WILLIAM FLANIGAN Viewed on Streaming. Some time ago, films so bad they were rarely/never shown in theaters were often dumped directly onto DVDs. Today they are often dumped directly onto Streaming channels. Consider this particular cinematic mess to be "Exhibit A." Director Ryûta Miyake's schizophrenic attempt to leverage folk lore and the infamous reputation of Japan's ever popular "suicide forest" (the Aokigahara forest near Mount Fuji) into a bloodless horror story results in disjointed and pathetic nonsense. Miyake's tale is riddled with so many disconnected flash forwards/backwards and apparent dream sequences that it is plot less (perhaps he was trying to shoot several movies in parallel, but gave up and mashed them into one?). A highly-derivative, but at least relatively comprehensive short story emerges at the film's end (which, ordinarily, would be considered to be short-subject fodder for film festivals). Although this horror story is a De facto short subject, it is (as noted above) a bloodless one. A welcomed rarity! Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) and scene lighting are very poor. Most scenes are filmed in filtered/real darkness (perhaps to hide shortcuts due to a severely limited budget?) and often too opaque for the viewer to see much of what is occurring. Sound effects are incessantly employed to help counter the unacceptably poor visuals (sounds initially add a measure of scariness, but soon become too repetitious and just plain dumb). Not all dialogue is translated into subtitles. Very close to being total trash. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Flow Impressive little horror indie gem, that kept me going till the very end, with the usual scares, dolls and twist.Making the most of a small budget can be a hard thing for some, but here we have Vanished Age 7 that shows otherwise. It has a lot of mystery in it, does take its time to get where it's heading but ultimately doesn't disappoint. All in all, a better Asian horror, with a more complex plot, without focusing too much on that twist that usually takes around 20-30 minutes in some such productions, and a well deserved end. Felt quite good about it.Vanished Age 7 is a good add-on to the genre, I gave it 6 stars and I definitely recommend it to you, whoever you are. That is if you're into horror of course.Cheers!