The Forbidden Game

• Japan.
• Direction: Hideo Nakata.
• Production: Takashi Hirano / Dub, Toei.
• Screenplay: Noriaki Sugihara.
• Photography: Takahiro Imai.
• Music: Hiroaki Tsutsumi.
• Edition: Naoko Aono.
• Cast: Kanna Hashimoto, Daiki Shigeoka, Mayu Hotta, Yuki Kura, Shinobu Hasegawa, Kenta Izuka, Michiko Shimizu.

According to The Japan Times, the latest by Hideo Nakata, revered by all of us from the Rising Sun to the Occident, could be seen as a magical mash-up of The Exorcist (1973) and Terminator 2 (1991), a hybridisation that will have any nightwalker licking their fangs. Above all if the director of The Ring (1998), Dark Water (2002) and Kaidan (2007) starts off with a happy family in their garden. The son is chasing a lizard. The lizard sheds its tail to escape. The boy buries the tail. After a while, another lizard emerges from beneath the earth. Above all if the mother dies in an accident. And if the boy buries one of her fingers (sic) to resurrect his mum (you have to say Eloim Essaim, Eloim Essaim…). Above all if the sweet mother and spouse thirsts for vengeance…