From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 26 09:20:10 1996
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From: mleeper@lucent.com (Mark R. Leeper)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: RETROSPECTIVE: THE GHOST OF APRIL (1988)
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Date: 21 Nov 1996 21:20:24 GMT
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                            THE GHOST OF APRIL
                            (SHI-GATSU KAIDAN)
                      A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                       Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper

               Capsule: This 1988 Japanese film seems to be
          an IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE aimed at teenagers.  An
          average high school girl hovers between life and
          death, wanting to die, but discovers the value of
          life and of being herself.  The film is a little
          light in approach, but is quite watchable.  Rating:
          +1 (-4 to +4)

     The ghost story is a staple of Japanese cinema.  Such films as
KWAIDAN and THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA are popular examples.  But almost all
of the ghost stories we see coming out of Japan are first period pieces
and ghost stories only second.  Whether there are many contemporary
ghost stories made in Japan that we do not see in the United States I
do not know.  THE GHOST OF APRIL is a film I saw at the Japan
Foundation Kyoto Office and it is radically different from the Japanese
ghost stories that have come to my country.  Many of these are morality
tales of wronged people coming back for revenge.  This 1988 film is
about a contemporary teenager and seems to be aimed at teens in Japan.
The plot is at once reminiscent of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, HERE COMES
MR. JORDAN, and A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

     As the film opens Hatsuko (played by Nakajima Tomoko) seems to be
in a mysterious state of half life and half death.  She walks barefoot
through misty landscapes and floats in clouds.  She does not know how
she has gotten in this state until a guardian comes along to explain to
her.  Gennojo (Yanagiba Toshiro) tells her he is like her.  He is dead
but is not yet ready to pass on to the next world where all memories of
the past life are erased.  Gennojo has been in this state since early
this century when he was killed by a balloon of his own devising.
Hatsuko is shown her last day when she rebuffed the school geek
Natsuyama (Tsunoda Eisuke) who claims to be able to see ghosts.  She
also was spoken to by her heartthrob Tsudanuma.  Then on her way home
she followed the whimper of a puppy into an abandoned factory where she
was killed by a falling girder.  But there is a complication.  She is
in this half-state because she accepted death even as the girder was
falling.  The girder missed her and she was hit by only a bento
lunchbox.  That would not have been fatal, but for her acceptance of
death.  This means Hatsuko has the choice of life and death.  But she
prefers death with Gennojo to her unhappy life.

     This is a film of uneven production quality.  Konaka Kazuya who
directs and co-wrote the screenplay with Seki Kenji has some nice
images, but he let some sloppiness sneak into the production.  In one
scene the puppy who fits into the plot seems to be staring at the
camera rather than at anything in the scene.  The plot loses some
credibility when one of the characters invents a ghost detector.  The
viewer suspends some disbelief just to accept that ghosts exist.
Asking the acceptance of a second far-fetched premise is a mistake.
The last few minutes of the film also seem to weaken the story with
familiar cliche.  On the other hand there is a very effective scene
involving the souls of dead birds and the climax is nicely done.

     It is not easy to judge acting in a language you do not
understand.  Mis-delivered lines may go completely unnoticed.  Still
the actors do a reasonable job.  Yanagiba is most notable as the
otherworldly balloonist.  This is not a film about or engendering deep
emotions, but it is a reasonable film for a young audience.

     THE GHOST OF APRIL (April is the month, not a character) is a
different sort of Japanese ghost story aimed at teen but watchable for
adults.  I give it a +1  on the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper@lucent.com