Ko-rei

Jun, a medium, makes contact with spirits who manifest themselves in visions, trances or sound hallucinations. She regularly organises séances for her clientèle, but it is intolerable for her that she never receives any recognition for her gifts. A second source of dissatisfaction is that life with her husband Koji, a sound technician, has become a grind. When a girl is kidnapped one morning, the police knocks on Jun’s door for help. In the meantime, an unfortunate coincidence unfolds: while Koji is making sound recordings on Mount Fuji, the girl has managed to escape from her kidnappers, sees his car and hides in one of his cases. Next day, Jun feels a presence in her house and the couple find the girl. Jun convinces Koji that this is an ideal time to lead the police astray and to have her gifts appreciated by society. Until one day they see the girl lying dead on the floor…Seance is a psychological thriller, originally made for television by the talented Kurosawa. In the last two years, Kurosawa made four films with which he made a reputation for himself on the international festival circuit (last year Rotterdam screened his Charisma and Barren Illusion). In Seance, Kurosawa qualifies our black & white views about spiritism, plays strange games on the sound track (‘foley’ effects and ghostly sounds) and also serves up an exciting thriller, full of action and unexpected turns in the plot.