Mike_Olson

This is a hard one to pin down. It's unlike anything Sion Sono has done before and is the type of film that will have some proclaiming it a masterpiece while others won't like it at all. I can see arguments for both cases but I thought it was a beautifully done piece, visually, and a quiet thoughtful film when considering its implications.

Other than one brief scene in color it is entirely in black and white. Early on it put me in mind of Cory McAbee's wonderful space-western/musical THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT (2001) in that it shares the same approach with a simplistic unconventional design to the spaceship and the way it is seen in the exterior shots as it travels through the lonely cosmos. With THE WHISPERING STAR the interior design has old timey retro gadgetry and commonplace items like a washing machine and a refrigerator full of what looked like cans of beer. In both films these scenes were intentionally styled as oddities and both were effective despite being low budget. But that's where the similarity in the films ends as they become quite different experiences.

There is very little dialogue in THE WHISPERING STARS, and it's all done in whispers, lending meaning to the title. The onboard computer is called "computing device 6-7 MAH Em" and it talks in the quiet voice of a young child, trying to engage android Yoko Suzuki, a courier in the "SPACE PARCEL SERVICE," in conversations, which are largely ignored by the latter. Even seemingly important decisions on coarse corrections go unresponded to so 6-7 MAH Em just deals with whatever needs to be done while Yoko is more likely to grab a beer from the fridge, study the pile of packages yet to be delivered, or listen to old voice recordings she made. Days pass, even years, with nothing much happening in between the brief stops on planets to deliver packages to humans, all of which has us (and Yoko) wondering at the meaning of the contents of the packages which often seem trivial or unexplainable mysteries at best.

Interesting too is that the scenes taking place on the planets were filmed in and around the mostly abandoned city of Fukushima, Japan, where the nuclear power plant catastrophe occurred. Which enhances the feeling of questioning loneliness that Yoko feels as she goes about her deliveries.

Very different sort of film for Sono but I liked it and, if anything, I am more impressed by him than ever. There is no telling what he will come up with next but I'll be along for the ride.

In Germany this film is often compared to, used in the same sentence with, Robert Egger's THE VVITCH (2015). Google actually translates the title to "Hagazussa - The Witches Curse."

The first thought that came to me during the opening title sequence was, if the rest of the soundtrack is like this, it's going to be amazing...and it was! Understated but dark and menacing. You won't mistake the sound score for anything but disturbing horror.

The film is divided into four parts: Shadow, Horn, Blood and Fire. At the start you can't help but feel compassion and concern for the young girl taking care of her sick mother, both isolated outcasts and thus thought of as witches. HAGAZUSSA is spooky old world horror set in 15th century Europe, beautifully eerie, with many scenes that I can only describe as CREEPY AS HELL, while other scenes are like a slow burn nightmare on 'shrooms; hypnotic and hallucinatory. Dialogue is used sparingly, only as needed, but it's enough and much else can be gained by studying the facial expressions of the characters and other plot clues providing context...the acting and all else in that regard is first rate. Yes, the movie is slow paced, but also full and rich, ripe with suggestion with moments of interpretation and realization. Also incredible scenery/cinematography with nature itself becoming a hostile mood-setting character.

As good as THE VVITCH? Oh hell yeah, and this is coming from someone who really liked THE VVITCH. HAGAZUSSA is much darker and in my opinion it exceeds that film in every way, including its historical religion-based presentation of paranoia-driven superstition and madness. And it even has its own version of Black Phillip! Okay, it's a black goat, but you can't help but make the connection within the context.

Who would I recommend it to? If you are a horror fan who doesn't always need to be spoon fed nonstop gory scenes of people being brutalized - if you liked THE VVITCH for example, and have the patience to let a slower paced film develop while you soak it all in - not only should you see this movie, you should sell your soul to find a copy. The realistic fragility of life is there anyway but it's within the scope of very dark and stark atmospheric horror.

Final impression: WOW! Mind blown.

Beautifully filmed period horror that starts off great but then some misplaced humor and bad practical effects conspire to almost completely destroy the mood. A few different plot twists, perhaps one too many, are added in an attempt to keep it all interesting and it mostly works.

That final plot twist, though...it left me confused initially, enough so that I wasn't sure I even wanted to figure out if or how it fit into the plot. After I ejected the disc it was still bugging me and I put it back in and did a quick review of the final 30 minutes. Glad I did; everything clicked into place.

There are those visually impressive scenes, both beautiful and creepy. Plus a naked exorcism dance/writhing scene that is so freakishly weird it has to be seen to be believed. What immediately follows that was pretty impressive as well.

Uneven film that, when all was said and done, I found to be worth the watch despite its flaws.