is a 2009 J-horror, "found footage" film in the form of a documentary. The movie was written and directed by

Kōji Shiraishi is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is primarily known for directing Japanese horror films, most notably '' Noroi: The Curse''. Background Kōji Shiraishi was born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan. After graduatin ...

.3:AM Magazine
"''If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It): An Interview with Koji Shiraishi''," by David F. Hoenigman (November 29th, 2009 - retrieved on September 23rd, 2011).

Plot

In 2005, a man named Ken Matsuki killed two people and injured a third in a mass stabbing before jumping off a cliff; his body was never found. Three years later, a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

crew led by

Koji Shiraishi Koji, Kōji, Kohji or Kouji may refer to: *Kōji (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Kōji (Heian period) (康治), Japanese era, 1142–1144 *Kōji (Muromachi period) (弘治), Japanese era, 1555–1558 *Koji orange, a Japanese citrus ...

began a project chronicling the aftermath of the incident and interviewing survivors. One of them, Shohei Eno, is an unemployed man who had a strange

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

-like symbol carved into his back by Matsuki. To the crew's surprise, Eno states that he is thankful that Matsuki stabbed him as, in the aftermath, he has experienced "miracles", such as

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

sightings and disembodied voices. He further claims that he was given a mandate by Matsuki to perform a "

ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

" which he believes was the motive for the mass stabbing. Seeing that Eno is financially troubled, the crew agrees to let him live in their offices and pay him on the condition that they are allowed to film the phenomena he witnesses. Shiraishi's crew comes to be repulsed by Eno, especially since they think that he will follow Matsuki's path of

mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

. From Matsuki's father, the crew learns that Eno's symbol resembles the birthmark possessed by Matsuki since childhood. Their search brings them to Kutoro Rock (九頭呂岩, literally "Nine-Headed Spine Rock"), a formation at the peak of Mount Ohiruyama, where Shiraishi had a bizarre experience the same day as the mass stabbing in which

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

es appeared on his leg. There, the crew finds a stone with Matsuki and Eno's petroglyph symbols inscribed on it. According to horror film director

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film critic and a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts. Although he has worked in a variety of genres, Kurosawa is best known for his many contributions to the Japanese horror genre, his honorific ...

, Kutoro Rock was dedicated to Hiruko, a Japanese god with the form of a leech. Meanwhile, the film Eno shoots following his daily routine reveals that the "UFOs" he sees are, in fact, leech-like apparitions that appear in the skies above

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Shiraishi takes Eno to a restaurant to get him to talk openly about what the voices tell him to do. Drunk and relaxed, Eno reveals that he has been saving ¥700,000 to build a bomb so he can commit a

suicide bombing A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

in a busy street in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

, which he claims will send him and his victims to Hiruko's realm, a place he likens to

paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

. Shiraishi resolves to stop Eno, but on the way home he sees Eno's head surrounded by the leech-like apparitions and finds his leg bleeding as it did when the leeches bit it. Shiraishi reluctantly cooperates, intending to record Eno's plot for posterity. After spending a day together prior to the bombing, Eno offers him a ¥100 coin to repay one he borrowed earlier. Shiraishi instead asks him to return it and the camera from the realm he expects to go to as proof his plan succeeded. The blast ended up claiming 108 lives, including a member of Shiraishi's film crew. Eno's body, like Matsuki's, is never found. Shiraishi, meanwhile, is sentenced to prison for

complicity Complicity is the participation in a completed criminal act of an accomplice, a partner in the crime who aids or encourages ( abets) other perpetrators of that crime, and who shared with them an intent to act to complete the crime.''Criminal Law ...

. 21 years later, Shiraishi is released from prison and reunites with his producer. They return to the restaurant, where Eno's camera and the ¥100 coin fall from the ceiling. The footage inside the camera shows Eno and his victims being tormented by leech and

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

-like creatures in a nightmarish, Lovecraftian realm which Eno screams is

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

References

External links

* {{Kōji Shiraishi 2009 horror films 2009 films Found footage films Japanese horror films 2000s mockumentary films Films directed by Kōji Shiraishi Japanese psychological horror films Japanese supernatural horror films 2000s Japanese films

Plot

See also

References

External links