''Gekijōban Zero'' ( ja, 劇場版 , lit. ''Zero: The Movie''), also known as ''Fatal Frame: The Movie'', is a 2014
Japanese horror
Japanese 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 horror. Japanese horror tends ...
film directed by
Mari Asato
is a Japanese film director.
Primarily known for the film '' Ju-On: Black Ghost'' (2009), part of ''The Grudge'' film installments, her other films include the politically undertoned ''Samurai Chicks'' (''Dokuritsu Shôjo Gurentai'') (2004), ...
, starring
Ayami Nakajō
is a Japanese-British actress and model who is affiliated with Ten Carat.
Biography
Early life
Nakajō was born in Abeno-ku, Osaka in 1997. Her mother is Japanese and her father is British. She grew up in a family with her mother, father, ...
and
Aoi Morikawa
is a Japanese actress and model who is affiliated with Stardust Promotion.
Biography
Morikawa was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1995. She has five family members and was the only daughter, and has two brothers.
In 2010, Morikawa won the ''Seven ...
, and based on a novelization by
Eiji Ōtsuka
is a Japanese social critic, folklorist, media theorist, and novelist. He is currently a professor at International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto. He graduated from University of Tsukuba with a degree in anthropology, women's fol ...
of the ''
Fatal Frame
''Fatal Frame'', titled in Japan and ''Project Zero'' in Europe and Australia, is a Japanese survival horror video game series created, published and developed by Koei Tecmo (originally Tecmo). Debuting in 2001 with the first entry in the seri ...
''
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
series. It was released on 26 September 2014.
''Gekijōban Zero'' premiered in North America on July 28, 2015, at the
19th Fantasia International Film Festival.
Plot
Aya, the most popular student of a
Catholic all-girls school, suddenly shuts herself in her room. Her admirer, Kasumi Nohara, kisses her photo at midnight and suddenly disappears with her friend Michi as a witness. Her disappearance is quickly attributed to a supposed curse that affects girls who kiss the photo of the person they admire at midnight. Aya's photo is taken to the attic by Sakuya Itsuki and Risa for safekeeping, but the two alongside three other girls are enticed to kiss the photo. Except for Risa, who is later found dazed but alive, all of them are eventually found dead at a nearby river.
When Michi attempts to kiss the photo, Aya stops her and reveals that she is not responsible for the curse, as the photo is not hers. They search help in Kazumi "Mary" Kusanagi, an eccentric photographer, who keeps photos inside her studio of
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
girls who made a suicide pact by drowning themselves at a lake, which is now closed, due to society's intolerance towards same-sex couples. She also tells a story about a couple who was doomed when one of them refused to commit suicide, causing her to be haunted by her lover for the rest of her life. Aya then admits to Michi that she is haunted by the guilt of letting a fellow orphan of hers die in front of her.
Michi decides to kiss the photo to put herself into the curse and chains herself to Aya so the latter can save her should she be in danger. However, the two are separated halfway through and Aya is knocked out by Takashi, the mentally handicapped brother of the school
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
, Mayumi Aso. She is thrown into a reservoir located at the place where the lesbian couples committed their suicides. There, Aya remembers that the doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, Maya. Though she died at an early age, Maya "grew up" alongside Aya and put a curse at the photo until Aya could find her in the reservoir. Meanwhile, Michi is about to be drowned by Mayumi, who is revealed to be the one murdering the girls so as to keep Takashi's supposed involvement in Maya's death a secret, but she chooses to drown herself with Takashi when the authorities are closing in. Michi goes to the reservoir and reunites with Aya.
Aya and Michi participate in the school
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
celebrating their graduation. Meanwhile, Mary visits the school's headmistress and
abbess
An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey.
Description
In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...
, correctly deducing her as the lesbian girl who was haunted by the spirit of her lover. The headmistress reveals that to keep her lover from bothering her, she murdered Maya so the latter could accompany her, though she is distressed when the act led to more murders by Mayumi, although her brother had nothing to do with it. After the choir, Michi bids Aya goodbye before she departs for
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 ...
to attend a photography college. She is about to take a photo of her, but pulls up at the last second and makes Aya promise to wait for her until she has become a proper photographer.
Cast and characters
*
Ayami Nakajō
is a Japanese-British actress and model who is affiliated with Ten Carat.
Biography
Early life
Nakajō was born in Abeno-ku, Osaka in 1997. Her mother is Japanese and her father is British. She grew up in a family with her mother, father, ...
as Aya Tsukimori
*
Aoi Morikawa
is a Japanese actress and model who is affiliated with Stardust Promotion.
Biography
Morikawa was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1995. She has five family members and was the only daughter, and has two brothers.
In 2010, Morikawa won the ''Seven ...
as Michi Kazato
*
Fujiko Kojima
is a Japanese actress, fashion model, and ''tarento'' represented by Asia Business Partners.
Biography
*Kojima's agency scouted her when she was a sixth-grader in elementary school, while she and her father were selecting an animated video in a r ...
as Risa
*
Karen Miyama
is a Japanese actress and voice actress. She used to be part of the Gekidan Tohai talent agency, and is now part of Horipro talent agency. She portrayed the young Ann Uekusa in the live-action drama ''Sand Chronicles''. In anime, she provided ...
as Sakuya Itsuki
*
Kasumi Yamaya
is a Japanese actress and model who is affiliated with Avex Vanguard. She played the role of List of Shuriken Sentai Ninninger characters#Kasumi Momochi, Kasumi Momochi (Momo Ninger) in the 2015 Super Sentai TV series, ''Shuriken Sentai Ninning ...
as Kasumi Nohara
*
Minori Hagiwara as Waka Fujii
*
Yuri Nakamura
is a Japanese actress and former singer. Her real name is or Woori Song ().
Biography
Nakamura's father was a third-generation Japanese man and her mother was Korean and held citizenship in both South Korea and Japan. Nakamura, like many other ...
as Mayumi Aso
*
Kōdai Asaka as Takashi Aso
*
Noriko Nakagoshi
is a Japanese actress.
Biography
Nakagoshi debuted as a model for '' ViVi'' magazine in 1999. She began acting the same year, making her acting debut as Midori Sato in the show ''Tengoku no Kiss''. Her acting attracted her great attention and fro ...
as Kazumi "Mary" Kusanagi
*
Jun Miho
Jun or JUN may refer to:
People and anthroponymy
* Jun (given name), a common Japanese given name
* Jun (singer), a member of South Korean boy band U-KISS
* Tomáš Jun, Czech footballer
* A spelling of common Korean family name Jeon (Korean surn ...
as Headmistress
Reception
The film grossed () at the Japanese box office. In South Korea, the film opened with ($190,000), and eventually grossed () at the box office. Combined, the film grossed in East Asia.
Richard Eisenbeis from
Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
History
...
gave the film a positive review. He commented that the best aspect of the movie is the way in which it is told. Rather than focusing solely on Michi, the movie constantly shown the story through many viewpoints other than her own, which intertwining with each other and slowly expose the truth behind the mystery in the film. He found it interesting that a large portion of the story revolves around being a lesbian in Japan not only during the modern era, but also at Meiji era. He also noted that the movie's "intensely creepy and atmospheric" tone are what builds the fear, a feat many horror films could not hope to accomplish. Conversely, he has a mixed review for the lack of ghost killing via camera in the film, which is supposed to be one of pivotal elements in the game franchise. Nevertheless, he noted that the movie is a film very much worthy of the Fatal Frame name, and stated that "if you are a fan of Fatal Frame or Japanese horror in general, this is most certainly a film to watch".
See also
*
List of films based on video games
This page is a list of film adaptations of video games. These include local, national, international, direct-to-video and TV releases, and (in certain cases) online releases. They include their scores on Rotten Tomatoes, the region in which they ...
*
List of LGBT-related films directed by women
This is a list of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-related films that were directed by women. LGBT-themed films directed by women – especially, but not exclusively, lesbian-themed movies – are an important and distinct subset of the gen ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
(Archive)
''Gekijô-ban: Zero'' (Fatal Frame)at
FilmAffinity
FilmAffinity is a movie recommendations website created in 2002 in Madrid, Spain by the film critic Pablo Kurt Verdú Schumann and the programmer Daniel Nicolás. As of 2016, the site listed 125,000 movies and series and had 556,000 reviews wri ...
*
''Gekijoban Zero''at Japanese Film Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gekijoban Zero
2014 horror films
2014 LGBT-related films
Films based on Japanese novels
Films directed by Mari Asato
Japanese horror films
Japanese LGBT-related films
Lesbian-related films
Live-action films based on video games
2010s psychological horror films
Japanese supernatural horror films
LGBT-related horror films
Japanese psychological horror films
2010s Japanese films
2010s Japanese-language films