ebiros2 Based on a long running comic series by Shinichi Koga, Eko Eko Azarak is a story about Misa Kuroi who's a high school student with ability to wield black magic. She chants various spells based on Basque language such as Eko, Eko, Azarak, Eko, Eko, Zomelak, Eko, Eko, Cernunnos, Eko, Eko, Aradia! etc.. The story has been made into movies several times. This was the first of the series. Kuroi Misa's name is a play on the words Kuroi -> Black, Misa -> (Latin) mass, and hints at the occult nature of her person.Five gruesome murder happens in Tokyo. One day a girl named Misa Kuroi (Kimika Yoshino) shows up at the school that's exactly at the center of all the killing. The school turns out to be infested by demonic power, and students starts dying. Who is wielding the black magic ? The task falls on Misa to break the spell, and save the students.Out of the series that was made between '95 - 97, I like this one the most. Misa's personality is most vivid in this movie as well. A very young Miho Kanno plays Misa's classmate. Mio Takagi plays the role of a teacher who's hiding many things about her personal life.The story reflects Eko Eko Azarak 2 where Misa Kuroi is a high school student (in the first series, she was a Jr. High student). Her mood also reflects that of the second series, and she's a good character protecting her classmates.A very good rendition of Eko Eko Azarak, and is recommended for viewing.

Vomitron_G I had seen this first 'Eko Eko Azarak' movie at a festival when it came out at the time. I remember being enthusiastic about it. I planned on re-visiting it together with the next 3 installments of this series. Only watched the first two so far. And re-watching this one, was a bit disappointing, sadly. I remembered it to be a bit better. Or maybe that first-time-viewing impact that many movies have, was simply gone now. There's a few moments were the story just doesn't seem to move on. But other than that, it's still a fun flick. High school kids trapped in the school building overnight. Satanic rituals going on. Someone out to inherit all evil powers of Lucifer. A good teenage witch out to stop her. Lots of magic. Possession. A handful of nice gore and very bloody killings. A couple of really hot lesbian scenes. And all-in-all it's not even some trashy Japanese exploit-effort, so the production values are pretty decent. A fun enough watch, worth seeking out.

Death_to_Pan_and_Scan I have never read the 70's manga by Shinichi Koga, so I cannot say how well the film follows its source.I first saw this a decade ago on a Japanese grocery store rental tape without subtitles, but this first film had such a straightforward minimal plot that a full translation wasn't really necessary to follow the story. After seeing it subtitled, I feel the same way I felt back then: It's a decent low budget splatter film with witchcraft elements which seems to have spent the bulk of its budget in about 3 minutes of CG SFX scenes at the end of the film. Almost the entire film takes place in the school, but the limited setting doesn't hurt the film.It's a pretty decent low budget film, but as the director stated is basically more of a relationship film with a horror backdrop than a typical horror film. I liked Kimika Yoshino in the lead role and thought she wasn't bad for a gravure model turned first time actress. Miho Kanno plays her new friend who shows her around school. You may recognize her from her role a few years later as the first Tomie. Prolific actress/voice actress Ryouka Yuzuki (aka Kanori Kadomatsu / Ayumi Nagashii) plays a schoolgirl who is having a lesbian affair with the teacher played by Mio Takaki (an actress from a few Ultraman films). The lesbian affair and its resulting nudity seems to be an idea of the producers to appeal to the exploitation audience and really doesn't add anything to the film.STORY: Misa Kuroi is a witch who battle the forces of darkness and tries to protect the innocent, not that she has too good a track record for saving her friends, as she readily admits. Unfortunately for her, the trail of deaths left in her path makes some see her as an evil occult murderer, when in fact she just goes where the danger happens to be. She's somewhat of a victim of circumstance in this regard. She transfers in to a new school where five local murders have made a pentagram of blood and now an evil cult plans to kill off 13 more hapless victims to bring Lucifer into the world to obtain his powers. A group of students has to stay after school to retake a test and is trapped inside, trying to escape what seems to be a certain and rather messy death at the hands of an unknown enemy. The resident 'goth' kid has read some books about magic and decides Misa's knowledge makes her the number one suspect.Sadly, the subtitlers at Tokyo Shock have an issue with consistency as they use at least 2 or 3 noticeably different spellings for the 3rd line of the Eko Eko Azarak chant. Luckily, the DVD is packed with extras.

duntrune Outstanding!!!! Smart, well crafted flick with a couple of twists I MOST CERTAINLY didn't see coming! Usually horror flicks are pretty damn predictable, but this was not! Instead of a bad dub job, we get subtitles, which I much prefer, except when it distracts me from the mondo Japanese cuties on the screen! Our star is some kind of gorgeous, and the other girls aren't too difficult to look at, either. The plot is nothing overly original or spectacular, but it's done well, you're in suspense all the way, there's red herrings aplenty, and the aforementioned twists hit hard, and you're saying "I'd have NEVER thought that would happen". The FX are so-so, but they don't distract at all, you're too into what's going on to worry about it. I know there's two sequels, and I'm going to be looking for them!!!!! 8/10 Excellent!!!!!