VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

David Arnold After viewing an old film reel containing experiments on the human brain, Dr Hattori becomes interested in researching to see what happens when a person dies, and if there is indeed an afterlife where people are "re-born". Years later, one of Hattori's test subjects is actually one of her own daughters, Miyuki, along with other teens Kazochi, Takumi, and Rieko. However, not long after the experiment has been performed, Miyuki disappears, and it's here that her sister, Kaori, along with Miyuki's boyfriend Motojima and a detective, begin to search for her. As the search continues, Kaori starts to experience what appear to be hallucinations, but these only strengthen her resolve into finding out the truth about what her mother is doing and what happened to her sister.I've seen quite a few strange Japanese horrors in my time, but The Sylvian Experiments has got to rank up with one of the strangest ever. Right from the very start, you catch yourself wondering what's going on as it gets confusing pretty quickly, so if you don't keep up in the first 5 minutes then you have no hope for the remaining 90.It's not what I was expecting either, which was a good, creepy Japanese horror, but it's not creepy or scary (apart from maybe the idea of humans getting experimented on in such a way). Instead, it's more of a surreal psychological drama that has a Jacobs Ladder feel to it. It's a pity because it had all the elements to make it good, scary horror.As mentioned earlier, it's a very confusing movie, and the story does jump about a lot. I know foreign films have a tendency to do this, but this is on another level and quite a good few times you don't know if the characters are hallucinating or if it's real images they are experiencing. It's also a pretty slow movie so if you combine that with the confusing story then there's a chance you may just give up.Overall, it's definitely an intriguing film, but it's ultimately a disappointing one.

poe426 THE SYLVIAN EXPERIMENTS in its depiction(s) of medically-induced paranormal power(s) brings to mind some of the early work of Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg; i.e.; the black and white short STEREO and the feature film that may or may not have sprung from that, SCANNERS, as well as the mind-bending VIDEODROME (not to mention dozens of other such movies in between- and since). When her daughter Miyuki joins a group of would-be suicides in an airtight van with the treacherous Hattori, her mother takes the opportunity to subject her to a series of experiments, promising her: "You're going to see what humans can't. The reality of the world beyond our world." Following the experiment, Miyuki disappears from her mother's clinic with another subject. Miyuki's sister, Kaori, arrives to try to help find her, but when she and her mother return to the clinic, everyone there is dead. In a VERY Cronenbergeque scene, her mother shows Kaori that the walls have become "just like skin" because Miyuki's thoughts have started to affect the Reality all around her. There are some great twists near the end of the movie, but the ending itself is surprisingly disappointing because it's been done a million times before. Still, I would recommend THE SYLVIAN EXPERIMENTS to anyone who's a fan of David Cronenberg or of exceptionally well-crafted Japanese fright films.

gothic_a666 'Kyofu' starts out as intriguing only to plummet into muddled vagaries and plot-less shenanigans with an overly ambitious undertone and is never fully realized. The initial thrust of the movie includes a failed suicide who ends up a guinea pig captive of her own mother, the experiments including brain surgery in a quest to alter human perception and bring the species to a whole new level. A chilling scenario given that the point of the reference were human experiments that the Imperial army actually performed on prisoners of war during WWII.In fact, the horrors of such things like Unit 731 are beyond anything 'Kyofu' could ever hope to achieve, testifying that real life can so often trump fiction. But perhaps it is unfair to expect this movie to deliver on that account, however, this is a movie spawned from a rich tradition of scary cinema and it fails to live up to the expectations within the genre.Instead of exploring a genuinely scary story the movie loses itself in meanderings about life after death, virgin pregnancy, a looming bright light that becomes very fake looking CG created fog to represent the never quite explained threat, and there is even one of those infuriating twists that by now are all too tiresome.'Kyofu' does try to be scary and its vocabulary is for the most part that of Asian horror with a slow pace, plenty of moody scenery be it a creepy clinic or the many forest scenes that seem to invoke such classics as the Tale of Two Sisters. Unfortunately it does not adhere to the aesthetics by adding conspicuous special effects that become more laughable as the movie reaches its convoluted climax.Through most of it there is a feeling of disconnected bits all pieced together with no actual sense, almost as if scenes could have been edited in any random order to the same general effect. While not long it feels like it exhausted itself long before it comes to an actual conclusion. The characters seem only half present and their very stilted lines about the afterlife ring hollow.All and all, it's a shame how such promise was wasted. Here was an opportunity for dealing with one of the darkest sides of Japan, its frighteningly high suicide rate and to possibly go into beyond disturbing human experiments to justify the title of 'Kyofu' (Fear). Hailing from the writer of the ever so famous Ringu this effort comes across as a disappointment on all fronts.

Claudio Carvalho Dr. Hattori and her husband watch footage of brain surgery experiments with Manchurian, Russian and Japanese guinea pigs that had been found in the basement of a wrecked hospital. Out of the blue, there is a white light and when they look back, they see they children Ota Miyuki and Kaori staring at the light.Years later, Miyuki (Yuri Nakamura) vanishes from the Tama Medical University Hospital and her sister Kaori (Mina Fujii), Miyuki's boyfriend Motojima and detective Hirasawa are seeking her. However, Miyuki and the teenagers Kazochi, Takumi, Hattori and Rieko have been submitted to a nightmarish experiment by Dr. Hattori and her team with tragic results."Kyôfu" is an intriguing film, with a mad scientist that submits her daughters and other teenagers to creepy experiments that recalled me the Dharma Projet from "Lost". Unfortunately the screenplay is a complete mess and despite the good acting, cinematography, make-up and effects, the film is unintelligible. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "Herança Amaldiçoada" ("Cursed Heritage")