2005 ‘ロフト’ Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
A writer retreats to a secluded suburban house to work on her new novel. But her attention is instead occupied by her archaeologist neighbor's newly discovered mummy and a ghostly presence in her house.
Rofuto, Shi no otome, LOFT ロフト
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.
"perhaps she regrets it now, swallowing all that mud" // "what you write gets published, that's the nature of being a pro"
Kurosawa's Twixt, in many ways. The stagnation of an award-winning author out of ideas, commissioned to churn out a generic, marketable romance novel and embroiled in a ghost story that may or may not be a fiction. "The eternal corpse," used here to describe a 1000 year old "mummy" preserved virtually intact by the mud of a swamp (mud that the author inexplicably coughs up, as if to reject the idea that preservation of past glories will be any part of her future), could be equally used to summarise a genre that, by 2005, had perhaps run its…
there's something in the swamp, something in the depths...something ancient....do we dare try to uncover the mystery? what is waiting in store for us: love and adventure, or misery? will we find death, decay and decomposition, or romance, rebirth, and recomposition? we must find out the truth....
Blow-by, see the tree. Novelistic mix of genre elements in the darkest corner of the dead space. Duplication rivers. Mirrored in the still nightmare. Around the generic cabin in the woods. But Kiyoshi Kurosawa persists in flaws, as his glow and liminality will always remain in the most uncertain places. When there was too much cliche convention. The atmosphere disrupted. I know he (Kiyoshi) can be sarcastic, but it feels uneven when no more seriousness can be found in such a goofy coda. But even through this, please continue to stand-by, your wishes look up with you for your existence in the books.
Thanks must go to Amazon Prime for a no-fuss way to give this the third-fourth-fifth chance it needs to click (it's on Amazon Prime, no kidding! Still SD though). Kurosawa's films are usually made out of so much moving parts, but this film is narratively dependent on making sense of why the sequence of scenes is sequenced this way; on the suggestions of each scene (tonal, in characterization, even with the very pacing, as Kurosawa will film an endless scene of horror film lurking without doubting his vision; also, blink and you'll miss that transition to and back from a flashback) and how our effort to make connections between these suggestions, collected in each and every scene (and some of…
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.
73/100
100 Horror Movies in 92 Days 2021 100/100
Hooptober 8.0 34/34
I find myself perpetually unable to talk about Kurosawa -- his films exist just beyond my ability to articulate. The deeply unsettling images, engulfing architecture and environments, the unrelenting silence -- it all moves me and enraptures me deeply, but I can't really explain any of it. I hope some day the words will come, but I don't see that happening any time soon. This is an incredible 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.
And this is supposed to be mid tier Kiyoshi? Lol alrighty then.
I love how he doesn’t just explore loneliness and trauma throughout his body of work, but also how it can affect those around you - and in this case, generationally. Narratively it may not be as richly complex as Cure or as bold as Pulse but I’m just falling in love with this man’s atmosphere with every watch. I always hear how horror nerds have their “comfort” horror films, and Kiyoshi’s films are by far the closest I’ve found to my “comfort” horror. No matter how fucking claustrophobic and unsettling they are, it’s hard for me to not get completely lost in the sauce - especially since all his visual sensibilities are very much up my alley.
Another banger, I fear.
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.
LOFT starts off unrelentingly with its sense of dread and isolation. Every scene is agonizing to sit through because of how creepy and disquieting it is. It captures a feeling that I haven’t felt since Pulse, and it makes this first half borderline unwatchable for me. I don’t know what Kurosawa does, but he’s the only director who can truly terrorize me. Pulse for example is the epitome of this... I’ve seen it once, and the second viewing ended with me turning it off. It’s the only film that truly scares me. I thought LOFT joined it for a moment, but by the hour mark, it sadly delves into some cliches and drops a lot of the subtlety that made the earlier portions so unsettling. Regardless, this is a good but flawed film from an expert director, a master of the genre.
