15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Schlock horror done in by it's own poor production values., April 8, 2001
It had all the makings of an enjoyable schlock horror: Flesh burning demons, high school girls into acting and girl/girl love, and an eccentric coroner who was also uncle to the focus of the story, a teen witch. In other words, all the sorts of things to make you scream in fright on occasion, but mostly start rolling on the floor laughing - something that would keep you highly entertained. So what made this "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" meets "Friday the 13th" much less fun than it could have been?
Well, for starters, most of what was on the screen was barely visible. Misa has some of the darkest film footage known to man. My best guess is that the director was looking for a "noir" look, but instead ended up with indoor scenes that seem as if they were processed in black coffee. At moments where you're supposed to be terrified, you're instead going to be saying "what's going on?" since you can't make out the black shapes moving around on the screen.
Problem two would be the unsteady camera work. While the outdoors scenes were pretty well done - they actually had a kind of dreamy quality, with lots of soft focus and slight overexposure - many times the camera movement detracted from the moment because it was so unsteady. While this may be a desired effect when monsters are giving chase, there's no real reason for it when the girls are simply standing around talking.
The third downfall: audio. The voices on the Japanese track were unintelligable at times. (But it's not a defect of the DVD. It seems to have happened during the actual filming; most likely it's related to the movement of the actresses away from the microphone.) It happens often enough in conjunction with poorly lit scenes to become truly annoying. After all, you don't buy a movie only to read the subtitles. (Which by the way, are hardtitled onto a black bar which takes up the lower quarter of the screen on the subtitled version. Yuck!)
The voices on the dubbed track fared much, much better -they were loud and clear actually - but they were a little too "hyper-americanized-anime" for my taste.
On the plus side, considering the source material, Media Blasters did the best they could with the DVD. Having both versions -English and Japanese- was great (think back to all those "newly" released Jet-Li DVDs which only had the god-awful English tracks!!!) The photo gallery was also pretty nice (though it kind of makes you wish that whoever shot the stills had done the DP work on the movie).
In the end, unless your a real big fan of not-so-scary teenage sorcery horror fests, pass this one up, or if you curiosity is eating away at you, rent it before you buy it.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mythos Shadows in Japan, April 7, 2003
By A Customer
A young woman collapses on a Tokyo street, muttering the name "Misa Kuroi"-and then dies. At the city morgue, two police detectives discuss Misa Kuroi, a figure they believe to be nothing more than an urban myth, a supposed teen-aged witch who investigates strange cases. As it happens, while they are talking, the real Misa Kuroi slips past them and enters the morgue. She examines the corpse and determines that it has been eaten away by parasites from another dimension.
Following a clue in the dead female's belongings, Misa goes to a nearby high school for girls. Misa befriends a student named Aya and enrolls in Aya's drama club. Hikaru, the "Chief" of the drama group, assigns Misa a part in the current play, which seems to incorporate many occult elements.
The girls from the drama club use a holiday period for extra practice at an old house that once belonged to Baron Etori, the founder of the high school. During one practice session, while Misa is in another part of the building using the telephone, Hikaru and the other girls fall into a trance and begin to invoke the Seven Angels of Darkness:
·Atorakunakua, god of the spider (Atlach-Nacha);
·Huster, god of the wind (Hastur);
·Tsatugua, god of the underworld (Tsathoggua);
·Nialratohotepu, god of chaos (Nyarlathotep);
·Dagon, god of water;
·Shupunigras, god of the black goat (Shub-Niggurath); and
·Cthulu, the sleeping god (Cthulhu).
Misa returns and interrupts the ceremony before it can be completed, but evil forces, in the form of misshapen cloaked figures, have been unleashed. One by one, the other girls are killed by the creatures of darkness, until only Misa, Aya, and Hikaru remain. Misa attempts to expose the source behind the eldritch events at the house, and this proves to be the long-dead Baron Etori. Etori's spirit claims descent from the Weitly (Whately) family, notorious servants of the demon-god Yog Sototo (Yog-Sothoth).
Etori's spirit informs Misa that the deaths of the other students have been arranged as sacrifices to Yog Sototo. In return, Yog Sototo will give full human life to a Homonculus, an artificially created being. Puzzled by this, Misa banishes Etori's spirit-only to learn that both Aya and Hikaru are Homonculi, created by Etori's magic in years past.
Somehow Aya lost her memory of her unnatural creation, and was raised by foster parents, believing that she was a normal human being. Hikaru, however, is working in consonance with the Baron's plan. She kills Misa, and then begins the final arcane preparations to sacrifice Aya to Yog Sototo. Hikaru feels this will make her completely human.
But Misa's mystical powers enable her to return from death to defend Aya. In the confrontation with Hikaru, Misa blasts Hikaru with sorcerous energies-which also cast Hikaru back through time, where she appears on a Tokyo street, dying as she speaks the words "Misa Kuroi". . . .
The storyline is a bit murky-why Yog Sototo or the Angels of Darkness would care about making a Homonculus fully human is not obvious to me. But I did enjoy the movie, with its modest Cthulhu Mythos references, and its rather somber protagonist. In addition to being an enchantress, Misa is also a Buffy-style fighter; in one sequence, she hikes up her skirt, pulls a dagger out of a thigh sheath, and starts carving up a band of robed zombies.
I found it interesting that whoever did the English-language translation did not recognize the original sources for "Huster" and "Tsatugua" and the other Mythos names, and instead tried to phonetically transcribe the Japanese versions of these names back into English.
I've seen a couple of reviews of Misa that referred to elements of nudity and lesbianism, but none of that appeared in the print I watched. (Although it was clearly implied that some of the girls in the drama group were romantically involved.)
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Misa the Dark Angel Does Not Disappoint, June 8, 2001
This review is from: Misa the Dark Angel [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I really enjoyed Misa the Dark Angel and the cheeky all-girl group of thesbian students she must save from a mysterious evil force. The cinematography is well done and visually entertaining. Because this film is a mix of mystery and horror, there are a few graphic scenes, but they are so visually interesting I accept them as more than just gratuitous opportunities to expose flesh. Unlike some horror films, this one stays true to the characters and doesn't ask us to believe in unmotivated actions and events. I appreciate that. Furthermore, there are some very surprising moments that make this story a fun watch. I listened to the Japanese version and couldn't understand a word! I did get a feel for the characters though. I think the voice actors who dubbed this film, overall, did a very good job. They were accurate in their presentations of each character. Dubbing is an art that takes patience and talent and I respect the challenge of trying to sinc English words with Japanese mouth movements. In films such as this, actors are expected to contribute ideas, often tweaking the original script in order to make mouth-movements match the words as well as create dialogue that is more appealing to an American audience. I enjoyed the 'cheeky' dialogue and interesting characters these actors helped create. If you enjoy Japanese horror, school girls, interesting characters and discovering a few 'hidden' moments, you'll get a real kick out of this film. Have fun!
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