Pulse: Dead on Arrival

Similar to another Japanese import, All About Lily Chou-Chou(2001), Pulse (2001) argues that technology causes existential ennui, yet like the former, it fails to conceive this idea through the art form of film-- of visual storytelling. It is not a narrative but a concept, still inside the womb of inspiration and unable to birth itself. Initially, the incomprehensibility is disguised as suspense. But when the film fails to develop in tone and the characters remain more obscure and impersonal than the shadows they leave as ghosts (or whatever happened- I read the Wikipedia entry on this film and I still don't understand the "plot") any hope for redeemable qualities sinks. I can't reiterate enough how thoroughly un-scary this two-hour plus piece of pretentious dreck is. Aside from two disturbing images, one involving a suicide, the other involving a plane crash, Pulse remains static and impenetrable. The American remake got a lot of flack, probably for being cheesy and ridiculous as so many American horror movies are. But I cannot simply fathom it being any worse than the original.