afrodome
Disregard any issues you may have for Asian genre-cinema ie Ju-On or Ringu. This creepfest along with A Tale of Two Sisters and Audition, is one of those flicks that just make the hair stand up on your neck.Pulse is incredibly creepy, bleak, and dreadful. The best way to watch is just you and the screen you're watching it on. Turn off the cell and turn off the lights because Pulse jumped right into areas of fear that I had never experienced. I had to pause the film and turn the light on for a moment because it was just THAT UNSETTLING. No "boos" or loud thumps. Visual and auditory discomfort and confusion left me dizzied and delighted. I am happy to find films that scare me. It just comes to show that with a little research you can find a film that can do the same; with or without critical praise.
thesar-2
Watching Pulse now for the first time was as hard as starting from the beginning of The Big Bang Theory in modern times.On that side tangent, I did recently start from episode one of The Big Bang Theory having never seen an episode and hearing everyone rave about it. The way they went on and on about the technology for when that show began was difficult – knowing what I know now.And in this 2001 Japanese ghost story, it was equally uncomfortable hearing that dial-up tone over and over again. I don't ever wanna go back to those days!Eh, I digress. The movie was alright. Had some good ideas and a last act ten times better than the movie as a whole. But, I found it increasingly difficult to keep up with who was who and their relationships with each other. NO, that's not a racist statement of "oh, all Asians lookalike." In fact, they all had very unique styles and appearances. It was just a bunch of random people with different backgrounds and employments/schooling that I had troubles with.Also, ghost stories aren't my forté. And honestly, when I started this movie on Amazon streaming, I thought I was watching another movie about lightning strikes or a Mother Nature Attacks movie. But, when it's established it's a ghost story, I try to give it the benefit of the doubt, even though they never scare me.Pulse is about the "internet" and how it's a portal. Apparently, back in 2001, one couldn't Google what this "internet" was, so one character, laughably, has to pull out a very large manual to learn how to connect to such a modern thing. Stop. I started using the "internet" in 1992 in college. Back then, for me and my friends, it was an Electronic Forum (or EF) used between students and teachers at school and even, gasp, off-campus! Obviously, we were in the stone-ages in 1992, but we definitely knew what the "internet" was in the very early 1990s and not long after, AOL became the Wal-Mart of the online world.So, I do NOT give this movie a pass that someone, specifically a young male adult in technology-centered Japan, wouldn't know what the "internet" was or even bookmarks, the "screen-print" key, etc. in 2001. Hogwash. Regardless, the movie is the ghost story to the line "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth." So, ghosts figured out a way to transport via dial-up (haha, sounds silly and yeah, it was,) and make people commit suicide, I guess by scaring them to death and loneliness. It's up to our random young adults, including the ignorant- internet-idiot to try and figure out the motives and keep their (seconds-earlier-strangers) best friends alive. Oddly, since this was my first (and frankly, only) time seeing this, it seemed awfully familiar and felt like this movie had already been remade. Alas, it had in America half a decade later – nope, not interested in that and it looks awful, anyways. But, it also felt like the other Japanese film, Ringu and its American remakes as well. I guess this ghost portal thing was hot back then.I suppose if you're scared of ghosts and still don't know what the "internet" is, you might find enjoyment here. It has some good scenes and use of silence after a tense score placement, but overall, it's too long of a movie to get to the goods.***Final thoughts: I am not opposed to reading subtitles (always better than dubbing!) but damnit, stop putting all white subtitles on top of pitch-white scenes! At times, words were literally fleshed out from the screen thanks to the white-on-white subtitles.
richieandsam
PULSEI love Japanese horror movies. I believe that the Japanese are the best at making horror. The atmosphere that these guys give the movies is what is the scary part.This movie is about a web site that apparently allows you to communicate with the dead. It all is not as it seems. People start killing themselves and it is down to 2 people to find out why their friends are dying.The film is very confusing. I watched this with a friend of mine and we both were wondering what was happening through the film. It is a shame because I was enjoying it, but even when the movie finished I was still not sure what the hell was going on with it. I had to Google the film to read the synopsis to confirm what it was about. The atmosphere was there which was good. There were times when it was a bit spooky and you wondered what was going to happen.The acting was good, but then I don't know any Japanese film where the acting is bad. I suppose it does make it better for them that I don't understand much Japanese. I did learn quite a bit a few years ago, but not enough to understand a film. If I could speak Japanese I wonder if I would still think they can all act very well. The movie stars Haruhiko Kato, Kumiko Aso and Koyuki.This film is good and I will watch it again to try and understand it a little more, but overall I was disappointed in it a little bit. I much preferred Ring, Battle Royale, Audition and Versus… these are my favourite Japanese films that I will watch soon hopefully and review for you.I will give this film 5 out of 10. Maybe I will give it more after the second watch… time will tell."Death was... eternal loneliness"For more reviews, please like my Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl
