The Curse (2005 film)
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Kôji Shiraishi |
| Produced by | Takashige Ichise |
| Screenplay by | Kôji Shiraishi Naoyuki Yokota |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Shozo Morishita |
| Edited by | Nobuyuki Takahashi |
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Production
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Xanadeux Company
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Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | $2 million |
The Curse (ノロイ Noroi) is a 2005 Japanese found footage horror film in the form of a documentary. The movie was directed by Kôji Shiraishi, and is unusually long and complex for the J-Horror genre, being just under two hours in length, and having a main cast of well over twenty-five characters.
The film focuses on Masafumi Kobayashi, a paranormal expert who produced a series of books and documentaries on supernatural activity around Japan. He disappeared in the process of making his most disturbing documentary, The Curse. His house burnt down and his wife Keiko was found dead in the ruins. The aforementioned movie begins to play, shown mostly through the recordings of Kobayashi's cameraman Miyajima.
Kobayashi investigates a woman named Junko Ishii and her son after her neighbor hears strange noises coming from her house. Kobayashi learns Ishii has moved out and finds dead pigeons surrounding her house. Ishii's neighbor and her daughter die in a mysterious car crash a week later. Kana Yano, a girl who exhibits psychic powers on a variety television program, disappears shortly after. Speaking to her parents, Kobayashi learns a man named Mitsuo Hori visited Kana. Hori, a strange, psychic man who wears a tin foil hat and coat, claims Kana was taken by "ectoplasmic worms", drawing an obscure map of a blue building and asking Kobayashi what "Kagutaba" is. Kobayashi and Miyajima track the blue building to a nearby apartment block where they witness a man, Osawa, taking pigeons into his house. He is later reported to have gone missing.
Actress Marika Matsumoto is haunted by a malevolent spirit whilst filming at a shrine and unknowingly sleepwalks and fashions looped nooses from wires. Kobayashi records her, discovering a deep voice on the tape that says Kagutaba, which Marika identifies as a voice she heard at the shrine. Kobayashi learns that Kagutaba is a demon summoned by a religious village called Shimokage, but they imprisoned it underground for disobeying them. An annual ritual was performed to appease Kagutaba, but the village was demolished in 1978 to make way for a dam. Kobayashi is shown the recorded final ritual by a historian, where the daughter of the ritual priest is possessed by Kagutaba. Kobayashi tracks the daughter down, discovering she is Junko Ishii. Kobayashi learns Ishii worked at a nursing school where she helped with illegal abortions and stole the embryos.
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