Page 174 - Nightmare Japan Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema

Spiraling into Apocalypse 161

of his medium. During this exquisitely crafted narrative of ghosts,
alienation, and the gradual eradication of human life as we know it,
Kurosawa’s mise-en-scène, with its application of chiaroscuro lighting
and muted colours, lures the viewer into an apocalyptic scenario as sad as
it is frightening. In the process, he presents a critical dissection of a
postmodern Japan that, like the films discussed above, explores the
impact of technology upon our lives and the profound alienation that all
too frequently (and ironically) accompanies post-industrial capitalist
culture.
Summarising Pulse’s plot for the purpose of the ensuing analysis
presents numerous challenges, not the least of which stems from the
density of the film’s visuals, as well as its complex individual, yet
ultimately intersecting, storylines. From its disquieting opening moments,
in which a black screen and the electronic screech of a computer’s
modem gives way to a brief sequence aboard a lone, largely empty ship
motoring steadily through an expanse of ocean darkened by low grey
clouds, Kurosawa Kiyoshi conveys a palpable tone of menace and dread
that intensifies as the film’s plot unfolds. One of the bleakest apocalyptic
visions in contemporary Japanese horror cinema, Pulse conveys the story
of two lonely young adults living in an alienating late-industrial Tokyo,
an urban realm where, in a scenario that anticipates Sono Shion’s Suicide
Circle, pervasive communication technologies (from cell phones to the
internet) paradoxically enhance the disconnection and isolation the film’s
protagonists feel. One of the two major characters is a woman named
Michi, whose voice-over frames the film’s events. Employed by a
botanical nursery, Michi volunteers to visit an absent co-worker, Taguchi,
to retrieve a disk containing important information for an on-going
project. When she arrives at Taguchi’s apartment, she speaks briefly with
her colleague, who, in the few minutes it takes Michi to locate the crucial
disk, commits suicide by hanging himself in an adjacent room. This death
variably disturbs the nursery’s employees, as does a strange and haunting
image they find embedded within the project file: a still photo of Taguchi
standing in front of a desk with two computer monitors, one of which
reveals a strangely contorted face, while the other displays what appears
to be a webpage consisting of an exact reproduction of the very image