‘#Manhole Review: HighConcept JHorror Movie Overstays Its Welcome

What happens in treatment stays in the trapdoor.

That's how one could describe this initially intriguing and increasingly riveting Japanese horror film, starring pop star Yuto Nakajima as a young man who falls into the film's titular trap during his marriage and can't get out.

Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri ( Kaitan City Sketches ) from a script by Michitaka Okada ( Masquerade Hotel ), the film makes the most of its setting, creating dozens of obstacles to keep the tension high while its protagonist is hacked, punched, and informed. poisoned by toxic sewage on social media while trying to escape. But about halfway through, #Mangat more or less jumps at the shark, or is it a hatch? - throw in so many curves that it leads to a bloody skit.

The film, which screened in Berlin's Panorama section, follows platinum-selling Japanese boy band Hey! Say! Here JUMP seriously ruins his handsome face. International interest is likely to be limited to midnight madness shows and the broader world of broadcasting.

The hashtag #Manhole before the film's title is a clue as to what the film is about: part space thriller (think Buried in Tokyo), part social media satire that shows what you can do when you are at home. Underground. with just a phone, a pencil case, and a cellular network reliable enough to keep you connected.

This is how Shunsuke Kawamura, a successful real estate agent who is about to marry his boss's daughter, looks after a night of drinking with his co-workers and falls into a hole that appears to be part of an abandoned construction site. His odd behavior, which includes not immediately calling the police, gives us some clues that reappear later, and Kumakiri does a good job setting trap after trap, from falling rain to toxic scum wafting through the seepage water flows in the open area. . Pipeline.

Shunsuke is unsure of his whereabouts and the police are unhelpful. First, Shunsuke calls his ex-girlfriend, who is also an experienced nurse. So she creates a Twitter account (changed to Peker in the movie, LOL) for an online avatar she calls "Luger Girl" and hopes some deranged insomniacs will come to her rescue. It takes a lot of messages and screen titles, overwhelming the second half of the film, which loses its minimalist conceit and is followed by extreme storylines and plenty of gore.

Still, there are some highlights, including the raw body horror and clever production design (sets by Norifumi Ataka), most notably the scene where Shunsuke has to use a small stapler to cut his leg off a piece of rusty leather. . wound to prevent bleeding. The movie leaves nothing to be desired when it comes to testing its tall, handsome star, and Nakajima inevitably looks stupid and evil as his character repeats itself over and over again.

#Mangat is the kind of cheap concept a Hollywood producer might go overboard with, and there are ways to improve your script while keeping the basic premise intact. (Note that there is already a 2014 K-horror movie called Manhole with no hashtag about kidnapping little girls.)

It would be one thing to add more humor and never take the setup too seriously, a shame this release is guilty of, especially during its overcooked ending. But maybe there's not much you can do if you're trying to push a slide down a manhole and somehow bring it to the surface.