Pulse (2001 Film)
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is a 2001
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese
techno-horror Techno-horror is an intersecting sub-genre of speculative fiction and horror fiction, horror that focuses on concerns with and fears of technology. The stories are often cautionary tales created during periods of rapid technological advancement tha ...
film written and directed by
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film critic, author, actor, and a former professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (2005-2023). Noted for his psychological films that often focus on ambiguous narratives and on their characters' i ...
. The film was screened in the
Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...
section at the
2001 Cannes Film Festival The 54th Cannes Film Festival took place from 9 to 20 May 2001. Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann was named Jury President for the main competition. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti won the ''Palme d'Or'' for the drama film '' The Son's ...
. The movie was well-received critically and has a
cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...
. An English-language remake, also titled ''
Pulse In medicine, the pulse refers to the rhythmic pulsations (expansion and contraction) of an artery in response to the cardiac cycle (heartbeat). The pulse may be felt ( palpated) in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surfac ...
'', debuted in 2006 and spawned two sequels. The script was also adapted into a novel of the same name by Kurosawa himself.


Plot

The plot follows ghosts invading the living world via the Internet, with two parallel plotlines that eventually converge. In the first, Michi Kudo, newly moved to
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
, works at a plant shop with Junko Sasano, Toshio Yabe, and Taguchi, who has been missing for several days while working on a
computer disk A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', w ...
for the shop's sales. Michi goes to Taguchi's apartment and finds him distracted and aloof; while looking for the disk, she turns and finds he has hanged himself, his decaying body making her question who she had spoken to earlier. The disk reveals an endless loop of images of Taguchi staring into his monitor, while a ghostly face appears on another screen. Yabe receives a distorted phone call saying "help me" and sees the same image from Taguchi's disk on his phone. At Taguchi's apartment, he finds a black stain on the wall where Taguchi hanged himself, as well as a printed note reading "a forbidden room." Outside the apartment, he notices a door sealed with red tape and enters, encountering a ghost. Yabe disappears for a few days before returning to work, acting distant and strange. He warns Michi not to enter "the forbidden room." Soon after, Michi's boss also goes missing, and she receives a call at work with Yabe's voice repeating "help me." Looking for him in the shop's storage room, she instead finds a stain on the wall, similar to the one in Taguchi's apartment. Junko, searching for their boss, enters a "forbidden room" in the building. Michi pulls Junko away from a ghost, but the encounter leaves Junko in a catatonic state. Later, in Michi's apartment, Junko walks towards a wall, dissolving into a black stain that scatters. Worried, Michi leaves Tokyo to check on her mother when her calls go unanswered. The second plotline follows Ryosuke Kawashima, a university
economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
student who has recently signed to a new
Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...
. His computer accesses a website by itself, displaying disturbing images of people alone in dark rooms. That night, Ryosuke wakes to find his computer on again, showing the same images, and frantically unplugs it. The next day, he visits the university computer lab and meets Harue Karasawa, a postgraduate computer science student, who suggests bookmarking the page or screen capturing the images for her to examine. Ryosuke attempts to do so, but his computer does not follow his commands, instead playing a video of a man with a plastic bag over his head, sitting in a room with "help me" written all over the walls. A graduate student tells Ryosuke his theory that the dead are invading the physical world. Harue starts behaving oddly, believing that ghosts are trying to trap the living in their loneliness rather than kill them. Ryosuke tries to escape with her by train, but it stops, and Harue returns to her apartment. She witnesses the man with the plastic bag shoot himself on her computer screen before it cuts to a live video of herself. As she embraces the invisible figure watching her, Harue, who has always felt lonely, happily says that she is "not alone". When Ryosuke arrives, she has disappeared. As people begin disappearing en masse, evacuations of Tokyo begin as ghosts launch a full-scale invasion of the
Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...
. Ryosuke meets Michi while looking for Harue, and the two find her in an abandoned factory. Mimicking the man she saw on her computer, Harue removes a plastic bag from her head and shoots herself. When Ryosuke and Michi's car runs out of gas, Ryosuke searches a warehouse for fuel and inadvertently enters a "forbidden room", where a ghost tells him that "death is eternal loneliness." Although he initially resists the ghost's influence, Ryosuke loses the will to live, and Michi pulls him to safety. They drive through a deserted, ruined Tokyo, passing apocalyptic scenes. After reaching
Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...
by motorboat, they are rescued by a ship crewed by survivors, who reveal the same events are happening worldwide. As the ship sails toward
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, the captain reassures Michi that she was right to continue living. She returns to her room and finds Ryosuke sitting against the wall with his eyes closed. He fades into a stain on the wall as Michi reflects on finding happiness in being alone with her last friend in the world.


Cast

* Kumiko Asō as Michi Kudo * Haruhiko Kato as Ryosuke Kawashima * Koyuki as Harue Karasawa * Kurume Arisaka as Junko Sasano * Masatoshi Matsuo as Toshio Yabe * Shinji Takeda as Yoshizaki *
Jun Fubuki is a Japanese actress. Career Jun Fubuki received a Japanese Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in '' Muno no Hito'', and won at the Hochi Film Awards. This role also won Fubuki the "Best Actress" award at the Yokoha ...
as Michi's mother * Shun Sugata as Boss * Kōji Yakusho as Ship Captain * Show Aikawa as Employee * Kenji Mizuhashi as Taguchi


Release

''Pulse'' was first released in Japan on February 3, 2001, where it was distributed by
Toho is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...
. Distant Horizon purchased worldwide distribution rights to the film from
Daiei , based in Kobe, Hyōgo, is one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan. In 1957, Isao Nakauchi founded the chain in Osaka near Sembayashi Station on the Keihan train line. Daiei is now under a restructuring process supported by Marubeni ...
. The film premiered in the
Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...
category at the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
.


Home video

The film was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
by Magnolia Home Entertainment on February 21, 2006.
Arrow Video An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a Bow and arrow, bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like St ...
published
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
release of the film in July 2017. As of October 2019, it is included as part of the subscription service run by the BFI.


Critical reception

The review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
gives the film a rating of 76% based on 55 reviews, and a rating average of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A sinister spine-tingling techno-thriller whose artistry lies in the power of suggestion rather than a barrage of blood and guts or horror shop special effects".
AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...
praised the film, writing: "The first 30 minutes of ''Kairo'' is perhaps some of the most unnerving, frightening sequences to come down the pike in a long time". Anita Gates of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote: "There are very few moments in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's fiercely original, thrillingly creepy horror movie that don't evoke a dreamlike dread of the truly unknown". ''Slant'' gave the film four stars out of four: "Kurosawa's movies have a genuinely unnerving effect on the viewer because they deal with the kind of loneliness that exists in an overcrowded world. ..''Pulse'' is his strongest elucidation of this theme, treating the
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...
as a literal snare forging sinewy connections between strangers where the ultimate destination is chaos". ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' called it "an incredibly creepy horror film" that, in the same way as ''
Ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...
'', "finds chills in the most dingy and mundane of locales; skillful deployment of grisly little moments and disturbing, cryptic imagery produce the requisite mood of dread and gloom". ''
Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...
'' wrote: "What's worse than a horror film that frightens you sleepless is one that disturbs you to depression". ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' commented: "''Pulse'' is best enjoyed if it's not questioned too closely. It lives visually in a way it cannot live intellectually". ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' was critical of the film, writing: "watching ''Pulse'' ..you could almost die of anticipation", commenting that "nothing in the two snail-paced hours ..makes close to a shred of sense". ''
The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...
'' criticized the film's storyline and length, writing "while it's rattling your nerves, ''Pulse'' leaves your brain wanting more", and ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' called the film "at least half an hour too long". In 2012, Jaime N Christley of '' Slant'' listed the film as one of the greatest of all time. In the early 2010s, '' Time Out'' conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. The film was ranked as number 65 on the 2020 version of the same list. The scene where Yabe encounters a ghost for the first time has received attention for being especially frightening without using jump scares or loud sound effects; Scott Tobias, writing for ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'', described it as "arguably the signature sequence in all of
J-horror Japanese horror, also known as J-horror, is horror fiction derived from popular culture in Japan, generally noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre differing from the traditional Western representation of horr ...
".


See also

*
List of ghost films Ghost movies and shows can fall into a wide range of genres, including romance, comedy, horror, juvenile interest, and drama. History With the advent of motion pictures and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common and spanned a vari ...


References


External links

* * * * {{Authority control 2001 films 2001 horror films 2000s ghost films Films based on horror novels Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa Japanese ghost films Japanese horror films Techno-horror films 2000s Japanese films Pulse films Existentialist films