Last year I was turned on to the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and included his 1997 film Cure in the countdown. A little while later, I also watched his 2001 film Pulse, which was also pretty good (not as good as Cure, but good!). He has a lot of films in his filmography, but 2000's Seance was one that sounded really intriguing. It was made for TV, and was based on the book Seance on a Wet Afternoon, a book that was also adapted into a British movie in 1964, starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough. (It's currently streaming on Criterion and Max, for anyone interested.)
Problem was, Seance is not streaming or rentable online, and my local library did not have it on disc. There are some versions available on YouTube and DailyMotion, but they did not seem to be the full version of the film.
Then, in a weird bit of kismet, I saw that it would be showing for one night at my local Alamo Drafthouse, and despite that showing being at 9:15pm on a weeknight, I bought a ticket...and then they rescheduled the movie to start at 10:15pm, and I seriously began to doubt my ability to make the effort and stay awake that late on a work night.
But I did!
Was it worth it? Yes and no. The print was actually a video projection in TV aspect ratio, so not the best quality. But it was the full version of the film, so that was a plus. And the film itself is very good. It follows the basic premise of the 1964 version Seance on a Wet Afternoon. A woman with psychic abilities, but not a lot of clients, decides kidnapping a girl and then "finding" her will help boost her cred, and her husband is roped into the plan. Just how the kidnapping takes place, and the ultimate resolutions, are very different in each film, though neither of them are exactly fun resolutions. And the one big difference between the two? The 2000 Seance is loaded with actual ghosts.
So that evening was probably the most effort I will ever put into this countdown, but ultimately it was fun. (Even though the waiter at the Alamo never brought me my damn milk for my coffee, which meant I didn't drink that coffee, and staying awake without it was definitely a challenge! Obviously I'm still bitter. Just like that coffee.)
3 comments:
Seance was my first Kiyoshi Kurosawa and I think it was a great place to start as it’s relative subdued and the narrative is straightforward - kind of eases you in. By the way, it was made for TV before widescreen sets were standard so the original aspect ratio is 1.37:1, same as you saw it.
Thanks. A post on Reddit about a DVD copy has screenshots that look to be 1.85:1, so thought perhaps while it was shot for TV, it was actually cropped from original negative to fit the TV scale, and maybe there's a more widescreen version available. But maybe those screenshots are deceptive. https://www.reddit.com/r/J_Horror/comments/ovquhe/my_dvd_copy_of_kurosawas_seance_2000_one_of_his/
Sounds like quite an evening to remember. Lack of coffee aside, that is. Never heard of this film. Sounds quite interesting, so adding it to the list.
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