| Shikoku | |
|---|---|
 Japanese film poster | |
| Directed by | Shunichi Nagasaki |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by | Masako Bando[1] |
| Produced by |
|
| Cinematography | Noboru Sinoda[1] |
| Edited by | Yoshiyuki Okuhara[1] |
| Music by | Sotoshi Kadokura[1] |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Toho |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes[1] |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Shikoku (死国, "Land of The Dead") is a 1999 Japanesesupernaturalthriller film directed byShunichi Nagasaki and written byKunimi Manda andTakenori Sento.
Years after moving toTokyo with her parents, Hinako returns to her hometown in ruralShikoku. She soon learns that her childhood friend, Sayori, died several years ago and that Sayori's mother, aShinto priestess(?)[clarification needed] who used to performséances andexorcisms, has gone almost insane with grief. After seeing Sayori'syūrei 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 byToho.[1] It was released as a double feature withRing 2.[2]Shikoku was later shown at theVancouver International Film Festival as part of a program of modern Japanese horror films at the festival, includingRing,Ring 2,Audition andGemini.[3]
The film was released directly to video in the United States on October 26, 2004 byAdness.[1]
Jasper Sharp writing forMidnight Eye referred to the film as a "pedestrian addition to the late 1990s horror boom." He added: "Hideo Nakata's high-concept popcorn movieRing 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 ofRing's original producers, Takenori Sento, and circulating on the lower half of a double bill withRing 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.[4] John Kenneth Muir in his bookHorror Films of the 1990s gave the film a three and a half star rating out of five, finding the film "Beautifully shot and visually realized" and that the film had "more on its mind than scary dead girls with long hair"[5][6]