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Shikoku (film)

Shikoku
Shikoku-poster.jpg
Japanese film poster for Shikoku
Directed by Shunichi Nagasaki
Produced by
  • Yasushi Tsuge
  • Masao Nagai
Screenplay by
  • Kunimi Manda
  • Takenori Sendo
Story by Masako Bando
Music by Sotoshi Kadokura
Cinematography Noboru Sinoda
Edited by Yoshiyuki Okuhara
Production
company
Distributed by Toho
Release date
  • January 23, 1999 (1999-01-23) (Japan)
Running time
100 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Shikoku (死国?, "Land of The Dead") is a 1999 Japanese supernatural thriller film directed by Shunichi Nagasaki and written by Kunimi Manda and Takenori Sento.

Years after moving to Tokyo with her parents, Hinako returns to her hometown in rural Shikoku. She soon learns that her childhood friend, Sayori, died several years ago and that Sayori's mother, who used to perform séances and exorcisms, has gone almost insane with grief. After seeing Sayori's yūrei several times during the night, Hinako consults with some local experts on the paranormal and discovers that Sayori's mother has something planned for her daughter.

Shikoku was released in Japan on January 23, 1999 where it was distributed by Toho. It was released as a double feature with Ring 2.

The film was released directly to video in the United States on October 26, 2004 by Adness.

Jasper Sharp writing for Midnight Eye referred to the film as a "pedestrian addition to the late 1990s horror boom.", finding it "Hideo Nakata's high-concept popcorn movie Ring had proven pretty convincingly that the supernatural could be a lucrative cash cow in late-1990s recessional Japan. A contract job, co-written by one of Ring's original producers, Takenori Sento, and circulating on the lower half of a double bill with Ring 2, Shikoku is less an indication of either Bando or Nagasaki's thematic interests than an obvious attempt to milk the current interest in horror before it dried up. As such, it doesn't deviate too far from the path forged by its model in either style or formula.


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