asian-cineblog The Neighbour No. 13 explores the consequences of humiliation, abuse and torture among young teenagers and children. Juzo Murasaki arrives at a work construction area to take on his new job. Unfortunately for him, his supervisor turns out to be Akai, the one that has previously tortured him when both of them were only young teenagers. After years of repressed memories, Juzo develops a psychopathic alter ego that finally decides to seek revenge against Akai and his family, in a surrealistic journey that dissects the fears and enraged violence inside the human mind.Review The film is served in an exceptionally slow pace allowing the viewer to be submerged in the intriguing atmosphere in which a considerable number of disturbing scenes simply tend to pile up, notwithstanding no further clue of the upcoming events being expected. The violence in The Neighbour No. 13 is thoroughly presented throughout the movie, alternating with traces of humorous moments and apparently childish scenes. The scenes appear to be fairly well-orchestrated by the director, being presented in a particularly raw and cruel way, thus enhancing a feeling of repulsion since the type of violence and to whom it is addressed is indeed the most disturbing side of the violent behavior in this case.As the number of flashbacks tends to increase, Juzo is apparently sent into a downward spiral, leaving him desperate to gain control of his own mind. Surrealistic unorganized events, sometimes-incomprehensible perspective and grotesque animated scenes contribute to perfectly illustrate Juzo's disconnection from the reality. Nonetheless, towards the end of the movie however, the last scenes will eventually tie up any loose ends and a possible feeling of confusion that has been build up throughout the film.The physical characterization of Juzo and his revenge driven created alter ego is also of particular interest as Juzo appears as a delicate young man and No. 13 is better described as a disturbing disfigured emotionless creature. The scenes representing Juzo's mind were particularly well shot and quite bizarre in an interesting way. The remaining characters were for the most part attention-grabbers, even though rudeness and bullying can easily borderline annoyance, which was fortunately not the case in the movie. There is no particular character development for the most part excepting Juzo himself as the film represents his own journey, facing his own fears and demons and finding the necessary empowerment.Bottom line, The Neighbour No. 13 may be described as a dark character study wrapped in surrealistic contours of a vengeance quest, that as clearly something to say about standing up for yourself and fighting back against anybody or anything, allowing the viewer to explore the consequences and costs when repressed hatred and revenge become a part of anyone's reality.Asian-cineblog.blogspot.com

Der_Schnibbler If you are expecting horror, forget it. If you are expecting "psychological thriller," forget that too. In fact, if you are expecting anything halfway moving, gripping, or attention-grabbing in the least, FORGET ALL ABOUT IT.The film has a decent premise but unfortunately displays the absolute worst traits of a certain strain of Japanese horror films which, as another reviewer mentions, owe a lot to Miike's more exasperatingly BORING experiments, such as that "Ichii" crap.The problem here is that this movie move's at a snail's pace. That would have been alright had there been some kind of payoff, but there is not. Characters stare at each other for MINUTES ON END inexplicably in the middle of a @#$# conversation, children see dead, bloodied bodies and simply stand there aloof like scarecrows before casually walking away--countless reactions are completely fake and unrealistic. The film was a great idea but any kind of dramatic effect is robbed from it by the stupid SILENCE and stilted dialogue which plagues the entire film.If you think boring crap such as "964 Pinocchio" and the "All Night Long" series were "disturbing," you'll probably like this film too. If you're looking for a REAL MOVIE, you'll wish you hadn't given it the chance in the first place, especially considering it's nearly two hours long. (If they had had haflway normal dialog and half-way HUMAN reactions among characters, the film would've been an hour and a half).If you're looking for good Asian horror/revenge/drama, see the Korean "Oldboy." As far as "Rinjin 13-gô" goes: AVOID.

ElijahCSkuggs This movie is a pretty harsh look at how bullying and loneliness can affect someone's life. It's one of the best horror/revenge flicks I've ever seen.What we have here is a story about a young boy who is abused by his fellow classmates. Due to this abuse he has grown up with a split personality. Which is his bad, vengeful, stronger side. The movie is basically about him coping with the emergence of his Mr. Hyde.The movie plays incredibly well. Some may have issues with the long scenes, but for me the movie was shot incredibly well. It's this type of movie that makes me roll my eyes at these WB flicks or even TV shows. The cinematography, direction and music was nothing less than awesome. Whenever they show his alter side, it was nothing but pure badass, creepy goosebumps. There really is not much to complain about. It would have been nice to maybe get to know the characters a little more. Maybe to understand why Juzo went so kaka cuckoo. The other slight complaint is the ending. It's a tad confusing, but either way you think how it ended...it works.This was a damn treat. A serious revenge/horror/thriller flick that delivers on pretty much all cylinders. I think I might start wearing my down vest again.

EVOL666 First off, this isn't your average "uber-weird" J-horror film. The story is pretty straight-forward which is refreshing for a change. There's no ghosts, or girls with long black hair, or rings, or phones, or any of that - just a good, tension-filled revenge tale. That said, my major gripe with the film is the ending, as it was too vague for my taste, and really dropped it a notch in my book. I'll be brief with my "summary", as to say too much would spoil the film...Juzo is a shy and reserved guy who was picked on and bullied horribly in school as a child, and has developed a split personality as a result. When the guy that was the "main" bully happens to move in upstairs to Juzo, it's time for the bully to meet Juzo's "dark side"...To say any more would really give too much of the well thought out plot away, so that's all you get, but that's really all you need to know going into this one. It's a relatively straight revenge-film with some very notable performances by all involved. It's not overly graphically gory or violent (comparitively speaking...) but there are some scenes that may upset more mainstream viewers - especially towards the end. Speaking of the end of the film - this is my major problem with NEIGHBOR 13 as there really is no resolution, which highly disappointed me. If the ending would have been handled better, this film would have easily gotten a 9 or 9.5 from me. Either way, it's definitely worth a look. Recommended - 8.5/10