The Film:
Back in 2005, young director Kiyoshi Yamamoto made his directeriol debut with a film based upon a Japanese comic by Hideshi Hino (who was also involved in a couple of the Guinea Pig films). That comic was Occult Detective Club: The Doll Cemetery. Starring a complete bunch of unknown debutants, including Sayaka Hosaka and Kazunori Tani as well as a couple of people who had starred in previous Japanese horror such as Hitomi Miwa (Ju-On: The Grudge, Misa The Dark Angel) and Ko Si, The Doll Cemetery is more of an extended episode of a horror/sci-fi television show such as The X-Files, Supernatural or even Charmed rather than a feature length film due to its short 51 minute runtime (Don't let the case fool you, they've included the extras).
The film focuses on two students, Nanami and Daisue, who also happen to be dating, as they join a scholl club called the Occult Detective Club. When they join, they are investigating the suicide of a student from the year before who they believe was cursed by a doll. This doll has been in the art room where the suicide had taken place ever since the tragic events, but had actually grown longer hair. It is at this time that all the 'club' members decide to investigate further by visiting an old warehouse that is known as 'The Doll Cemetery'. It isn't long before Nanami is posessed by the doll and horror strikes through the group as loads of dead dolls suddenly come back to life. The dolls, and in particular the leader that is actually a clown, tells the investigating students that they will never leave alive and sure enough a few of them don't.
Occult Detective Club: The Doll Cemetery isn't quite a diamond in the eye of Japanese horror, but more of a piece of silver. It's an enjoyable watch, but I really would've liked it to run longer so that the director could open up the characters a bit more as I found I couldn't really care less whether they died or lived. All in all, it's an impressive (but not great), obviously low budget film that shows the director and stars as hopeful J-Horror stars of the future. I hope to see more from them.
The DVD:
Video:
Although we have only been given a 4:3 transfer of the film, rather than a crisp anamorphic widescreen one, the picture quality is relatively good. It is dark in many places (darker than it is supposed to be) but it appears free of much damage with very little grain and no visible scratches. All in all, a nice effort from Pony Canyon / Unicorn Entertainment. Subtitles are available in Chinese Simplified and English, with quite a lot of spelling mistakes. The extras are also subtitled but they feature a lot of mistakes and sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
Audio:
This is where the disc shines quite nicely. Plenty of audio options to choose from with Japanese DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 an Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround as well as Cantononese Dolby Digital 5.1 and Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. Obviously, I went for the Japanese DTS track (the films original language) and it was above average. Wasn't perfect, but the atmospheric sounds creeped well throughout the speakers and the LFE was put to good use, but not too much use. Unfortunately, some of the extras suffer from sound level inconsistency but this is most notable during the Q&A session with the microphones not being held up properly. Not the disc makers fault, but the stars!
Extras:
All extras play after the feature and even if you select special features from the main menu, you are just taken to the end of the film. You cannot select the extras individually unfortunately. Also, all the e-tailers are stating an audio commentary but unfortunately, it's either not there or I couldn't find it (and I looked everywhere).
The Making Of featurette - This is quite an interesting featurette that starts off showing us some behind the scenes footage but also goes on to let a couple of the actors have 'diary' style entries. It's fun to watch but could've done with letting us know more about the special effects process and how the film was made in general, rather than the many interview segments.
TV Spots - We are also given what appears to be three TV spots. Two of them are cast members introducing the film but the best one is the one with comic writer Hideshi Hino introducing the film.
Q&A Session - Probably the best of the extras, the Q&A session involves comic book writer Hideshi Hino, director Kiyoshi Yamamota and cast members Sayaka Hosaka, Kazunori Tani, Hitomi Miwa, Ko Si and a couple of others. Each person has a couple of questions asked by what appears to be the Japanese equivelent of Jay Leno or Jonathan Ross, though more annoying. He buts in to much and doesn't let the answers finish before asking the next question. It was also disappointing that the audience members didn't get to ask questions as it would've been better than the obviously set list.
Overall:
Not the greatest horror ever, but the director and cast show promise. If you can put up with some poor subtitling then this comes recommended to Horror fans as well as fans of TV shows like The X-Files.
