Kiyoshi Kurosawa's KAIRO

[Tom Mes]

It is indeed true that Kurosawa's work is valued very highly in Europe, and 
in France in particular. Kairo was released in cinemas in Paris a mere three 
days after the end of the Cannes festival (making it to number six in the 
box office charts after less than a week), and a small-scale retrospective 
of his films (Cure, Charisma, License to Live) is running in the Quartier 
Latin to mark the occasion.

I found Kairo to once again be a very effective piece of horror cinema, with 
a strong thematic undercurrent. My personal opinion is that Kurosawa is one 
of the very, very few filmmakers in the last few decades to know what truly 
constitutes a horror film, showing us that despite the bad image the genre 
may have, it can still produce works of art.

As for the Ring/Kairo connection, I have the suspicion Kurosawa was 
misquoted in the French press about his discussions with the director of 
Ring, believing he referred to its scriptwriter Hiroshi Takahashi instead, 
who is a good friend of Kurosawa's and occasional collaborator (Takahashi 
wrote Serpent's Path / Ja No Michi amongst others).

One word on the Ring comparisons, though. I feel it's a bit obvious to 
compare every Japanese horror film that's come out in the last few years to 
Ring. Yes, it was successful, yes, it's had a lot of publicity, and yes, 
it's had its share of imitators and cash-ins, but I feel it's far too narrow 
a frame of reference, especially for the likes of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Though 
there's no denying Ring's success was a major contributing factor to Kairo 
getting the green light from Daiei, I hardly feel it's been a creative 
influence. Kurosawa has after all been making, watching and studying genre 
films long before this whole Ring phenomenon happened.

Tom Mes
Midnight Eye - japan_cult_cinema
http://www.midnighteye.com
tom at midnighteye.com
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