Rofuto   2005   Japan, South Korea Loft
Loft Image Cover
Additional Images
Director:Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Studio:Channel Neko
Writer:Kiyoshi Kurosawa
IMDb Rating:5.7 (438 votes)
Awards:3 wins
Genre:Horror
Duration:115 min
Languages:Japanese
IMDb:0443231
Search:NetflixYouTube
Kiyoshi Kurosawa  ...  (Director)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa  ...  (Writer)
 
Miki Nakatani  ...  Reiko Hatuna
Etsushi Toyokawa  ...  Makoto Yoshioka
Hidetoshi Nishijima  ...  Koichi Kijima
Yumi Adachi  ...  Aya
Sawa Suzuki  ...  Megumi Nonomura
Haruhiko Katô  ...  Murakami
Ren Osugi  ...  Hino (as Ren Oosugi)
Noriko Eguchi  ...  
Ren Ohsugi  ...  Hino
Akiko Ashizawa  ...  Cinematographer
Gary Ashiya  ...  Composer
Comments: It's not worth two hours time to deliberately make a bad movie, a bad self-parodying movie at that, to show the audience that even in the context of pointless nonsense, the director can still frame a shot well, or set a mood of dread filled (dreadful?) anticipation. I'm just not a big enough fanboy to try and make excuses for a film like this.

Is this film funny? Yes. And here's how it's funny: in one scene, after the presence of the J-Horror Goth Chick Ghost has been established, the director strings together a sequence of shots where the lovely Miki Nakatani spots said JHGCG's feet in another room and inhales with a shudder as she runs into a corner. Miki isn't doing a good job of running away. She begins to creep anxiously closer to the ghoul again and upon visual confirmation inhales with a shudder and runs into a different corner, and then creeps anxiously closer, shudder, corner, creeping, shudder, corner, creeping, shudder, a calm acceptance, CUT TO A NEW SCENE. Ha ha ha!

If you see this film think of it like taking a night class in Kurosawa technique. You'll learn something.

Summary: Renowned for his horror titles, Japanese writer-director Kurosawa Kiyoshi has a knack for getting under the skin and into the mind with deep, unsettling films that challenge the boundaries of the genre. From his 1997 breakthrough film Cure to the most recent Sakebi, Kurosawa brings to his work a sense of brooding existentialism amidst the thrills and chills. The director's 2006 film Loft bears his trademark motifs and shooting style, painting a restrained and haunting supernatural tale. The film stars top actress Nakatani Miki (Memories of Matsuko), Toyokawa Etsushi (Hula Girls), and Nishijima Hidetoshi (Casshern).

Suffering from writer's block and some curious ailments, Reiko (Nakatani Miki) moves to a countryside villa at her editor's (Nishijima Hidetoshi) beckoning to quietly work on her next novel. Her new environment turns out to be anything but peaceful though when she sights her next door neighbor, professor Minoru Yoshioka (Toyokawa Etsushi), surreptitiously moving a thousand-year-old mummified corpse into his university lab for research. Though Reiko and Yoshioka get off to a bumpy start, the two grow closer over time, enough so that Reiko eventually agrees to hide the mummy in her home. But the mummy isn't the only unlikely guest in her walls, as a female ghost also lurks disturbingly in the background. At first seemingly a quick trick of the eye, she grows clearer and more distinct by the day...


Search: AmazonMRQERoviAsianmediawikiHanCinemaWikipediaMetacritic