The story begins in the middle of a series of bizarre murders being investigated by Kenichi Takabe (Kōji Yakusho). Each of the crimes on the surface appear to be completely unrelated. They all have different perpetrators, so it’s difficult to call them part of the work of a serial killer. However, the crimes are very clearly related because they occur in very specific ways that are identical.
Like many people, I’m deeply upset by the now long-standing trend of American remakes of foreign films, particularly horror films. Such is the case with Kairo (Pulse), originally made in Japan in 2001 and shoddily remade about half a decade later in the U.S. I certainly understand the desire to put one’s own stamp on a good story, but I find this insta-remake trend bothersome. In almost every case, the remake is far less than the original. Even when the remake is good, the original is usually better. In the case of Kairo, it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that M. Night Shyamalan cribbed from it when making The Happening, too, meaning that this has not one, but one and a half crappy remakes.
Kairo, like many a good horror film, has a simple, albeit strange, premise. In Tokyo (and eventually we’re told in the world at large), people are shutting down mentally, physically, and emotionally, and then suddenly disappearing. This all appears to be connected with a number of electronic media and devices. We start with Michi (Kumiko Aso), who works at a plant sales company. One of her co-workers has been missing for some time, so she goes to check on him. She finds him and a computer disk he has been working on. While she hunts for the right disk, her coworker calmly goes to another room and hangs himself.
