残穢 -住んではいけない部屋- (Zan’e: Sunde wa ikenai heya)

Japan | 2022 | 107' | NAKAMURA Yoshihiro | TAKEUCHI Yuko, HASHIMOTO Ai, SAKAGUCHI Kentaro

A novelist (TAKEUCHI Yuko), no stranger to fan mail from readers of her ghost stories, one day receives a letter from Ms. KUBO (HASHIMOTO Ai), a university student struggling to get to the bottom of the noises she keeps hearing in her room:

“There’s a strange ‘sound’ in the room where I live now; I can hear something like scraping floors when there is nobody around.”

Overtaken by curiosity, the novelist decides to join KUBO to investigate the source of the noises, and the two gradually uncover the horrifying history of the room, its residents, and their wrongdoings. Together, they draw closer and closer to unearthing the truth behind the noises KUBO hears, and are led to a shocking conclusion…

First screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2015 and based on the novel of the same title by ONO Fuyumi, this highly-acclaimed journey through the history of a so-called “stigmatised property” showcases award-winning director NAKAMURA Yoshihiro’s skills in blurring the lines between horror and documentary. Avoiding the ever-common exaggerated screams and splatters of modern horror, NAKAMURA instead weaves an intriguing and haunting tale of inerasable memories and local grudges.