Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Heaven is good horror cinema , June 12, 2005
Another Heaven is bloody and grotesque enough to please most horror fans, but the film's attempts at humor (how many times do you have to be shown incompetent policemen running from a crime scene to throw up?) undercut its resonance. Yosuke Eguchi is charming in the lead role, and there are some well-staged scenes of mayhem, including one in which the killer brutally attacks two young men who have picked her up, and one in which the killer, at this point a man, fights with Manabu (Eguchi) on a rooftop. But the film's resolution is corny and unconvincing. Horror films do work when the filmmaker has a vision, even if he or she doesn't take the material too seriously (Evil Dead 2, Dead Alive), but Another Heaven's tone is all over the map. It's good for a A alot of laughs and alot of jolts , highly recommend this film.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some Good Acting - Lame Script, May 15, 2005
After seeing Ringu, Ju-On and The Eye, I decided I was a Japanese Horror Fan. I picked this one up out of a $5 bin at Walmart thinking I had found a wonderful bargan. I was greatly disappointed.
The movie begins with an excellent opening scene - there is comedy mixed with horror and an original M.O. for the first murder (spoiled, by the way, by the "summary" on the back of the DVD case). However, about 40 minutes into this very long movie, it begins to lose momentum. I suppose it was the acting that made me care enough about the characters to tough out the painfully lame script and watch the rest of this 2 hour, 12 minute movie. The essential plot elements could have been adequately presented in 60 minutes. About half-way through the movie all I could think of was "WHEN is this movie going to END?"
WARNING: If you decide to watch this movie anyway, do not read the summary on the back of the DVD case. It gives away the too-few interesting aspects of the plot, including the origin of the murderer, which *could* have been a "pay off" for sticking out the movie, but, alas, I had already read this on the back of the DVD case and there was no additional information in the movie to make it worth wasting 2 hours and 12 minutes of my life. Instead, I found myself wondering when the police were going to find out the facts that I had already read about in the summary, and feeling cheated when I learned there was nothing more offered in the movie itself.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent addition to Asian cinema!!!, March 13, 2003
Personally, I think Japanese horror is the greatest thing going right now. It's intelligent, devoid of all Hollywood flare, requires the viewer's imagination and has a creepy style unequaled by any other country.'Another Heaven' succeeds in balancing scares, pitch-black humor, philosophy, action and drama all in a single incredible hybrid film. It's very well paced, with slick direction, quirky characters and some truly unsettling sequences. Although not quite as accomplished as some of Japan's other genre offerings (The 'Ring' Trilogy, 'Pulse,' and 'Dark Water' among others), 'Another Heaven' is more than a worthy addition to the genre. I wish more distributors would pick up these films and give them the treatment they deserve.
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