rwaller-688-593340 The Complex isn't a perfect film, but it builds on a time-honored formula: Nothing is what it seems to be. 'Ringu' director Hideo Nakata is back with a thriller that may annoy you with seemingly random plot twists, changes of scene, and viewpoint changes, but stick with it, there's a terrifying story behind all the confusion. In fact, The Complex resembles a Korean thriller more than a J-horror flick, in the kaleidoscopic subjective-cinema way things are frequently turned upside down to reveal more of what's really going on. The truth, once you discover it, is nothing really new, but its truly thriling in the way the pieces fall together (I'm pretty sure a lot of the low ratings were from people who got lost), and it's genuinely scary all the way through, and the lovely cinematography and some fine performances by the young stars help lift it up to near-Ringu status. But what puts it over the top is an exciting, compelling score by veteran composer Kenji Kawai, which keeps the heart racing.I've seen them all, and this one still scared the heck out of me, while doing an ingenious job orchestrating the threatening power of grief and guilt in a way I haven't seen since 'Dark Water.'

kuronox I wonder if Asian horror will ever make a comeback? This movie wouldn't be the start of it, but it was rather enjoyable to watch. I haven't really enjoyed an Asian horror movie for... years it seems?The story is solid and rather intelligently written, but I feel like the delivery wasn't very effective. The acting was good, I guess it could be a bit awkward for the average Western person who is not accustomed to Japanese movies. Overall, it just feels like something is missing. I didn't feel a creepy atmosphere or anything. They could've taken the psychological thriller aspect and ran with it, with the addition of more creepy elements, but it sorta fails to deliver.I could see a Hollywood remake happening as I watched it, which in this case, could actually go very well.

Verklagekasper There are good twists and bad twists. Good twists are the ones which enrich the story with surprise without demolishing it. Bad twists are of the "It was just a dream" sort and just annihilate everything that happened so far. "The Complex" by director Hideo Nakata, maker of the famous Ringu movies, appears to have both kinds of twists. Any way, it has too many.Which is unfortunate because "The Complex" has a lot things going for it. Like the talented Atsuko Maeda, who plays Asuka, a girl who just freshly moved with her family into an apartment complex. Much to Asuka's distress, she's disturbed at night by strange noises coming from the apartment next door. Not much to our surprise, things are getting worse.I liked the camera work and editing. Like, at the beginning, a few effective camera moves and cuts introduce us to the main characters and give us a good sense of location, how the apartments are placed and what the environment of the building is like. Acting is well throughout, too. As for the pace, it is a bit slow at the beginning, but that's fine since it allows us to become familiar with the characters. And the characters are ones that I could care for.Everything was going fine, so I don't understand why Nakata had to add twists, which at times felt forced and disrupted the mood. In the Ringu movies, Nakata established ambiguous characters without sudden changes. Maybe he thought "The Complex" would otherwise have been not exciting enough? Actually, I liked its calm parts.

JvH48 I saw this film at the Brussel fantastic film festival 2013 (BIFFF) together with nearly 1000 people. Contrary to what I am used to in other film festivals, the audience was not dead silent but yelled some comments from time to time. I have been at many film festivals, but this "participating" behavior was completely new to me. I observed this also with other films in this festival, thus it may belong to local folklore. Anyway, it was not annoying or disturbing, just remarkable and unusual.The plot seemed so simple during the first half, but rest assured that it gets more complicated later on. Don't repeat my mistake by thinking that the dying neighbor was an important issue. As the story progresses we see several hints that there is more going on, much more in fact. Take for instance the lonely child who Asuka encounters when walking through the neighborhood when she just moved in a new apartment with her family. And her observation about a dialog between her parents that repeats itself daily, a phenomenon that her parents of course deny. And there was an earlier bus accident with Asuka as the sole survivor. Take note that there are more such hints, and these get mixed together eventually. As a heads up to future viewers: it is important to take these hints seriously from the moment they appear.All in all, I found this film rather enjoyable and yet scary enough, a mixture that I missed in many Japanese horror movies I saw in the past. The growing relationship between Asuka and Shinobu might have resulted in a happy end, with everyone living happily ever after, but this is not exactly (euphemism alert!) what is going to happen. To avoid spoilers I cannot say more than to be prepared that things are not developing as you might expect upfront.