New J-Horror Film Screens July 9th in New York City Source: Nikkatsu Corporation, Subway Cinema Official Movie Site: kuroyuri-danchi.jp (Japan) Special Thanks to Emico Kawai THE COMPLEX (??????, Kuroyuri Danchi, 2013) -- the new J-horror film from Hideo Nakata, director of THE RING (???, Ringu, 1998) -- will have its North American Premiere during the New York Asian Film Festival. The screening will take place Tuesday July 9th at the Film Society of Lincoln Center`s Walter Reade Theater in New York City. Tickets can be purchased from filmlinc.com/tickets. THE COMPLEX was produced as part of the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the Japanese studio, Nikkatsu Corporation. Nikkatsu has provided SciFi Japan with a selection of high-res images from the film, which we`ve paired with NYAFF`s announcement for the premiere...

THE COMPLEX North American Premiere Tuesday July 9, 9:45PM Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street, New York, NY 10023) 106 minutes, HD CAM, in Japanese with English subtitles Directed by: Hideo Nakata Starring: Atsuko Maeda, Hiroki Narimiya Masanobu Katsumura, Naomi Nishida, Kanau Tanaka Masaya Takahashi, Satomi Tezuka

We’re as surprised as anyone else to be showing a J-horror movie in this year’s line-up because, let’s face it, the genre is as dead as disco. But, like disco, some of its biggest stars can still deliver virtuoso thrills, and no one has the chops of Hideo Nakata, the director who kicked the whole thing off with THE RING 15 years ago. With THE COMPLEX he breathes new life into these spooky old lungs, delivering a movie that starts as a bright and cheerful family drama then putrefies into something much softer, wetter, and darker. Atsuko Maeda is Asuka Ninomiya, a nursing student whose shiny, happy family moves into a crumbling old apartment complex. Mom (Naomi Nishida) loves the place, dad (Masanobu Katsumura) is his grumpy old self, and her younger brother is a big ball of cute. Atsuko even bonds with a lonely little kid out by the playground who seems to have no adult supervision.

The only bummer is the noise from the adjoining apartment. Every morning, an alarm clock from next door wakes Atsuko up early, and every night there’s a weird scratching sound coming from the walls. Finally, her desperation for a good night’s sleep overcoming her natural shyness, Atsuko ventures next door and discovers that the elderly neighbor (Masaya Takahashi) has died while clawing his way through her bedroom wall with his fingernails. But the removal of his corpse doesn’t spell the end of her problems because a few days later she comes home from school and her entire family has disappeared. And this is where THE COMPLEX truly lives up to its title becoming a wildly complex freak show of exorcisms gone bad, evil children, nightmarish time loops, occult cleaning services, and reanimated corpses. But what makes this movie stand out is its depiction of modern day Japan as a nation of lonely people. From the old man who dies next door with no family to claim his body, to the kid on the playground whose parents are too busy to give him a curfew, to Atsuko herself who doesn’t have any friends at school and whose interactions with her parents are weirdly formal and unaffectionate, in THE COMPLEX modern life is the most horrifying thing of all, a place where we’re all just lonely ghosts going through the paces and when we’re in trouble no one is around to hear our cries for help.

---

For more information on THE COMPLEX please see the previous coverage here on SciFi Japan:

• THE COMPLEX: New J-Horror from Director of THE RING