Tokyo Psycho (2004)

Dir: Ataru Oikawa

Amateurish shot-on-video cheapie from the director of the popular "Tomie" series. In this one, a young girl (Sachiko Kokubu) is sent a curiously stained note that reads "YOU HAVE TO MARRY ME", after which she finds herself the victim of a psycho stalker. It's revealed very early on in the film (ie: within the first 20 minutes) that the antagonist is a chap she went to high school with, who had a crush on her and has had trouble letting go. I have to admit, even as an expert on inappropriate crushes myself, I still feel that force-feeding centipedes to the one you love is quite a bizarre approach and his other tactics (which I'll leave you to find out, should you deign to watch the film) are equally unsuccessful. I guess that's why he's a psycho. The best thing about the movie is that it's only 78 minutes long, but even this is spread thin given that I've just managed to cover the entire plot in a couple of lines. The pre-credits sequence (a creepy, bloodstained drag queen in whiteface pushing his hands through a letterbox) is quite jarring but sadly has little to do with the rest of the movie. Even some of the weird/unsettling/grotesque imagery later on (including a horrible close-up face-ripping) can't save this one from drowning in its own pointlessness. Plus, the excess cackling/gurning in the final reel is thoroughly uncalled for. Unintentional amusement stems from the director's message at the very end, in which he tells us that the Japanese police don't take stalking seriously enough (why he made the film, apparently) and that we should all "be careful". Indeed. *