Psychic Vision: Jaganrei (1988)

I really wanted to like this more than I did

This short movie started off actually really really well. Filmed as a found footage reconstruction documentary, the first half has a very authentic presentation with numerous interviews and behind the scenes footage of producing a new song for the fictitious singer and idol, Emi Kato played by Emi Sato (and idol of the time herself). These things do sort of help you get immersed and feel like this is really happening.

I really liked the production values and everyone came across very natural and like real people. Sometimes even stumbling over their words which may even have been intentional and only added to the idea of it being a bad take that hadn't been edited yet. Upon further reading it seems quite a few known faces of the time are in the documentary playing themselves in interviews which is a nice touch.

All of this worked really well to set up a potentially creepy horror movie. Unfortunately it really just goes nowhere and the climax pay off is very boring and rushed in the end. The plot is poorly explained and it's a shame because there were the bones of an interesting plotline that could have been developed much more. I think there was just no enough characterization built yet to really care much about the cast. One particular "revelation" at the end also just feels so out the left field and makes little sense or adds much.

It's worth watching because its short and the first 30 minutes are actually really cool and successfully capture the music industry in 1988. The music and the atmosphere of the movie is really enjoyable. As a horror movie it's not as easy to recommend. While I commend its originality and trying to go for this really authentic presentation, I think with 30 minutes more the run time and a better developed mystery story could have made this so much better.

Side note - the final 4-5 minutes post credits of a famous movie critic (playing themself) rambling on about Hollywood are totally insane and nothing really much to do with the film. However, I've no idea why they bothered to waste precious run time on that when they could have had more of the actual films plot. Bizarre. The final minute also features Naoto Takenaka in a gag real and doing something very strange but again unrelated to the movie. A gag I guess...but waste of film. Interestingly they have used this image on both the front and back of the movie box. Maybe as a draw as his role is very small and basically only his voice?

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