Before We Vanish

The first 20 minutes of this film are amazing, eerie and keep you on the edge of your seat. Then the rest of the film falls flat from there. Some cool concepts but they're muddled all over the place and in the end, it's a one dimensional film that had so much promise but never delivered.

Worth watching the first 20 minutes.

Characteristic spooky Kurosawa romance but with added science fiction and suspense elements. The husband is acting strangely in hospital, the teenage girl emerges from the house blood stained and a cheery teenager connects with a reporter who shows up in a borrowed TV truck. The film spends most of it's not short running time exploring the mechanics of spaceman invasion and it's done through rather endearing aliens - even when they start wreaking havoc with very loud, government issue automatic weapons.

Scope filming and subdued playing register and the business of having the characters appear against backgrounds more brightly lit than they are manages to be eerie.

It was more creative and successful than I expected. The story and the alien design were original in my opinion. Their acting and emotional experiences were also good. As an American cliché, the low scores of non-American films are due to the stereotypical members of IMDb.

There's a lot of crappy Japanese sci-fi out there so this was a pleasant surprise. The music gets a little hokey occasionally but I was impressed with the acting, direction, and cinematography. As alien body-possession, other-dimensional movies go, this was enjoyable.

So I do not know the novel or have I read it. But the movie is quite interesting and it really has some enticing ideas it explores. It may not be as engaging as some might think or want it to be, but it is more than decent. Now there are many ideas and quite a few interesting revelations society wise - and commentary overall about how we live and what we fear.

Having said that, this is not flashy, but quite brutal and violent. You should not have a problem with that. The pacing and the accessibility to the characters may feel all over the place, but it adds to the overall flair of the movie. A fine watch, which is very weird and flawed ...