Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night

Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night was a film I didn't even know existed, until stumbling across a dvd copy at a flea market. It's virtually a Japanese version of the original Paranormal Activity... though the plot does have a connection with the 2007 film, which I had no idea was coming. A Japanese girl returns home from the US after a car accident which left with her two broken legs. She's living with her brother and father (who is not there most of the time due to business trips). After the first night odd things start happening in the house, and the brother decides to start filming these incidents. And story goes from there. The same predictable formula of frights and intrigue ... right down to the downbeat ending, yet it remains watchable.

I enjoyed this sequel more than American Paranormal Activity 2. The pace is much faster and the characters are more likeable. The movie is nicely connected to the other Activities and doesn't feel out of place. Still not a thrilling movie, but, in my opinion, none of the PA movies are. I liked the ending - whenever you think everything is over, you get something more. The movie does mirror the first PA a lot (some scenes are very similar), but still felt different enough and wasn't boring to watch. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece of the horror genre, but comparing to the other Paranormal Activities this is one of the best.

When I first heard about a Japanese take on Paranormal Activity, I thought it was a joke. Then I saw the trailer for it and thought it looked horrible. Being a big fan of Paranormal Activity films, I really wanted to see it. Unfortunately, they didn't release it here in America, and I'm still waiting. However, I managed to get that chance to watch it but I couldn't understand a word they were saying since there was no subtitles on the transfer I saw.

To be honest, this film feels just like the first Paranormal Activity. It begins with the guy in front of the mirror adjusting his camera, a lot like Micah's opening scene on the first one. Then he goes out to his driveway to a car where some girl is..... hmmm... feels like the first Paranormal Activity again. But unlike the first Paranormal Activity, it begins with something happening early on in the film. He puts a mound of sugar on the door and finds out that it mysteriously gets wiped all over the floor.

I also like that they kept the whole Night #1 title card that the Paranormal Activity films have. The unfortunate thing is that the first half of the film just feels like a rehash of the first one. Doors opening and closing, the girl screams out of her sleep, sometimes just going nuts for some reason. As I'm watching, I'm waiting for something different to happen. It has to offer something new eventually.

It does.

For the last thirty minutes or so of the film, things get a little crazy. There's a moment in the film that is creepier than any of the American Paranormal Activity films never achieved. I won't spoil it, but let's just say you will know when you see it. There's also a little twist in the end, where you think it's going to end the same way as the first film.... but it doesn't.

Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night is a worthy entry in the Paranormal Activity series. It does tie into the franchise and worth a watch if you like these films. Next time I see it, I'm watching it with subtitles so I know what they're talking about. There's a lot of slow parts, though. Then again, so did the American versions.

This feels like a foreign remake of the first movie rather than something different. The only connection is that Haruka mentioned Katie from the first movie and thinks Tobi possessed her. It's built up pretty well throughout with the supernatural slowly starting to happen. But the story feels similar to the first movie, other than being siblings, and one of them got into an accident. It's mostly goes through the same thing with one of recording the whole event, one of them acts differently and some paranormal events that happened. I didn't find the scares to be creepy because it's mostly cheap jump scares. Also, the climax seems similar to other Paranormal Activity movies, climax, and barrow elements from the first movie. The characters themselves aren't that interesting to learn about and are one-dimensional.

Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night is a bland movie that doesn't do anything new and isn't worth watching.

Tokyo Night is... strange. It was released right when the actual Paranormal Activity 2 came out and is supposed to be a forgotten side-quel(?) which is not even canon anymore. This is a shame because I enjoyed it way more than most of the actual sequels that came out in this franchise. That's not to say that Tokyo Night is some misunderstood gem. It's mostly just a retread of the first film, but this time in Japan. I was expecting it to put a J-horror flair on the Western Paranormal Activity formula but it didn't do anything to carve out its own identity. Although it did manage to somehow terrify me during its last 20 minutes but I do think that it needed a bit more ambitious approach. Unfortunately, Tokyo Night is a strange anomaly that has been forgotten in time because it couldn't be bold and just did more of what already became tired after the first Paranormal Activity.