SYNOPSIS:
Based on Sony's PS2 cult classic game <Forbidden Siren>.
As reported in 1976, the inhabitants of a solitary island
of Yamajima were once annihilated except for a crazy man who
shouted a mysterious warning:"When you hear the siren,
never go out".
Thirty years later, Yuki Amamoto goes to the island with her
father, a freelance reporter and her little brother who suffers
from neurological disorders. The islanders were not very friendly
towards them.
Her neighbour gives her the same strange warning:"When
you hear the siren, never go out". This is the beginning
of a series of mysterious incidents...Gradually, Yuki loses
her trust in the people around her. She is determined to protect
her brother from the unknown peril that seems to be surrounding
them.
When the siren begins to roar, the severed bits of mystery
begin to assemble together to reveal the truth of the 1976
massacre and finally unravel the mystery of the siren...
MOVIE
REVIEW
We
are sure there are people out there who collect DVDs of horror
movies. In this case, we’d think that having a collection
of Asian horror movies like this one at home can serve two
purposes – to impress guests and scare them to hell
during those parties, or scare yourself to sleep in your dark
bedroom when you are having insomnia.
Seriously,
we think that those are the most probably reasons why DVDs
of this genre still has a big market out there.
So when
Japanese director Yukihiko Tsutsumi sees the chance to make
this film which follows the story of the second Playstation
2 game “Siren”, he probably thought it could attract
both gamers and viewers who enjoyed frightening themselves
silly in the dark.
The story
tells of a writer (a very dubious-looking Leo Morimoto) who
goes to live on a remote island with his daughter (Yui Ichikawa
trying her best to look calm and collected in a strange land)
and son (Jun Nishiyama who does a good job looking possessed).
The islanders are not a very friendly bunch, as the family
would discover. To make things worse, there is this demonic-sounding
siren which sends everyone into frenzy whenever it starts
howling.
In Singapore’s
context, whenever we hear a siren, it is probably one of those
peacetime exercises telling us to remain calm and stay put
at home. However, on this island, people just cannot remain
cool when the siren goes off – that is probably when
players of the video game have to navigate the characters
around.
But being
the medium the movie is, this premise may not be executed
as interestingly here. And how right we are.
The result
is a typical Japanese horror movie where the poor protagonist
runs around non-stop, escaping from other scary characters
with bad make-up. Poor Ichikawa, she really runs around a
lot in this 87-minute movie. She runs alone, she runs with
her kid brother, she runs with an island resident doctor –
if this isn’t the idea of a good workout, we don’t
know what is.
Because
this movie is based on a video game, there was appropriate
use of fancy jerky tracking camerawork which circles the victim.
This aptly creates the fear the character is feeling.
Another
commendable aspect of this movie is the attempt at having
a plot that makes sense. The revelation towards the second
third of the movie shows some substantial scriptwriting, but
unfortunately, we didn’t think that viewers would care
much by then.
As
mentioned at the beginning of this review, people who buy
DVDs of this genre would probably enjoy the thrill of shocking
their friends, or for some other absurd reason, themselves
– preferably in the dark.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 disc includes not one, not two, but three
different versions of trailers for the movie.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The audio heard on this disc remarkably amplifies the screaming
siren to good disturbing effect, while the visual transfer
makes sure you can properly see what is going on in those
pitch black scenes – even if you are in a dark room.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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