However - and this is a fairly crucial criticism - the plot of the movie is, at one very late point, nearly completely wrecked by the inclusion of a sequence which almost totally severs the viewer's emotional connection with the main characters. For myself, I haven't read the manga on which Lovesick Dead was based as it's not yet in English translation, but from what I understand, this movie is not as faithful a retelling as Uzumaki was of its source material. The main body of the story itself is as engaging as you might hope an Ito adaptation would be: set in the often-used high-octane emotional situation of an average high-school class, where hormones are running riot at the best of times, it combines traditional mythology with urban legend in a thoroughly contemporary way, much in the same style as Ring but it also ascribes a myth to a certain location (Nanzumi-shi), in the same way Uzumaki does with the fictional town of Kurouzo-cho. Music here is used sparingly but well, serving to emphasise only the most dramatic of scenes.

Higuchinsky has understood the perfect sweet-and-sour emotionality in the original manga better than anyone else to date, but Shibuya Kazuyuki also proves with Lovesick Dead that he can use the elusive romanticism of Ito's horror fiction just as effectively to create a beautiful aesthetic. The plot depends largely on garnering a deep emotional empathy with its characters, and employs a lush, melancholic and romantic approach, one that was gently hinted at in Uzumaki and given further room to develop in Long Dream, but even more so here.Īt its core, oftentimes Ito's work has a big warm human heart, and that juxtaposes beautifully with the horror elements, lending a real poignancy to events which often destroy the characters Ito is asking you to empathise with. In fact, within five minutes of the movie opening I had guessed most of the elements of the outcome, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll make no bones about it: considering that it really was made on the lightest of shoestring budgets as an apparent V-Cinema production, Lovesick Dead (aka Shibito no koiwazurai, or, in a bizarre twist of mad renaming, Love Ghost ) is an amazing piece of work: beautifully shot with stylish visuals, charmingly acted and very entertaining, with genuinely creepy little tinges from time to time that take you by surprise.Īdapted in part from a Junji Ito manga of the same name, Lovesick Dead has a fairly predictable storyline. Directed by Shibuya Kazuyuki, 2001, 95 min., starring Ryuhei Matsuda, Risa Goto, Hitomi Miwa, Asumi Miwa, Kumiko Akiyoshi, Miki Itou and Saitou Yousuke.

Lovesick dead junji ito manga