Stylish but barely mediocre overall

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

SPOILERS AHEAD!This movie is borderline crazy…sometimes in a good way, and sometimes not…nevertheless, it is most certainly very odd!...Now, before anyone chimes in to tell me this film hardly even registers as being strange by Japanese movie standards, I too have seen much more off the wall weirdness in many other J films. There's just something about the way this particular film goes about its business that is uniquely peculiar; this is usually a fairly straightforward film that primarily follows a predictable path and storyline, but, there are an occasional number of scenes, subplots, and tonal changes that almost seem as if they were spliced in from other movies. It's not so much "over the top" weird as it is "out of place" weird. But, since this is horror/suspense/thriller/mystery tale, you can argue that all this weirdness adds to the viewer's overall experience in some type of "down the rabbit hole" context…or not…that's up to you to decide for yourself! Here's the simple plot summary: This movie focuses on two young sisters who live and grow up in their mother's famous movie star shadow…mother is very demanding and quite a bit crazy in insisting her daughters follow in her footsteps (think "Mommy Dearest" crazy), but, the two sisters care enough for each other that they work together as the best they can for themselves while trying to grow up under the presence of overbearing and loony mother. Flash forward to when the sisters are adults; one is now a famous actress and the other is not, and as a result of this and their upbringing (and the family history of mental illness), cracks in their relationship begin to form, then they each slowly & subsequently spiral out of control into madness.The mental and physical abuse (and psychological issues) in this family runs long and deep. Mother was nuts, daughters are becoming nuts, everybody is nuts…this aspect alone would have made for a sufficiently entertaining movie based on the execution and relative film time devoted to this theme. But, screw it…let's crank up the weirdness factor and send this movie into overdrive...Let's start by placing most all the scenes of this movie in and around an old creepy mansion complete with weirdo butler/doctor and staff. The mental illness inherent to all the women in this family quickly takes a back seat to the fact that all of these women also inevitably fall prey to some bizarre flesh eating disease/family curse that strikes them down during the prime of their lives. Generations of mothers who fell ill to the family curse are chained to a bed post in the attic until they wither away and die one by one, only to soon be replaced by the next generation. Aside from the two sisters, there's a 3rd primary character in this movie named Orochi (who narrates and guides the viewer through the events that occur during the movie at various times)…she's apparently an immortal being with supernatural powers who takes an interest in the family and comes and goes throughout the movie seemingly at will. Two of the three main actresses play dual roles; for much of the film, the actress who plays Orochi inhabits the body of a maid that the sisters later purchase for nefarious reasons as they get closer and closer to their curse deadline, and, one of the sisters is also the same actress who plays the sisters' mother when they were younger…If one didn't know any better, you would think some of the casting decisions, and scenes & events that take place in this movie, seem to hinge solely upon which pile of pills the director and cast decided to choke down before each morning's shoot.Honestly, I'm really not sure what to even make of this film…I wouldn't dispute anyone's opinion that this movie is way out of control and often doesn't make sense, but, I would also tend to agree with anyone that thinks the primary storyline is solidly, and often deliriously, entertaining.For what is essentially a horror film, there is not really any scary jump out moments, and there is a minimum amount of gore throughout. Instead, it's mostly all about the two protagonists ever increasing decent into psychological insanity. Despite all of the weirdness, there is enough here for me to recommend it overall for the most part. It primarily works due to the underlying theme and story, and, because of the two lead actresses' ability to pull it all off fairly successfully…and, it appears both actresses had a delightful time making this movie, as they each get to increasingly try to out act and out crazy each other in order to fully emphasize the love-hate relationship these two highly disturbed sisters have for one another.Not unquestionable or without its faults, but this film is frequently engaging, often bizarre, consistently creepy, and, most importantly…More than Enjoyable Enough!…7 out of 10 stars.

Based on a comic by the great horror comic artist Kazuo Umezu, Orochi is about a mysterious girl that lives forever being a witness to human drama. This movie is based on one of Orochi's episodes about two sisters who are born into a family of an actress.The movie is in two parts. First part is when the two sisters are still a children and the second part is 20 years later after the sisters have matured. Then the stunning conclusion follows.Orochi (Mitsuki Tanimura) enters the home of Monzen family seeking refuge from a storm. Monzen family consists of a Mother Aoi Monzen (Yoshiko Kimura), elder daughter Kazusa, and younger daughter Lisa. Aoi is a famous actress and lives a very affluent life but has a secret she is hiding. One day, Aoi gets into an automobile accident while driving her car. Orochi saves Aoi by taking the wheels, but gets injured herself. Looking at unconscious Aoi, Orochi discovers a strange ugly growth on Aoi's forehead and hands. It turns out that daughters born in Monzen family while being blessed with beauty, has hereditary disease of gradually getting taken over by a leprous growth around the body. Orochi due to injury experiences sleepiness. She only sleeps every 100 years, but due to loss of blood she falls asleep 10 years before her time. 20 years later, the sisters have grown to adults. The elder sister Kazusa (Yoshino Kimura) is a spitting image of her mother Aoi. One day younger sister Lisa (Noriko Nakagoshi) finds a traveling singer Yoshiko (Mitsuki Tanimura) who is also a spitting image of the girl she knew as a child - Orochi. She offers to buy Yoshiko from her parents, and Yoshiko becomes live in maid at the Monzen mansion. Yoshiko was treated very badly by her step parents and saw opportunity to get away from them in the offer. Lisa has other plans for Yoshiko - she wants to transplant Yoshiko's blood into Kazusa to prevent the disease from taking over. The experiment fails, and Kazusa gradually grows insane from terror of losing her beauty. Orochi awakens from her sleep and realizes she's been seeing everything Yoshiko was seeing in her dreams. Orochi goes back to the Monzen mansion just in time to witness Kazusa's insanity. She prevents Kazusa from taking her own life and leaves, but the real terror of the Monzen sisters is revealed after she's left the mansion.The well crafted story is the hall mark of comic artist Kazuo Umezu. This is one of his earlier works from the '60s, and one of many Orochi's episodes. The movie translates Umezu's style pretty well. The Gothic mood that Umezu has with his artwork is also seen in this movie.The movie is obviously made with Umezu's fans in mind, but it is also an interesting horror movie with story unlike any other. The focus is more on the story rather than the horror, and experimental in that the main character of Orochi is not the focus of the story but serves as an inflection point at important point in the story.A unique horror movie from Japan that story wise is better crafted than the likes of "Ring" and "Chakushin Ari".

** SpoilersThis movie tries too hard to be like the Korean 'A tale of two sisters' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365376/) but ends way way way way behind. The movie ended up being dull, boring and quite ridiculous.The first 50 minutes were watchable, but then the movie goes nowhere. One mistake was to use the same actresses that played the mother and Orochi to portray one of the daughters and the maid??? The daughter that looks exactly like her mother ended up NOT being the real daughter and the maid that looked and talked exactly like Orochi ended up NOT being Orochi (only her heart) ??? I guess the producers wanted to created some sort of mystery about the characters, but it did not delivered at the end.Another point is that there was supposed to be some sort of jealousy between the sisters, but we never see a hint of it until the 'surprise' ending when one of the sisters confesses to the other that she was jealous of her all her life ??? I saw two sisters caring for each other in their own way. One sister (the real daughter) accepted a daily beating and even tried to 'save' her sister with the blood transfusion instead of trying it herself ?? Doesn't make sense.I don't know how can you feel jealous of your sister if for 20+years you both lived in anguish knowing that you will die like a leprous monster.If your thing is to watch Japanese girls beating each other up, the movie won't disappoint. I laughed every time they started fighting and when one of them came out with a crossbow I had to cover my mouth. The music by Kenji Kawai (even though it reminded me of 'Vampire Princess Miyu') was very nice. Also the cinematography was good. Conclusion: Watch 'A tale of two sisters'

Orochi is a mysterious girl with supernatural powers. She is immortal, has psychokinetic abilities, and can manipulate memory.You would expect this horror movie is about her, but it's not. She is merely a witness of human lives, and we see the horror that lies within human beings through her perspective.The movie is about 2 sisters born in a cursed family, where the women of this family are born more beautiful than anyone else, but slowly turns into a hideous monster at around age of 29.Kimura Yoshino, who played 2 characters, was simply stunning. I've always thought she was a great actress, but she even surpassed my expectations in this one. She was actually very beautiful, in contrast of her usual dull roles. Nakagoshi Noriko was also really nice in this film. In fact, I can't even imagine these two characters played by any other actresses.I don't want to spoil, so I recommend you to see the rest for yourself. It is a truly unique mystery horror film.