Rinne (Reincarnation) Review
Thirty-five years ago a crazy college professor committed a massacre that included his family and an entire hotel. He filmed every single one of his killings. The sick nature of the killings prompts a director, Matsumura, to make a movie based on the massacre. However, after winning her role, the main actress Nagisa Sugiura is suddenly haunted by visions of the victims of the massacre. She believes herself to be the reincarnation of the college professor's daughter, and something is after her.
Takashi Sumizu, the director of Ju-On (the Grudge), is one of the masters of horror films, but Rinne can only be described as mediocre. There are two main problems that I observed with the movie: plot and scare factor. There were a few creepy parts, but the movie just seemed very tame in the scare department. It seemed more like a run-of-the-mill mystery thriller than an actual horror movie. Secondly, the plot was confusing and too convoluted. There was a pretty nice little twist at the end, but I would have liked a lot more explanation about the storyline. More should have been revealed about the background of the characters. For example, why does the doll in the movie have any significance other than being really damn creepy. I would have also really liked to understand why the college professor actually started massacring his own children and why reincarnation visions are happening now all of a sudden. Questions aren't answered, and the final resolution of the movie is also pretty much unsatisfactory. In the end, nothing is accomplished and a lot is left to the imagination.
Performances by the actresses were also lackluster. The main character had very little character development. We know almost nothing about her even by the end of the movie. It seemed that the director casted a bunch of cute girls with rather amateur acting skills. Before the climax (and the really big "twist"), one of the main characters pretty much has been taken down. Damn. We don't even get to see them naked.
It feels that I'm being a little bit too harsh with this film. I'll admit that Rinne does have a few redeeming qualities. For one, there aren't as many clichés in this film as there are in most Japanese horror films. The actresses don't even have to put their black hair over their faces to scare you. And there is no creepy kid that randomly shows up. Also the storyline was pretty interesting, but it just needed more development. The concept of reincarnation is one that hasn't been used a whole lot in Japanese cinema, and I thought it was an interesting theme to use for the movie.
The movie doesn't suck, but it's not revolutionary. Takashi Sumizu can definitely do better.
Written by Lance
User Reviews for Rinne (Reincarnation) There are no user reviews for this movie.
Write a review for Rinne (Reincarnation). You must be a registered user of our forums to write a review. Reviewers are eligible to
win prizes.
Rinne (Reincarnation) Cast
Yûka as Nagisa Sugiura
Karina as Yayoi Kinoshita
Kippei Shiina as Ikuo Matsumura
Tetta Sugimoto as Tadashi Murakawa
Shun Oguri as Kazuya Omori