Joji Iida’s J-horror film (in Japanese with English subtitles) has a story-line that involves possession by an evil spirit that can move from person to person. The twist in this movie is that the evil spirit is Satan himself. This fact is foreshadowed at the opening by a quotation from the Bible’s Book of Revelation and made clear later in the film when the fallen angel explains who he is and what his intentions are -- in indirect Japanese fashion, to be sure. To paraphrase the DVD cover above, causing Hell on Earth would create another Heaven for the Devil, who has been kicked out of the real Heaven.

 

Demonic possession in this movie turns the possessed person into a serial murderer. Those who are murdered are chosen because they are full of evil thoughts and intentions themselves, although they might appear superficially to follow society’s rules. The first person to be possessed, a beautiful female college student named Chizuru (Yukiko Okamoto), has been contemplating rebellion against her “good girl” image. Once possessed, she seduces and kills a man in his Tokyo apartment, breaking his neck before removing his brains to make stew.

 

This crime gets the attention of the Tokyo police. Manabu (Yôsuke Eguchi) is the detective assigned to the case. He and the other detectives in his squad assume that a man had to have committed the crime. However, Manabu’s ex-con girlfriend, Asako (Miwako Ichikawa) believes that a woman with superhuman strength did the crime. Although Manabu does not believe her at first, the circumstances of subsequent murders start to make him wonder whether she might be right after all. Manabu chases the possessing demon as it jumps from person to person, each one dying as the demon moves to a new body. Finally, Manabu realizes that he is the Devil’s ultimate target. This leads to a showdown between Manabu and the Prince of Demons. Will the Evil One kill everyone involved and take Manabu for his own? Why is Manabu his target? You’ll need to watch this flick to find out.

 

Unlike in Western horror movies with a possession theme, the demonic manifestations here are more subtle. The demon in this film appears as a liquid substance when it is not in possession of a human being. It speaks only through those who are possessed. There are nevertheless some gruesome scenes in this film, mostly having to do with the murders that the possessing demon commits. Nevertheless, the Japanese film version of demonic possession is more psychological than in Western movies, where it has more physical manifestations. ANOTHER HEAVEN is no exception to this rule.

 

TX FRISCO KID