Gomen Nasai

Sorry

(ゴメン　ナサイ）
A.k.a Ring of Curse

The Story:
High school writing club member Hitaka Yuka tries to reach out to genius loner Kurohane, but she rejects Yuka's offer of friendship, more interested in writing by herself. Yuka moves on but there's something about Kurohane that is unsettling and Yuka can't quite shake the girl from her mind. When class bully Sonata, tired of always being second place to Kurohane, starts picking on the girl, a strange notebook starts circulating through the class. A notebook written by Kurohane. Anyone who reads the story dies. Can Yuka find a way to stop Kurohane's revenge before it's too late?

The Reason:
I picked this one up purely because of the cover. I didn't even bother trying to read the synopsis. All I knew was it had a girl band in it and it was under horror, so I thought it might be interesting to watch.

The Stars:
Buono!

A net idol band that provides the music and play the main three characters. It would seem they had a big hand in making this movie. It was a little worrying that the focus would be on the band appearing in their first movie instead of any actual storytelling, but I needn't have even considered it. The girl are phenomenal actresses right from the start. Before the movie is a brief intro by the girls and they manage to convey a very subtle atmosphere that becomes very important at the end of the film.

The Review:

The movie starts with Yuka narrating events in such a way as to draw you right in. She has to muster the courage to ask class loner Kurohane to join the writing club. You can tell there's something not quite right about the quiet girl sitting alone. Kurohane rejects her offer, and Yuka goes away annoyed that no matter how good her writing is their teacher is only interested in getting Kurohane to join the club.

Events start moving when class bully Sonata starts picking on Kurohane. Shoving her, throwing food at her, and generally being mean to her. As part of an elaborate joke, Sonata rigs it so that Kurohane is called to write the script for the school play. Without a peep, she accepts and begins writing a story into her notebook. Yuka tries to talk her out of it, but Kurohane has a plan.

Anyone who read her story will die. No one seems to notice when classmates start dying, except Yuka. She watches helplessly as classmates and friends slowly succumb to Kurohane's revenge. A cursed notebook that kills whoever reads from it. There's nothing Yuka can do to stop it.

Overall:
This movie was awesome. It was incredibly well done with excellent use of camera angles and sound effects. The story was told in such a way to make you feel sympathy for the characters, even the one deliberately killing people. The movie tells the story of a curse being started, drawing parallels to Sadako and her cursed video. Subtlety is the key to making a horror movie truly chilling and this one does the job perfectly. The intro and ending come together in such a way that you can feel it pulling you in.

I highly recommend that you see this as soon as possible.

Stats:
Watched: RAW
Understood: Mostly

Does it matter: Yes

Would watch again: Definitely

Recommend: Yes

Rating: Must See

Amazon link 

Bonus:

It would appear that this movie is based off the book that gets written during the course of the film. Recursion for the win.