‘Chime’ Review
Stars: Mutsuo Yoshioka, Seiichi Kohinata, Hana Amano, Junpei Yasui, Koji Seki, Giko | Written and Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
With a lengthy filmography under his belt, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has made himself known as an exciting director with many contributions to Japanese horror. Three of his films are currently slated for release in 2024, yet it will be a surprise if either of the remaining two are stronger works than Chime.
In order to support his family, former chef Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka) has taken up a teaching job for the time being. While he aims to fill his classrooms with a calming atmosphere, that is disrupted by the strange actions of a student, Tashiro (Seiichi Kohinata). Acting as though he is in a trance, the student claims that he can hear a chime which he desperately wishes to escape the grasp of. Soon enough, Matsuoka also begins hearing the chime.
As the inverse to Matsuoka’s classrooms, what Kurosawa magnificently crafts is an intense atmosphere that spreads throughout the 45-minute runtime. This is courtesy of the magnificent way the writer/director holds his cards close to his chest, with the lack of explanations being efficiently utilized to deliver utter terror on-screen.
How does the chime spread from person to person? Is it targeting a specific kind of victim? Why does it result in violent acts? The lack of answers instils an unnerving feeling that terror can come from anywhere, leaving every movement the characters make to be laced with horror out of an uncertainty regarding if things will take a dark turn.
Terrors of the unknown latch themselves onto viewers, leaving unsettling feelings that are capitalised upon in terrifying fashion. The focus upon a character’s face of sheer terror will chill one’s blood, although the stand-out sequence involves a student’s reluctance to slice a raw chicken. As that scene takes a jaw-dropping turn, the glimpsed horrors are left weighing upon the viewers in the aftermath while taking a wordless approach, in an effort to give the unsettling circumstances a moment to breathe.
While the chime has a dreadful effect, an even worse question arrives in the mind. Is it changing people’s moods entirely, or bringing forth something dark which has lingered within the victim? Matsuoka is clearly shown as somebody dissatisfied with his career, longing to escape teaching and return to running a restaurant kitchen. Could the family man’s circumstances be the ignition point for a Jack Torrance-style rampage? Either way, Yoshioka magnificently brings alive the figure throughout.
Chime may only last 45 minutes, but it resembles the titular sound in how it sticks within one’s mind with sheer terror and unsettling power. In a solid year for horror cinema, this ranks highly amongst the releases.
