If this is supposed to be one of his weaker efforts I'm not buying it the way Kurosawa creates suspense out of nothing but spaces is truly remarkable and then there are moments of horror which seem oddly sentimental giving his style an element of contradiction, the ghosts in this film are scary but also express a sense of sadness one scare in particular when you watch a muddy body yearning for contact, so close to his body yet so distant was one of the most distinct feelings I've ever had watching a film. The film follows up on the themes of Seance, we witness people rising from the dead and two very different men commit the same murder.

Waiting for dread. In some ways, the most generic film from Kurosawa’s mature period (give or take if one counts Penance as a film) and as such it is certainly of interest as opportunity to observe how some J Horror affections are used by him. Loft does conform to a certain idea of Kyioshi Kurosawa film, that I think never quite reaches the off-balance quality of his very best work. The bleak disarrangement is there, but it never hit the disquiet he can achieve, maybe because too often it seems to exist as given from both a genre and authorial perspective.

While Kurosawa films are generally ambiguous, Loft stacks seen and unseen forces in a way that multiple, layered readings are possible. The key scene is a flashback in the middle of the film that can be read at least three ways. There are also various modes of "haunting" going on--the most unusual being when characters begin speaking in what seems to be dialogue from another character's manuscript. The minimal surface of a film revolving around five characters and a few simple locations disguises what may be Kurosawa's most structurally complex film.

What is the point in even sleeping? Total differentiated terror: my favorite Kurosawa. Incredible editing matches silence with noise and dead space with activity.

I don't know why I was trying to love this movie, but I really just couldn't. It was so dull and boring I couldn't finish it.

KK is too cool, honestly makes great spooky stuff about depression, power dynamics, and immortality. He’s so undeniably a human director, mixing formal stuff with the experimental, and yet he makes supernatural films. Honestly excited to see more from him.

good but no Pulse

Literally the only good mummy movie ever made

Honestly this comes pretty close to pulse(might have to re rate pulse tbh). Further cementing his status as a top 5 director, mr k loves his sad ghosts, bony muddy hands and all. Explores the idea of guilt over actions and patricahracl stuff in general. Also this is kind of just a better version of seance but not really. I love the way mr k does his dramatic stuff, he’s super good at it and grounding it within a horror confine.  
Fantastic ending as well

I never thought that a horror film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, one of the true Masters of the Ghoul School of Japanese Cinema, could possibly make me laugh. Might be a good double feature with Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.