaux in the foreground and complex interactions occurring in the background. Shimizu takes this potent philosophical notion and maximizes it’s potential for a startling filmic effect; at least, for the first 30 minutes...
...nice that studio bosses recognize that there are not only scenarios but auteurs worth gambling on. We'll know soon enough whether Nakata and Shimizu flourish or perish in Tinseltown. But two changes can be expected. The U.S. remakes will streamline the original films' perplexing (and beguiling) ambiguity. And the heroines, who in Japan often accept their fate passively, will be morphed into righteous fighters...
...wait for remakes? All of Nakata's and Shimizu's films are available online or at the more adventurous video stores. Check them out to see how Japan's new blood can revive Hollywood's old blood and make your blood run cold...