Ouija Japan
The only thing I can figure is that writer-director Masaya Kato wanted to combine the supernatural horror that typically goes with Ouija boards with “Battle Royale.” I suppose that’s a good log line for a story pitch, but it doesn’t really explain why the main character has to be an American married to a (much older, it seems) Japanese businessman who has so little agency that she feels like she has to ask her husband to go on a camping trip.
“Ouija Japan,” as a premise, is an interesting one. In execution, it is silly and doesn’t really hold one’s interest. I understand not really wanting to do a typically-Japanese “haunted object” horror film, especially with an object as well worn as a Ouija board. Making the entity the board is in contact with be a mysterious cat-masked figure whom forces you to kill the other people involved- or nearby, it seems- is good, because it affords some possibilities for moral quandaries for the characters. There’s one more element I will not divulge, but it really kind of puts the cherry on top of why this premise is intriguing. So how come this doesn’t work? Look no further than the characters we’re asked to follow.
Our main character is Karen (Ariel Sekiya), an American woman married to a Japanese businessman. She’s been in the country for six months, but she’s found it difficult to pick up the language, making her own work difficult. Some rudimentary character development for Karen really would have helped “Ouija Japan,” because there are times where she just seems stupid for being a grown woman living in another country, and unable to really understanding the language, especially considering she’s married to a man from that country. Anyway, she misunderstands some people in her apartment complex and gets roped into a trip to this out of the way area (it’s not strictly camping) where they make an Ouija board, have some silly fun, only to find themselves a part of a ghoulish “fight to the death” scenario.
At 78 minutes, “Ouija Japan” is stripped to the bone narratively, and that would work if it gave us characters we ultimately enjoy watching. Karen is such a poorly-written character it throws off any ability to empathize with the character as the kills begin to happen. She has a friend whom she can converse with that will help out, but that only goes so far as the story continues going. Nobody else is worth mentioning, not even the husband, who’s a non-factor throughout much of the film. The way Kato stages the set pieces are fine- and the kill count is cool- but it’s such a thin premise, with almost nothing to say on a thematic level, that it’s hard to connect with the film. The potential is there, however; that’s what makes it so disappointing.
