is a 2007 Japanese
satiric
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or ...
Japanese horror film produced by
Shochiku Corporation and directed by
Masato Harada
is a Japanese film director, film critic, and occasional actor; he is best known to foreign audiences as Omura in '' The Last Samurai'' and as Mr Mita in '' Fearless''. In both his acting roles he portrayed the villain who wants Japan to western ...
. Many of the cast are members of the
AKB48
AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol musical girl group named after the Akihabara area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48 has sold more records than any other female musical act in Japanese history. AK ...
idol
Idol or Idols may refer to:
Religion and philosophy
* Cult image, a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents
* Murti, a devotional image of a deity or saint used during puja ...
girl group
A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...
.
Synopsis
Anzu Natsuno (
Yuko Oshima
is a Japanese actress and former member of idol girl group AKB48, of which she was the captain of Team K. She was also a member of the AKB48 subunit Not Yet. In addition to the singles that involved the rock-paper-scissors tournaments, she sa ...
), a student at an all-girl high school, is walking in the hallway when she hears a mysterious melody coming from the auditorium. There, she finds her classmate Kana (
Atsuko Maeda
is a Japanese actress and singer. She is a former member of the idol girl group AKB48, and was one of the most prominent members in the group at the time, regarded as the group's "absolute ace", "immovable center", and the "Face of AKB." After ...
) singing and Anzu's soon shocked when she sees Kana committing suicide after the song ends.
A few days later, Anzu is approached by magazine columnist Riku Nagase (
Ryuhei Matsuda
is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in ''Taboo'' and the rock star Ren Honjo in '' Nana''.
Early life
Matsuda was born on 9 May 1983 in Tokyo, to Yū ...
), who explains that he's investigating an
urban legend
Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not.
These legends can be e ...
of ''Densen Uta'', or the ''infectious song'', that turns whoever sings the song suicidal. Riku convinces Anzu and her friends to sing the song to see if there's any truth to the urban legend. They reluctantly agree and sing the song.
Over next few days the girls, one by one, kill themselves, leaving Anzu to fight for her life. Coming closer to the source of the song, Anzu finds out about an unimaginable secret relating to her past and the song.
Cast
*
Ryuhei Matsuda
is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in ''Taboo'' and the rock star Ren Honjo in '' Nana''.
Early life
Matsuda was born on 9 May 1983 in Tokyo, to Yū ...
as Riku Nagase
*
Yūsuke Iseya
is a Japanese actor, director, artist, and businessman.
Career
Iseya co-starred with Arata Iura, Yui Natsukawa, and Susumu Terajima in Hirokazu Koreeda's ''Distance (2001 film), Distance''. He appeared in Takashi Miike's ''13 Assassins (2010 fi ...
as Taichi
*
Atsuko Maeda
is a Japanese actress and singer. She is a former member of the idol girl group AKB48, and was one of the most prominent members in the group at the time, regarded as the group's "absolute ace", "immovable center", and the "Face of AKB." After ...
as Kana Takahashi
*
Yuko Oshima
is a Japanese actress and former member of idol girl group AKB48, of which she was the captain of Team K. She was also a member of the AKB48 subunit Not Yet. In addition to the singles that involved the rock-paper-scissors tournaments, she sa ...
as Apricot (Anzu) Natsuno
*
Sayaka Akimoto
is a Japanese actress and singer. She was a member of Japanese idol
An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese popular culture, Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training ...
as Shuri Matsuda
*
Haruna Kojima
is a Japanese entrepreneur, actress, model, and former singer. From 2005 to 2017, she was a member of idol group AKB48 under Team A. In 2018, she founded her own brand, "Her lip to".
Career
Kojima was born in Urawa-ku, Saitama, Saitama Pref ...
as Kiriko
*
Yoshino Kimura
is a Japanese actress and singer. She appeared on an episode of the Showtime series ''Masters of Horror''. Kimura won the "Rookie of the Year" prize at the 21st Japan Academy Awards for her appearance in '' Shitsurakuen''.
Career
Kimura appea ...
as Ranko Kaburagi
*
Hiroshi Abe as Jake
*
Minami Takahashi
is a Japanese idol, singer, tarento and a former member of the Japanese girl idol group AKB48. She is in Team A of AKB48. She became the first of AKB48 and its sister groups. In an interview with Nippon Television in June 2010, AKB48 produc ...
as Ai
*
Minami Minegishi
is a Japanese singer and actress, represented by :ja:プロダクション尾木, Production Ogi. She was a member of the Japanese idol girl group AKB48, and its subunit no3b. She is noted for having the longest tenure among the group's origina ...
as Rumi Inoue
*
Erena Ono
, is a former member of the Japanese idol girl group AKB48. She was in "Team K" and her talent agency was Ohta Production. She was also part of AKB48 subgroups "Honegumi from AKB48", "AKBIdoling !! " and "ICE from AKB48".
Career
Ono was born i ...
as Sae Miyaguchi
*
Tomomi Kasai
is a Japanese singer, actress and a former member of the idol group AKB48, belonging to Team A. She had a recurring role on ''Kamen Rider W'' as Elizabeth, alongside group member Tomomi Itano. Together, they make up the sub-unit Queen & Elizab ...
as Asuka Kumoi
*
Kayo Noro as Miki Oribe
*
Sae Miyazawa
is a Japanese actress, television personality and former singer, signed under the entertainment agency Horipro. She is best known for her affiliations with AKB48 and its various sister- and subgroups. Between 2006 and 2016, she was a part of the ...
as C-chan
*Michiru Hoshino as Michiko Goi
*Shoko Ikezu as Riki Nagase / Enma
*Satoru Matsuo as Otaku Soldier
*Yasunari Takeshima as Bazooka
*Toshihiro Yashiba as Shin'ya Kudô
*Yasuto Kosuda as Anzu's Father
See also
*
AKB48
AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol musical girl group named after the Akihabara area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48 has sold more records than any other female musical act in Japanese history. AK ...
*
Gloomy Sunday
"Gloomy Sunday" ( Hungarian: ''Szomorú Vasárnap''), also known as the "Hungarian Suicide Song", is a song composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress and published in 1933.
The original lyrics were titled "Vége a világnak" (' ...
*
Cinema of Japan
The , also known domestically as , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2022, it was the Film industry#Statistics, fourth largest by number of feature films p ...
External links
*
*
Nippon Cinema
2007 films
Films directed by Masato Harada
Japanese horror films
AKB48
Shochiku films
Films about curses
Films about music and musicians
Films about suicide
2000s Japanese films
{{2000s-horror-film-stub