鬼談百景

The 2016 Kidan Piece of Darkness was adapted from a book and is a seletion of 10 horror stories (out of 99 stories) directed by six directors.

The horror stories are more akin to Japanese urban legends, rather than the typical American horror movies.  There is minimal blood and gore, with directors taking slow shots to effect suspension.  The stories are presented as letters written by readers, who recount events they experienced.  There is usually no explanation as to why the events happen, which is rather typical of Japanese urban legends.  Perhaps these stories happen as a coping mechanism for people as they experience the upheaval in their lives when Japan modernized and many traditional beliefs and practices were suspended when people started to leave their hometowns and live in large cities as faceless beings to one another, removed from their familial relationships.

追い越し

Four friends took to checking out rumored haunted places at night after one of them received his driving licence.  Driving along a deserted stretch of road one early morning, they saw a long-haired being walking on the side of the road.  Despite revving up the engine, the being continued to be visible in the driver's side mirror no matter how fast he drove.

影男

A grandmother woke up to loud banging on her glass doors and was attached by a dark being that mysterious apparated into her house.  She then woke up to a ringing phone call and found blood dripping from her nose.  Later in the night, both she and her daughter heard loud banging on the glass doors again.  Yet this was an one-off incident.

尾けてくる

A high school girl saw a man in workclothes starring at her on her way home.  Spooked, she informed her neighbour, who told her to run home while he called the police, as he saw a man in workclothes hanging from a tree.  Despite moving to Tokyo for college, the girl occasionally sees the man in workclothes starring at her from a distance.

一緒に見ていた

Two teachers in a school had an affair, in which the male teacher subsequently ignored the female teacher.  She then hanged herself in school and continue to cling to him, with him resolutely sweeping her clinging hand off his shoulder.

赤い女

A woman in red (or perhaps blood-soaked clothes?) appeared in a high school and the students avoid her.  One student from the school transferred to another school and recounted the tale about the woman to her new classmate, and encouraged her new classmate to recount the tale to her friends.  Apparently those who recount the tale would be free from the woman, however, the student forgot that she was listening to the tale when her new classmate recounted it to her friends.

空きチャンネル

A student searching for an educational channel on the radio came across a wavelength which seemingly allowed him to hear the complaints of an increasingly unstable woman.

どこの子

A new teacher was warned by his colleague not to stay alone in school after dark.  A girl appeared in the office and he chased her through the school demanding to know who she is.

続きをしよう

A group of children decided to play in the graveyard one day, with an unseen voice saying "Let's play", even as one by one, the children were injured and obviously relieved when they announced that they were injured and heading home.  A mysterious child covered with blood appeared saying "Let's play" when the last child was left.  The following morning, the group of children walked to school with bandages on their injured body parts, except for the last child who did not speak to anyone for the next few months.

どろぼう

A visibly pregnant woman denied that she was pregnant but merely fat.  Her neighbour came across a little boy who claimed that a thief placed him in the drain and he was washed away.  The next day, the previously pregnant woman became slim and claimed that she took medication for her ovaries, causing her to slim down.

密閉

An OL discovered that her closet doors were opening by themselves after she threw her cheating boyfriend out.  The man finally came to collect his belongings and as he opened a luggage he claimed he picked up, he was pulled into the luggage.