FrightFest Movie Haiku - The Neighbor No. Thirteen

www.rinjin13.com


Dir: Yasuo Inoue


Cast: Shido Nakamura, Shin Oguri, Hirofumi Arai, Takashi Miike


Got bullied at school

alter-ego seeks revenge

look at the big turd


FrightFest usually throws up a few Asian gems (we've had Audition, The Isle, and Battle Royale to name but three highlights), yet when Asia gets it wrong, it gets it badly wrong – witness the pretentious mess that was last year’s Casshern for example. My instincts told me that Inoue’s The Neighbor No. Thirteen would be another ordeal; a manga inspired DV tale of split personality, sold on the basis of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Takashi Miike cameo. Juzo (Shin) was bullied as a kid, and in later life finds himself living in the same apartment block as his tormentor, Akai (Hirofumi). Unfortunately Juzo harbours a dark side, No. 13 (Shido), who comes out to play when he's stressed, and it's not long before Juzo / No. 13 is stalking Akai and his family. With Juzo struggling to contain his anger towards his former school bully, the film sinks into pure exploitation, with No. 13’s attempts to drown Akai’s son in a wash basin particularly unpleasant and difficult to sit through – he’s hardly someone to evoke your sympathy. And that’s the big problem here – you just don’t care about the characters. Despite a few neat touches – the exchanges between Juzo and his No. 13 alter-ego, and a brief animated interlude – this is dull, plodding material and I know that I wasn’t the only person who found my attention wandering during the screening. As Juzo finds out when he enters the school washroom, sometimes someone leaves behind a giant turd for everyone to see. And just like that turd, this film is a real stinker.

soulmining rating: *