Dear friend,

there seems to be a lot of activity in the release of films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa: at least three are happening between December and January in France and the UK, so expect to see several mentions of the director of Pulse in the next few weeks!

The Blair Witch Project, written and directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, US, 1999 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (previously: ⭐⭐⭐⭐)

I have to face the truth and admit that found footage is my ‘comfort horror’ subgenre, and that I could rewatch, ad libitum, any of Rec, Paranormal Activity, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, Incantation and, of course, the original Blair Witch (also, Lake Mungo, but that’s a different feeling).
There is something comforting in the flow of these films; probably I easily fall into the illusion that characters feel more natural than in the average movie.
So, as the one that started them all (yes, yes, with caveats) became available on Netflix, I launched it once again, and loved it even more than the last time.
Every time there’s something new that makes me shiver: this time it was the scene when they run in the woods at night.

Cloud/クラウド, written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐

This film is part of a Kurosawa box set by Hanabi which I bought as soon as it was available at the beginning of December.
I wasn’t fully satisfied with this movie, telling the story of an unscrupulous internet reseller and the several consequences of his deals. Without getting into spoilers: it’s quite unpredictable, but it goes in a weird direction that didn’t seem justified, at the same time definitely reminding me of something else I haven’t been able to identify yet.
I think it might seem more coherent on a second watch, because a less literal reading seemed to surface at a certain point.

Wake Up Dead Man, written and directed by Rian Johnson, US, 2025 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since Knives Out undid itself for me in its third act - when it moves out of the old family mansion - and Glass Onion seemed a bit too proud of itself and its own silliness, I didn’t have much hope for the third Benoit Blanc mystery. Instead, I believe it is the best of the series. Despite being still a bit too unsubtle in its social and political commentary, it’s its serious exploration of faith that makes it interesting (it’s a theme I always relate to - see Midnight Mass and The Exorcist III). Johnson has the audacity to have the first act narrated by Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud, which immediately made me think of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, then to explicitly mention Agatha Christie’s novel, and finally to deploy the same trick the book uses… almost for a gag.

Serpent’s Path/蛇の道/La voie du serpent, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, co-written with Hiroshi Takahashi, France/Japan, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Almost a year ago I watched the original version of this film, wondering about this French-flavoured remake, which is part of the boxset I mentioned above. Maybe because it’s more modern, or more western-sed, or more mature, I liked it quite a lot more - and I believe the disturbing descriptions are also a bit pared down. If memory serves, it’s not exactly the same plot, and having the ’lead instigator’ character played by a woman now (Ko Shibasaki, who was the protagonist in One Missed Call and one of the students in Battle Royale) makes a big difference in the dynamics and motivation. The other protagonist, selling very well his determination but also his discomfort, is Damien Bonnard (a familiar face as he was the lead in Les Misérables, and was in Poor Things/Dunkirk/Asteroid City/The French Dispatch). I could have given it half a star more.