Seance | |
---|---|
Directed by | Kiyoshi Kurosawa |
Produced by | Atsuyuki Shimoda Takehiko Tanaka Yasuyuki Uemura |
Written by | Kiyoshi Kurosawa Tetsuya Onishi Mark McShane (novel) |
Starring |
Koji Yakusho Jun Fubuki Tsuyoshi Kusanagi |
Cinematography | Takahide Shibanushi |
Edited by | Jun'ichi Kikuchi |
Release date
|
May 12, 2001 (Japan) |
Running time
|
118 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Budget | approx $200,000-$300,000 (US) |
Seance (降霊 Kôrei?) is a 2001 Japanese horror/thriller television film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, starring Koji Yakusho, Jun Fubuki and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. It is based on the novel Seance on a Wet Afternoon by Mark McShane, which was also the basis for the 1964 film of the same title.
Koji Sato (Koji Yakusho) is a mild-mannered sound technician who is married to Junko (Jun Fubuki), a waitress who possesses powerful psychic abilities. Though these abilities allow her to see and communicate with spirits, they interfere in her day-to-day life and make it difficult for her to hold down a normal job. She hopes to build a business around her psychic powers, but faces a daunting task of proving her abilities to a skeptical world. When Hayakawa (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), a young graduate student in psychology, invites her into a study of the paranormal, she leaps at the ability to demonstrate her skill as a medium.
Through Hayakawa, Junko becomes involved with the police search for a young girl kidnapped by a deranged ex-cop. But through a bizarre coincidence, the young girl escapes her captor and takes refuge in Koji's equipment case, unbeknownst to him. When the couple discover the unconscious child at their home, they devise a plan to keep her hidden, while Junko gradually leads the police to her. They reason that this will prove Junko's psychic abilities to the public, and also ensure that they are not falsely blamed for the kidnapping.