REAL

Back in the day, TIFF scheduled a program to spotlight the work of a lesser-known director. I discovered some excellent directors through this series, one of whom was Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

At the time Kurosawa had a well-earned reputation as a director of Japanese horror films. His films had more to do with dread than shocks or violence and he was very good at it. Later he moved into more mainstream film making, using the skills he had learned from his earlier work in the service of more accessible stories.

"REAL" marked a return to his more fantastic story-telling. The lover of a woman in a coma uses a technology to enter her sub-conscious mind, in an attempt to bring her back.

Based on my knowledge of his work, it sounded like a premise that would play well to his talents and, in the early going, he effectively establishes the mood and ground rules for the world of the sub-conscious. Unfortunately, it doesn't last. There is a plot twist about halfway though that, while not unreasonable, sends the film into a series of narrative dead-ends. And there are a lot of them. The film has about five or six endings and, by the time I reached the "real" ending, I was tired of it.

Disappointing. Rather than this film, I'd suggest renting "Cure" or "Pulse" (his version, not Wes Craven's remake). They're much better films.