As a big fan of Junji Ito, I watched this movie planning to review it as an adaptation of Lovesickness. However, it's really hard to compare the manga with a movie that purposefully doesn't faithfully adapt it
Both are about a teenager returning to their childhood town where school girls play a crossroads fortune-telling game and the presence of a pretty boy wearing black clothes causes the girls to commit suicide with a boxcutter. In both stories, Suzue is driven insane by obsessing over a boy after a crossroad fortune, and the protagonist is linked to a previous suicide 10 years ago
Aside from that, the main plot is completely different, most obviously by the fact Ryusuke is the protagonist of the manga and Midori is only a side character, which means that most events had to be changed in the movie. On this subject, Ryusuke isn't the pretty boy in black in the manga. There's a whole chapter dedicated to him being gaslit into thinking he's the pretty boy. That plot twist in the movie is kind of a clever subversion of the manga, but also a really not clever plot tiwst you could see from miles away
Now, about the movie as a stand alone movie, I think it has a pretty cool, dream-like atmosphere. While slow-paced, at no point was I really bored. The movie was generally well enough shot and did a good job building tension (except for a few hilariously cliche shots during a flashback). The acting wasn't the worst, though it was a bit embarassingly camp at times. I thought Suzue's breakdown was really well-done and the mold subplot was really good at capturing the type of horror Junji Ito likes to do
Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the big plot twist: I really don't like it. I have a soft spot for movies where a part of it is revealed to have not actually happened, but these reveals typically require signs and foreshadowing, which this movie does a bad job at so the plot twist comes out of nowhere and feels like a slap in the face of the viewer. The whole ending derails the plot. If it had a better one, I'd consider a 5 or 6/10, but as it stands, I leave this movie with a sour taste in my mouth
Overall, a surprisingly decent movie that does a good job a building tension but wastes it all in the finale. While I appreciate its deviations from the manga, I think a more faithful adaptation of Lovesickness in terms of overall plot would have made for a better movie.
Both are about a teenager returning to their childhood town where school girls play a crossroads fortune-telling game and the presence of a pretty boy wearing black clothes causes the girls to commit suicide with a boxcutter. In both stories, Suzue is driven insane by obsessing over a boy after a crossroad fortune, and the protagonist is linked to a previous suicide 10 years ago
Aside from that, the main plot is completely different, most obviously by the fact Ryusuke is the protagonist of the manga and Midori is only a side character, which means that most events had to be changed in the movie. On this subject, Ryusuke isn't the pretty boy in black in the manga. There's a whole chapter dedicated to him being gaslit into thinking he's the pretty boy. That plot twist in the movie is kind of a clever subversion of the manga, but also a really not clever plot tiwst you could see from miles away
Now, about the movie as a stand alone movie, I think it has a pretty cool, dream-like atmosphere. While slow-paced, at no point was I really bored. The movie was generally well enough shot and did a good job building tension (except for a few hilariously cliche shots during a flashback). The acting wasn't the worst, though it was a bit embarassingly camp at times. I thought Suzue's breakdown was really well-done and the mold subplot was really good at capturing the type of horror Junji Ito likes to do
Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the big plot twist: I really don't like it. I have a soft spot for movies where a part of it is revealed to have not actually happened, but these reveals typically require signs and foreshadowing, which this movie does a bad job at so the plot twist comes out of nowhere and feels like a slap in the face of the viewer. The whole ending derails the plot. If it had a better one, I'd consider a 5 or 6/10, but as it stands, I leave this movie with a sour taste in my mouth
Overall, a surprisingly decent movie that does a good job a building tension but wastes it all in the finale. While I appreciate its deviations from the manga, I think a more faithful adaptation of Lovesickness in terms of overall plot would have made for a better movie.