Ghost Train (2006) Horror Ghosts

Ghost Train (2006)  Otoshimono (original title), Director Takeshi Furusawa in an early work and one of his few horror credits brings a story of a haunted subway train and the scares that come with that. In a classic approach of come in late and leave early he with just a couple scenes sets the environment for the film. A small boy finds a train pass on the platform and is scared when a woman in black appears to tell him that he is going to die soon. All this is relayed in just a couple sentences interaction between he and star Erika Sawajiri who plays Nana a high schooler who is watching out for her younger sister Noriko (Suzuno Nomura). Cut to the boy alone on the moving train. Suddenly the woman in black is next to him as the train stops in the tunnel because of a report of someone on the tracks. She appears pale skin and no shoes and says "I want what is mine" which is probably a reference to the pass he picked up. He is scared and gets up from his seat to move away but she has vanished. Then mysteriously the train doors open. The woman in black appears and drags him from the train.  I like this idea that all you need to do to attract a ghost is to pick up something of hers. So random and the victim does not know what they are doing. In the trailer for the film they make a point to say "...People are disappearing, no rhyme, no reason, no mercy..." but there definitely seems to be a means and an angry ghost.
  So what is it that the ghost wants? Why so angry? The family story is that Nana and Noriko's Mother is ill in the hospital so the teenager has to look after her sister. Pressure in school and at home and work forces her to decide to send her little sister to visit their Mom on her own that next day. When we see that Noriko now has the train pass from the ghost and the music takes that scary atmospheric tone that something bad is coming for this family.  We get some early scenes where it is obvious the tracks, and tunnel are part of the haunting too. Our male lead Shunichi Kuga (Shun Oguri) is a train conductor who is in trouble for repeatedly stopping the train thinking he saw someone on the tracks. In the establishing shots Furusawa repeatedly shows message boards with increasing notices of missing people so we know the haunting is getting worse. So the ghosts can leave the subway? Tashaki's mom is visited. When Noriko goes missing it is up to Nana to try to figure out what is going on.  She can't bring herself to tell her Mother and when the haunting reaches her house in the appearance of the ghost Noriko she is spurred to investigate the train station.  It does not make a lot of sense how the rules of this ghost works. Is it the objects that are haunted or the train tracks? The writers (and it was script by committee) can't seem to make up their minds about the rules of the haunting.
   A lack of funds may have made some of the special effects choices for Director Takeshi Furusawa including a weird slow-mo where Shigeru is hit by a train but has time to talk even though it is right on top of him. It is that amazing part of movie making where time is slowed down but probably is this way here because the effect of someone being hit by the train and splattering would probably cost too much. Shunichi taken out of his conductors job watches the train stations at night and the ghostly haunting start happening around him. Seeing Noriko in the night on camera and then all his bosses wanting to pretend everything is fine is a comment on Japanese bureaucracy unwillingness to lose face by admitting there is an issue. Add in the idea that this particular tunnel has a giant S curve because when they were digging the tunnel they found something so evil that they changed the course of the train tracks to avoid it.. From the pins on the map we learn that this S shaped section of tunnel has had a lot of accidents on it.  Furusawa uses short flashbacks for us to put together the pieces  at the same time as Nana even though it is not necessarily needed. But Nana is on the case at the train station and she sees in the records that the pass that both boy and her sister found belonged to Yaeko Aonuma. The flashbacks though are redundant and not necessary since we just saw those scenes a half hour ago and have not forgotten them.
  There is a side story of the girlfriend Kanae (ChinatsuWakasuki) of the teen run over by the train. Accused by her friends and strangers of pushing him in front of the train she begins hallucinating and ends up seeking out Nana which leads to a strange interlude in the film where there are these scenes of the two bonding sort of like a love story thrown into the middle of a horror film. Again the rules of the film are blurry and we get other objects that attract the ghost, a bracelet for instance. All this to put characters in danger and drive the ghost story forward. The problem here is there is too much going on and none of it is totally clear. It a case of too many ideas and not enough restraint to hone the script down  to the most important ideas. Characters are introduced way too late into the film but have significant roles in determining the outcome of the film. Flashbacks explaining the ghosts story only muddle the logic further. They show she was also a victim of yet another ghost but there is no reason that ghost pulls her to her death. Then the short scene where she might have been pregnant or had a baby while dying on the tracks just muddles things further. When to they encounter Yeako the magically pulls them into a memory of her death. By showing she was killed by a ghost and had a baby as the trauma when it was happening only leaves more questions about the real threat and how the ghost logic works. I guess the fact that the tracks purposely S around something must be a clue but the something is never explored.

  Nana who needs to find her sister initiates the climax of the film with other characters along to either be sacrificed or helpful. She accidentally breaks through a sealed up wall in the tunnel and goes exploring the new area.  This area is older, the part of the tunnel the S curve wants to avoid. Maybe a natural tunnel as opposed to man made.  A demon statue and flashes that her sister may be near keep Nana moving forward. She finds a passed out Noriko along with lots of others. Dead bodies all around hundreds of them. In the end it all has to play out but after all the different direction and with all the unexplained plot points this film never really satisfies. Between Nana and Shunichi they keep other people from temporarily using the haunted station but with like many J-Horror films the ghostly reasons for the spirits is not resolved. I am weary of saying I can make a recommendation to see this film. Although i was reasonably entertained I think the scripting of the story left a lot to be desired. With that in mind it was fairly well executed so it was not a total loss.