Japan Cuts ’23: The Three Sisters of Tenmasou Inn

Death never comes for a holiday at Tenmasou Inn, but she brings plenty of guests. She has a relationship with the two Tenma Sisters and their mother to host spirits in limbo, as they decide whether to keep living or to proceed unto death. The latest guest she escorts will be quite a surprise: a half-sister the Tenma siblings never knew they had. Its is also news to the traumatized Tamae Ogawa, who will have a lot to process in Ryuhei Kitamura’s The Three Sisters of Tenmasou Inn, which screens today as part of this year’s Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film.

Nozomi, Kanae, and their irascible mother Keiko Tenma are dead, but Ogawa is not, at least not yet. Her young life has been hard, because her father abandoned her at a young age, just as he did with Nozomi and Kanae. They still had Keiko, but Ogawa’s mother tragically died during her infancy. Despite her unfortunate current circumstances, Ogawa is delighted to meet new family, as are her half-sisters. However, the boozy Keiko is less than welcoming.

Considering herself part of the family, Ogawa insists on working at the inn. Since most of the day-to-day responsibilities fall on the older, more professional Nozomi, she appreciates Ogawa’s help. She is especially grateful when her half-dead half-sister takes the hospitality lead with two difficult guests. One is an old lady who takes pleasure in nitpicking. The other is Yuna Ashizawa, a privileged influencer, who attempted suicide. Both are somewhat disarmed by Ogawa’s honesty and lack of guile. Nevertheless, Ashizawa cannot control her disruptive behavior. Apparently, even in near-death, some Millennials remain obnoxious and entitled.

Tenmasouu Inn is a lovely looking film that seems worlds removed from Kitamura’s recent horror and action movies, such as Downrange and The Doorman. However, he previously helmed a much darker thriller set within the “Sky High” manga universe that Tenmasou Inn is also adapted from.

It turns out he can jerk tears with the best of them. Thematically, Tenmasou Inn is a lot like Kore-eda’s classic After Life and Edson Oda’s Nine Days, but it is more sentimental, yet also sometimes more surprising. It is all achingly sentimental, but its Japanese-ness makes it really appealing, sort of in the tradition of Departures.

Nightstream ’20: The Doorman

It is a pre-war building with a battle-tested doorman. Sgt. Ali Orski was decorated for valor, but the ambassador she was protecting was still assassinated during a terrorist attack. It really wasn’t her fault, but she is still tormented by guilt and flashbacks. Fate will give her a chance for redemption, but the stakes will be higher, because her family will be directly in harms way during Ryuhei Kitamura’s Die Hard-style The Doorman, which releases on DVD tomorrow, following its premiere on the opening day of the online genre festival, Nightstream.

After her return, Orski wanted to keep to herself, but she can’t totally ghost her Uncle Pat when he reaches out. Needing a job, she also lets him refer her for doorman gig at a tony Central Park apartment building, but she soon realizes she has been played. That happens to be where her late sister’s husband and children live. It has been a while, but they recognize her—and young Lily Stanton is especially keen to have her for holiday dinner, before the family leaves for an extended stay in England.

It turns out, the Stantons are one of only two tenants still in the building during its scheduled renovations. Frankly, there were not supposed to be there—just the elderly German husband and wife on the ground floor. Victor Dubois certainly was expecting them or a resourceful loose cannon like Orski. He carefully planned to take the old couple hostage to steal the art the now senile old man plundered from the Stasi’s secret archives during the waning days of the GDR. Unfortunately, he stashed the trove of paintings somewhere in their old flat, which is now occupied by the Stantons.

You get the idea, right? Yet somehow, this Die Hard-style movie carries four writing credits: Lior Chefetz and Joe Swanson for the screenplay, as well as Greg Williams Matt McAllester for the story. Regardless, they manage to use old Manhattan in creative ways, devising secret doors, dumb waiters, and a hidden speakeasy for Orski and her surly teen nephew Max to sneak through in their attempts to evade Dubois’s hired guns.

Ruby Rose is no Cynthia Rothrock or Michelle Yeoh, but she is still a pretty solid action lead playing Orski. In fact, she has a convincing “cool aunt” thing going on when protecting Lily and Max. However, Rupert Evans’ charisma-challenged portrayal of their dad, Jon Stanton, makes it dashed hard to believe she could ever have had an illicit affair with her snotty, pasty-white brother-in-law. Not surprisingly, the kids are completely annoying, but Philip Whitchurch has some fine moments as grizzled Uncle Pat.

Nightmare Cinema, from Mick Garris & Co.

This faded movie palace looks ominous, yet it will still bring on waves of nostalgia for many viewers. It is a place of nightmares, but at least it is aesthetically appealing. On the other hand, hospitals and medical offices turn out to be nearly as deadly, but they are totally lacking in style points when they factor in three of the five macabre tales that make up Nightmare Cinema, a new horror anthology film overseen by Mick Garris, who helmed the wrap around segments and the final constituent story.

When people wander into the Rialto, the creepy projectionist shows them a film of their ultimate personal nightmare—and then kills them, or maybe leaves them in some sort of nether-limbo. The first tale, “The Thing in the Woods,” is a wild ride involving a slasher dubbed “The Welder,” due to his mask and torch, who soon gives way to a swarm of rampaging alien spiders. Director Alejandro Brugues plays it all for bloody, gory, over-the-top laughs and succeeds on his own meathead terms.

Surprisingly, Joe Dante’s “Mirari” is the weakest of the bunch, even though it stars Richard Chamberlain as the titular plastic surgeon. Dante’s foray feels like a derivative riff on the original Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder,” especially since it was written by Richard Christian Matheson (even though the classic teleplay was penned by Serling rather than his father). Still, Chamberlain chews the scenery with admirable glee.

Ryuhei Kitamura’s “Mashit” is similar in spirit to “The Thing in the Woods,” with restraint and good taste getting thrown to the wind in favor of nutty visuals and escalating chaos. It starts as a rather dark and moody yarn regarding demonic possession in a Catholic school but it builds to the spectacle of the morally compromised headmaster priest hacking and slashing throngs of possessed kids. That really is the whole point of it all, so there is no point in protesting its typical anti-Catholic biases.

David Slade’s “This Way to Egress” is easily the best, most stylish, original, and unsettling entry of the bunch, by far. A disturbed mother is stuck in a Kafkaesque doctor’s waiting room, growing increasingly concerned by her young sons’ erratic behavior, the rather inhuman look of the receptionist, and the apparent dirtiness of the environment. Something is definitely off, so she has started to fear for her sanity. She probably is going crazy, but the truth of her situation is considerably more desperate.

Slade engages in some remarkably economical world-building during the course of “Egress,” taking the audience someplace very strange and basically twisting our minds. It would make sense to end with it as the grand crescendo, but there are reasons why Garris’s “Dead” still fits best at the end. Riley is a piano prodigy who sees his parents murdered before him—and then he starts seeing dead people, like the kid in The Sixth Sense. Naturally, there are plenty of dead people to see in the hospital, where he is recuperating, but the dangers he faces are very human. Faly Rakotohanana is believable and engaging as Riley, but Lexy Panterra really steals all her scenes as Casey, a slightly older girl in his ward, who also has the “shine.”

Arguably, Garris gets the film’s best performances in “Dead,” whereas “Egress” features the best writing, cinematography, and direction. Frankly, Nightmare Cinema is definitely one the stronger horror anthologies in recent years and most likely one of the more consistent. Mickey Rourke (Oscar-nominated for The Wrestler a mere ten years ago) just shambles disinterestedly through the connective scenes as the Projectionist, but Garris and Slade deliver first-class work—and Brugues and Kitamura are never boring. Recommended for horror fans with a good deal of enthusiasm, Nightmare Cinema opens this Friday (6/21) in LA, at the Arena Cinelounge.

Ryuhei Kitamura’s Downrange, on Shudder

Okay kids, the lesson here is hard to miss. Just say no to carpooling. If these six college students had been caravanning instead, they would have had much more cover and there would have been a good chance one of their cars would have made it through the serial killer sniper’s ambush. One of them is a former Army brat, so at least she understands what they are dealing with, but she has no way to return fire in Ryûhei Kitamura’s Downrange (trailer here), which premieres exclusively today on Shudder.

There is the Army brat, a married couple (or engaged or whatever), the good-looking guy, the token minority, and the one with the heart-tugging younger sister. The mystery shooter will be using them all for target practice, but Kitamura’s quite effectively builds the suspense as we wait for the first kill. Soon three of them are huddled behind the car (fortunately its actually an SUV, the only responsible they’ve made), while another is cowering behind a tree stump.

Needless to say, this is an impossibly quiet stretch of road. However, it is not a closed system. More grist for the mill will inevitably come ambling along and even the cops will eventually get in on the act, but as the late R. Lee Ermey would say, the mystery man will definitely show just what one motivated sniper and his rifle can do.

Basically, there is no character development to speak of in Downrange. They are just interchangeable victims. As a slightly spoilery warning, viewers should also expect the lamest cheat of an ending we have maybe ever seen in horror movie—ever. However, we have to admit Kitamura maintains a visceral, claustrophobic sense of tension during the heart of the film.

Plus, there is the gore, which is either the film’s greatest asset or grossest sin, depending on your tastes and preferences. Naturally, the shooter uses vintage rounds that really tear through the flesh. This should come as no surprise, since goriness has always been Kitamura’s specialty.

This isn’t much of an actor’s showcase, but everyone looks adequately terrified or in shock. Plus, as an Easter Egg for viewers with sufficient endurance, cult horror movie regular Graham Skipper eventually appears as a sheriff’s deputy. It is not pretty, but Kitamura hits the low-hanging targets he aims for. Recommended for gore fans, Downrange starts streaming today (4/26) on Shudder.