Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Shion Sono is definitely one of the best current Japanese filmmakers. In this film, he takes a fairly banal J-horror set-up and produces something both horrific and beautiful. A morgue worker discovers a corpse that keeps growing hair. He steals it in order to harvest the hair, hoping to sell it to salons. Of course, the hair is murderous. Chiaki Kuriyama, best known as the teenage girl from the Crazy 88 gang in Kill Bill, Vol. 1, stars as a hair stylist who brings some of the extensions home. This would have been crap in most hands, but Sono is a master of suspense. There's also a lot of humor, although the villain of the picture gets to be perhaps a bit too silly in the climactic sequence.

I generally LIKE Sion Sono's work, but this movie was completely retarded. But sadly, not retarded enough to make it entertainingly retarded. I just sat, mouth agape, wondering when it would end. The plot makes only a whisper of sense. I think it was intended to be campy. I mean, haunted hair extensions - how could it not be? But the humor, such as it was, fell flat. Not funny. Not scary. Not gory. I would say perhaps Sono was a hired hand on this project, but he appears to have written this boring trash as well. I still need to fill a couple more lines, what else is there to say? I suppose I could finish by saying: Better luck next time, Sono-san.

I have a good time watching works like this. Films like these use visual, and symbolic codes specifically directed to a certain dark piece of audience, who is willing to live a life in films outside the most widespread conventions, and accept what comes with that. One of the thing i like the most when watching such a piece in a public venue (usually crowded with the hard fans of these kinds of productions) is to observe how those fans respond to certain conventions inside the 'genre'. To me, because i only make occasional visits, it's something equivalent to visiting a foreign country, i observe how people behave, what's mood of the place i'm visiting.Inside those alternative conventions, this is a good film, i suppose. At least it made it for me, to the point of wanting to know more work of this director. He has a vision, in the middle of this kind of capillary horror, he has an interesting concept which spreads clearly and embraces the film, as much as the hair embraces all the characters.Hair as open channels. Hair as an element to connect people, to connect lives, and past lives. And to share death. It's an effective narrative device. The dead hair growing girl works as a kind of noir agent, someone who controls the action, but we are the whole time inside the device (we had to be to make the whole thing credible, and also because it was important for the creators and for the genre to explore the one-eyed dead girl). She manipulates through hair, and has a human puppet who delivers hair, and makes the whole thing work. That silly man is her hands in the street, giving death randomly. That agent believes all the way that he controls her, but we come to understand it's the other way around.This clear storytelling strategy makes the film pleasant enough to me. It's a solid production work, the stop-motions were made with competence, and you will enjoy this if you like to explore interesting storytelling and if you're willing to accept, at least for 2 hours, the conventions of this corner in film universe (that if you're not already inside it).My opinion: 3/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

Being a Lovecraft fan I was hoping of finding a movie interpretation of his story Medusas's Coil.While the movie starts great (some people mistake the personal game for a comical breaking of the 4-th wall), the mystery behind the hair is explained pretty quickly. But... It ain't Lovecraft. I would love to have seen some cosmic horror creep into the unlikeliest of places. But when you get over the fact, that people need explanations for EVERYTHING nowadays, you can start enjoying what is presented.It's a great mix of multiple personal dramas and a non typical ghost vengeance story with great acting (even the over the top ones) and good production values.If you like a tad more unconventional J-Horror, you'll feel right at home.