I once heard that Japanese horror films (frequently referred to as J-horror) aren’t actually all that popular in Japan, but make the vast majority of their money in this country. It’s a dubious claim, and one that is probably full of all sorts of intersections and contradictions, but upon further consideration, it’s entirely possible. The United States has always had kind of a funny relationship with Japan, which has manifested itself in increasingly funny ways (if you’re not familiar with anime cosplay, maybe you should look into that), but has always predicated itself on the idea that Japanese culture is inherently somehow different from ours, and nowhere is that more prevalent than in the American love of J-horror, the sensibilities of which are undeniably different than the horror that this country has ever produced. Just how different, however, is sort of subjective to the viewer, and this set is fairly indicative of that.
Pulse was remade a couple of years as a film I didn’t see, and has a plot only in the loosest, vaguest sense. Kudo (Kumiko Aso) has recently emigrated to Tokyo, and works at a plant shop. After a co-worker commits suicide, she begins to investigate, and finds a mysterious image of his apartment with his face reflected in it on a computer disk that he was working on. Meanwhile, Kawashima (Haruhiko Kato) is just beginning to get interested in the internet (here the film dates itself just a little bit), but is confounded when his computer screen keeps returning to the same image of depressed, lethargic looking people. At the same time, characters keep encountering large black stains on the wall, as well as doors that have been sealed shut with red tape.
Sick Nurses, on the other hand, is a little more direct and is in fact a Thai film, but is very much in the tradition of J-horror, and seemingly marketed as one. Dr. Tar (Wichan Jarujinda) is running an illicit business selling dead bodies out of the hospital he works at with the help of the nurses on staff. When nurse Tahwaan (Chol Wachananoont) discovers that Tar is having an affair with her sister Nook (Chidjun Rujiphan), she threatens to go to the police. To stop her, the other nurses kill her, and wrap her body in garbage bags to be disposed of as just another body for sale. As you might be able to predict, Tahwaan returns from the dead, enacting brutal revenge on each of the nurses in succession in a manner that befits supernatural excess (one is cocooned and then strangled with her own hair, while another is attacked by a monstrous handbag, an overt commentary on her materialism).
In terms of style and subject matter, the films could hardly be more different from one another. Pulse favors a colder, more antiseptic aesthetic, full of spare, wide shots of people despairing about the ennui inherent to a world defined by technology. It’s also about ghosts taking over the world. Sick Nurses, on the other hand, is full of leering shots of young nurses playfully undressing and fighting with each other before being eviscerated in various creative ways, with each demise shot in a manner befitting Pee Wee’s Playhouse. The two do share one strong similarity, though, in that each of them is more than willing to sacrifice any semblance of consistency or logic to get their respective effects. What are the physics of ghosts? What are they capable of? All more or less irrelevant in the face of some well-rendered visuals and some creepy details that would not stand up to the least bit of scrutiny. The effect, in each case, is more or less successful, with both films acting more as mood pieces than as cohesive narrative works. The comment could also be made about a number of other famous examples of J-horror, such as Ringu and Ju-on (the villain of which turned into a supernatural entity because he 'died in a state of rage'; what does that even mean?).
Even though sacrificing logic for aesthetic isn’t exactly an idea alien to our shores, it is rare to see a homegrown film adopt it as a mantra, rather than using it as an excuse when plot holes start to show. On that level, this set actually makes a good introduction to the genre, effectively displaying both the cold, moody end of it, and the excessive, grotesque side (and let's face it: it's pretty rare that something that shamelessly prurient reaches multiplex screens). It’s a good value for the dollar, and could hopefully serve as an introduction for the uninitiated to a larger genre. Of ghosts killing people.
DVD Bonus Features
None.
"Horror Double Feature: Pulse & Sick Nurses" is on sale May 4, 2010 and is rated R. Horror. Written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Starring Chidjan Rujiphun, Dollaros Dachapratumwan, Haruhiko Kato, Koyuki, Kumiko Aso, Kurume Arisaka, Libby Brien, Philip Hersh, Wichan Jurajinda.
