The plot, as best as I can understand it, involves overworked doctors in an underfunded hospital, not so much caring for patients as simply attempting to get through the shift.
That's actually the problem. The plot.
Anyone familiar with Japanese culture is aware of the fact that mood, symbolism, atmosphere etc. always play far more important a role than, say, reality. Cartoon characters can leap thirty feet in the air, and suddenly the background changes into a disco random light pattern (that way the sequence can be used over and over again in other shows....) as opposed to the venue of the show in question, that kind of thing.
But even so, for a movie to work, it has to have some sort of internal logic. It must at least conform to some degree to some ground rules set up. Neat tricks like cuts to a schoolyard, or dimmed lights, claustrophobic shots, etc. mean absolutely nothing if the narrative of the story is senseless.
The acting is weak, the characterisation (or lack thereof) is as such that sadly the racist joke about telling Orientals apart being impossible actually starts to become true.... and the actors simply do not make their characters behave the way they're supposed to. EMTs do not harangue doctors about whether or not they "have" to take in patients, nor do they bring in someone who is alive with a sheet over his entire body and completely lacking in any kind of life support (could the props dept. not afford an IV or an oxygen tank?)
If you don't want to read spoilers, simply stop reading here and pass on this disjointed mess.
SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS
Alright, so now I can discuss further what didn't work in this waste of celluloid. Back to the plot, or a complete lack thereof. The movie is about some sort of contagion - we can infer that much from the title. And yet, what exactly is it? Is it a pathogen brought in with a body raced into the ER? (I find it hard to believe that an EMT would drive for an hour with a rapidly crashing patient in a crowded place like Japan.... surely to God there's closer hospitals than Our Lady of Borrowed Time?) Is it some psychic ability from some Alzheimer's ridden codger tittering about mirrors? Is it a supernatural haunting, some ghost/revenge thing? Guess what, you're supposed to decide FOR YOURSELF what's going on, and just when you think you've arrived at a conclusion, they throw in some visual image or superfluous detail to derail your theory. This is lazy film-making. Write a plot, figure out what's going on, and make it happen. In an effort to keep the audience unbalanced, the writers actually abandon deciding on what's actually happening, rather than decide on what's going on, and throw in red herrings along the way. The result is a movie that has no clue what it's saying or where it's going.
Characters seem to be thrown in for any random reason. We see them once at the beginning and once at the end, to throw in some story detail that makes no sense, like a "failed pediatrician" who may or may not have killed a character in Act One that everyone therefore would have had to have consensually hallucinated en masse throughout the rest of the film.... alright, enough about the plot or lack thereof.
Yes, there are some nice, creepy shots. There's some serious atmosphere, and a few nice visuals that'll squick people who wish to be squicked. However, the complete abandon of reasonable character study, plotting and/or sense in this movie derails it completely, no matter how many little arty details, momentary subplots never resolved, or pop-philosophy musings about whether green is actually green or not you throw in.
To give you an idea what kind of movie this is, in the message boards section someone raves about a beautiful actress he's lusting over, and asks the question as to which character she plays.
Yeah.
Imagine a movie in which someone can't figure out who Angelina Jolie plays.
I'd say it's well into Ed Wood category by that point.
That's actually the problem. The plot.
Anyone familiar with Japanese culture is aware of the fact that mood, symbolism, atmosphere etc. always play far more important a role than, say, reality. Cartoon characters can leap thirty feet in the air, and suddenly the background changes into a disco random light pattern (that way the sequence can be used over and over again in other shows....) as opposed to the venue of the show in question, that kind of thing.
But even so, for a movie to work, it has to have some sort of internal logic. It must at least conform to some degree to some ground rules set up. Neat tricks like cuts to a schoolyard, or dimmed lights, claustrophobic shots, etc. mean absolutely nothing if the narrative of the story is senseless.
The acting is weak, the characterisation (or lack thereof) is as such that sadly the racist joke about telling Orientals apart being impossible actually starts to become true.... and the actors simply do not make their characters behave the way they're supposed to. EMTs do not harangue doctors about whether or not they "have" to take in patients, nor do they bring in someone who is alive with a sheet over his entire body and completely lacking in any kind of life support (could the props dept. not afford an IV or an oxygen tank?)
If you don't want to read spoilers, simply stop reading here and pass on this disjointed mess.
SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS
Alright, so now I can discuss further what didn't work in this waste of celluloid. Back to the plot, or a complete lack thereof. The movie is about some sort of contagion - we can infer that much from the title. And yet, what exactly is it? Is it a pathogen brought in with a body raced into the ER? (I find it hard to believe that an EMT would drive for an hour with a rapidly crashing patient in a crowded place like Japan.... surely to God there's closer hospitals than Our Lady of Borrowed Time?) Is it some psychic ability from some Alzheimer's ridden codger tittering about mirrors? Is it a supernatural haunting, some ghost/revenge thing? Guess what, you're supposed to decide FOR YOURSELF what's going on, and just when you think you've arrived at a conclusion, they throw in some visual image or superfluous detail to derail your theory. This is lazy film-making. Write a plot, figure out what's going on, and make it happen. In an effort to keep the audience unbalanced, the writers actually abandon deciding on what's actually happening, rather than decide on what's going on, and throw in red herrings along the way. The result is a movie that has no clue what it's saying or where it's going.
Characters seem to be thrown in for any random reason. We see them once at the beginning and once at the end, to throw in some story detail that makes no sense, like a "failed pediatrician" who may or may not have killed a character in Act One that everyone therefore would have had to have consensually hallucinated en masse throughout the rest of the film.... alright, enough about the plot or lack thereof.
Yes, there are some nice, creepy shots. There's some serious atmosphere, and a few nice visuals that'll squick people who wish to be squicked. However, the complete abandon of reasonable character study, plotting and/or sense in this movie derails it completely, no matter how many little arty details, momentary subplots never resolved, or pop-philosophy musings about whether green is actually green or not you throw in.
To give you an idea what kind of movie this is, in the message boards section someone raves about a beautiful actress he's lusting over, and asks the question as to which character she plays.
Yeah.
Imagine a movie in which someone can't figure out who Angelina Jolie plays.
I'd say it's well into Ed Wood category by that point.