FOR TRAILERS, SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE
Thanks to Twitch's own logboy for bringing to my attention the fact that Genius Products Inc. is scheduled to release Yôichirô Hayama's Dead Waves (Shiryôha) on DVD (NTSC, region 1, English subtitles) in the U.S. on July 11th.
Back on September 18th of last year, I wrote the following in this Twitch article on Dead Waves: "Although the movie was released at the Shibuya Ciné la Sept in Tokyo back on February 5th, I'm posting about it here and now because there's a good chance that, sooner or later, there will be an English-subtitled DVD release of this movie somewhere." As there's a very good chance that, sooner or later, there will be an English-subtitled DVD release of Kôji Shiraishi's Noroi - The Curse (Noroi) somewhere, at the bottom of this article I've also included a number of links for that movie (most notably, one to a downloadable English-subtitled trailer for it). BTW, don't kill the messenger....
The screenplay for Dead Waves was written by Hayama and Kayo Kanô. The movie's principal cast is as follows: Toshihiro Wada, Shihori Kanjiya, Masaki Miura, Shigenori Yamazaki, Akiko Esaki, Asuka Kurosawa, Yukimi Tanaka, Yuki Ôtake, Kanji Furutachi, Mari Sakai, Miho Hirata, Meikyô Yamada, and Akihiro Nakatani.
Below is a synopsis for Dead Waves from the website of the international sales agent for the movie, Pony Canyon Inc. (K.K. Ponî Kyanion).
A meeting is being held in a TV network conference room about ratings for the program "Spirit Sightings". Ratings for "Akie Doma's Exorcism" corner - directed by Hiroshi Usui - have fallen, and producer Akinori Hayami (Akihiro Nakatani) encourages him to do something about it.
Hiroshi and assistant director, Naoto Taniguchi (Shigenori Yamazaki), visit the Nagao residence. Eccentric Tsuyoshi Nagao (Masaki Miura) insists that his younger sister, Runa (Shihori Kanjiya), is possessed by evil spirits and needs to undergo an exorcism.
Several days later, Akie Doma (Asuka Kurosawa), dressed as a priestess, starts the exorcism. Tsuyoshi screams as his body begins to shake violently. Runa's eyes seem to be following something as she mysteriously apologizes, "I'm sorry. It's all my fault...."
Hiroshi receives an e-mail from psychiatrist Akihiro Kawamura (Meikyo Yamada), asking if he's heard about "dead waves". Kawamura had previously spoken out saying that incidents covered on Hiroshi's program were examples of mental illness and had nothing to do with spirits. Intrigued, Hiroshi surfs the Internet and finds reports of "dead waves", vengeful spirits that have combined with the TV broadcast waves to draw the viewers into the world of death.
Hiroshi feels uneasy and examines the matter further and uncovers the astonishing truth behind the Nagao household. Runa's mother and one of her classmates have disappeared. Hiroshi himself has become suspicious over the disappearance of one of his team.
Kawamura has come into possession of a suicide calendar, which he gives to Hiroshi. The calendar records instances of suicide and it becomes apparent that there has been an increase in suicides since October. October is when Hiroshi's TV program, "Spirit Sightings", was first aired. Coincidentally, Hiroshi's ex-girlfriend, Shoko, also committed suicide on the first day of broadcast....
It is nearly 8 pm. The opening titles of "Spirit Sightings" are about to roll.
When the medium of television releases the "dead waves", a spine-chilling horror stalks the viewers....
Dead Waves trailer #1 (streaming Windows Media)
Dead Waves trailer #2 (streaming Windows Media)
Pony Canyon: Dead Waves
Noroi - The Curse trailer (English subtitled; downloadable 8.8 MB WMV file)
Noroi - The Curse trailer (downloadable 38.4 MB MOV file)
Noroi - The Curse TV spot (downloadable 8.6 MB MOV file)
Noroi - The Curse official website
Horizon Entertainment: Noroi - The Curse
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