SHUTTER

This was originally a 2004 Thai film, but the setting of this remake in Japan alerts audiences to the fact that they are watching another J-horror flick from the American producers of The Ring and Grudge. The story is standard fare: photographer Tun (Joshua Jackson) and his wife Jane (Rachel Taylor) are two Americans on a working holiday in Tokyo. After running over a woman in their car, they are haunted by her wraith-like image, which begins to mysteriously appear in Tun’s photographs. A trail of more-than-coincidental deaths (some particularly gruesome) forms a path of clues to the road-victim’s identity. The film is genuinely creepy, with Japanese actress Megumi Okina as an entrancing ghost, and Tokyo portrayed as a character in it’s own right: at times surreal, beautiful, and alienating. (Sunday Francis-Reiss)