Kansen (2004) User Reviews

Confused yet?

[Ky-D · 6/10 · 11 May 2005]

Like so many J-horror flicks in years past, the plotting is a nonsensical mess of seemingly random events tied to a loose running narrative, but the visuals do a good job of maintaining interest.

A patient dies at a hospital due to a mistake made by a team of hospital personnel. Wanting so save their careers, they vow to cover it up. Around the same time, a young man arrives at the hospital exhibiting symptoms of an unknown contagion. After the youth dies due to the virus (by melting away, of all the unpleasant ways to go), the members of the conspiracy start behaving strangely and also experiencing the same symptoms. What is happening to them? That is about as linear as the plot ever gets, from there on the story starts rocketing back and forth between flashbacks, hallucinations, ghostly encounters and other odd events. Moreover, rather than moving toward a resolution of conflict, it merely gets weirder and stranger the longer it runs. The characters are mostly anarchistic views of social stereotypes, which makes hardly any of them likable or sympathetic. Also, the story drags for the first 30 minutes or so, while the last 30 minutes shoot by way to quickly; some re-editing could have helped with that.

Visually, the film is nice. A greenish hue covers most of the film, which gives it an eerie sort of discomfort. Also, many shot choices and camera angles add to the feeling of things not being right. There is a fair amount of 'gooey' scenes, but not very much in the way of the red stuff. Most of the scare set ups are fairly well done, but many of them conclude without much pay-off.

There's good (visuals), there's bad (the script), meaning it's really only meant for J-film fanatics.

6/10

Early scenes that show promise and are very creepy are undercut by a plot that loses internal logic and story that goes off the rails

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 17 October 2008]

Japanese horror movie that is real creepy and uneasy for a good while before its obliqueness gives way to a completely WTF final third.

In a hospital low on funds and horribly understaffed by uncaring or under trained professionals, a man with a horrible rash and burns is brought in and is accidentally killed by the staff.They decide to cover it up. Unfortunately another patient seems to be infected with a disease that causes you to go nuts before having a green slimy liquid ooze out of you. As the staff tries to cover up whats going on we quickly realize something terrible is going on.

Strange uneasy horror film goes off the rails completely in the last third as all sense of any sense goes out the window. Early on, before anything happens there is a great sense of dread. The apathy and distracted nature of the staff is a clear sign that all is not right.(how many times does the staff turn off the radio of the paramedic asking for help?)As the deaths occur and the staff becomes infected the feeling intensifies-at least for a while. Somewhere just before the half way point things start not to make sense internally (real world logic isn't really in this film). People show up, disappear, are found to be dead, show up again, appear in dreams, are we awake are we dreaming...and it all crashes to pieces in the final third as strange happening follows strange happening and its all breaks apart in an ending that made me wonder why I had just spent the better part of two hours watching it. Actually I stayed because the tone of the early scenes promised something that was never delivered.

Its gooey green mess of a movie that isn't worth bothering with. Trust me despite the good start it ends badly. Watch something else instead.

Unsettling and atmospheric

[LoneWolfAndCub · 7/10 · 19 January 2009]

I have always been a big fan of Asian horror, as the directors seem to have a knack for incredibly creepy visuals and creepy atmospheres. Kansen (Infection), is no exception to this, as it rivals Ju-On, Ringu and Gin Gwai for thrills and chills. What is really amazing is that there is no reliance on long haired girls or little boys, what is scary here is the hospital itself, and the characters within. This is very different to most supernatural horror films, as the story focuses on the characters for the majority of the film.

Infection is set in an under-staffed and under-financed hospital where the staff are under a lot of stress. One night, while trying to save a burns victim who has been there for three months, a young nurse accidentally gives him a lethal injection. Dr. Uozumi convinces all the other staff to create a false report to save the hospital. That same night a patient is brought in with a severe infection which causes the internal organs to liquefy. Soon all the staff are working together to discover what this disease is before it starts to spread to far.

As with most Japanese horror films, the plot is not wrapped up nicely, and in this case, it is the most puzzling of them all. Although I now have formed a solid conclusion for myself, it was still an incredibly confusing and muddled final 10 minutes. I think the last section could have been fixed up, as the pace slowed down after a very tight hour. However, the film is highly original for the most part and features some genuine scares and disgusting and beautiful visuals (much like Dario Argento's Suspiria). Amongst all the American trash being released, this stands tall and further proves that Asia (and Europe) are producing the highest quality horror.

3½/5

Awesome

[Vastarien202 · 28 September 2005]

This movie scared the living!%^*@ out of me! I watched it in daylight, but I was too scared to get up for a snack! The pacing can be a bit long, but if you have patience, it works.The use of lighting and wicked sets reminded me of Dario Argento's Suspiria, though lacking his flair for geometric patterns. The atmosphere is handily Lovecraftian with its sense of doom and inescapable dread. It was 117 outside, and I was stone-cold scared! This one has a place of honor on my shelf, right next to "Spiral", The Ring series, and my collection of Italian Splatter movies! I will be showing this at my Halloween party, along with some others to scare and sicken everyone.

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the hospital...

[Zorknot · 6/10 · 11 September 2005]

I saw a Japanese live action movie called Infection a couple days ago. I give it 6.5 out of 10. It's about a hospital where the doctors and nurses make a mistake and try to cover it up while some strange disease is making them go insane. Very creepy, and it had some neat psychological bits that I liked. It was however, a little stupid. For instance they're in a hospital. It's night time. Do they turn on the lights? No. They run around chasing some diseased patient with flashlights. Then there are some rather clichéd characters, which aren't clichéd unless you've seen a lot of anime but still.

There's the young girl who's unsure of herself, there's the dark secret controller of everything who's too sure of himself (a la Gendo Ikari) and there's the well meaning guy who's just doing things for his family but doesn't ever get to see them. The good news on this count is that all these characters die gruesome and terrible deaths.

At first I really enjoyed the movie, the director made even the mundane scenes of a hospital extremely creepy and disturbing. But then the characters started doing really stupid things. That and there were long scenes where nothing was going on except someone walking down a hall or looking out a window. I eventually used the fast forward button for these scenes and the movie improved dramatically. The ending had its requisite twist, but it was a creepy one. Basically the Directing was awesome in this, their should have been more editing, the acting was passable, and the writing alternates between being clever and being horror movie stupid. It's better than most of the J-horror I've seen recently, but its not anything to put on your bedroom ceiling or anything.

Tepid and muddled

[thither · 4/10 · 25 June 2005]

I was hoping for a little more out of this movie. It is set in a hospital, which is an inherently creepy setting that has been used to good effect in several good horror movies (eg, Session 9, the Eye 2). Unfortunately, though the cinematography is good, there's not much in this movie that rises above the sort of low-level creepiness inherent in all hospitals.

At times I was struck with the idea that the director had originally planned to make a fairly straight-forward hospital-slasher movie, but due to some kind of colossal blunder ended up being shipped 50 gallons of green goo instead of the 50 gallons of fake blood that he ordered. Infection was then swiftly rewritten to accommodate this mix-up, and while they were at it they tacked on some twists at the end which might have been fresh prior to the global movie-twist mania that swept the world circa 1993 or so.

It's not a terrible movie, and there is some endearing acting by the three lead doctors (who do fairly well with pretty colorless characters). Overall, though, it plays out like a Halloween episode of E.R. Many scenes that ought to frighten the viewer are just drawn out, only the most extreme of the gross-out scenes are really effective, and the movie is full of dross that doesn't enhance its story or its mood.

Creepy, Claustrophobic, Uncomfortable

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 13 August 2006]

In a general hospital near bankruptcy, the reduced staff is working under a severe stress. During the emergency attendance to a burned patient with Dr. Uozumi (Masanobu Takashima) and two other nurses, Dr. Akiba (Kôichi Satô) and the nurse commit an error, injecting sodium chlorate and killing him. Dr. Uozumi convinces the team to forge the report to save their careers. Meanwhile, an ambulance leaves a patient in the emergency with a lethal infection. When the muscles and internal organs of the patient liquefy, Dr. Kiyoshi Akai (Shirô Sano) convinces his two colleagues to examine and research the virus, leading the employees of the night shift to a tragic end.

"Kansen" is a creepy, claustrophobic, uncomfortable horror movie. The scary story is very tense, but has a disappointing conclusion. The idea of a virus that spreads through the mind, through the complex of guilty of the doctors and nurses that killed a patient, is original, but the resolution of the plot is very confused. I believe the screenplay deserved a better development of the end, specially the reasons why the female doctor contracts the virus in the end, if she has not been in the hospital along the night. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Infecção" ("Infection")

A Disappointing J-Horror

[dfa120374 · 4/10 · 19 January 2015]

In a general hospital near bankruptcy, reduced staff is working under a lot of stress and it's under this stress that a grave mistake is made. A patient with severe burns is being attended to, but a nurse injects the patient with the wrong fluid causing the patient to die. One of the doctors convinces the rest of the team to falsify the report in order to save their careers, but this doesn't go down well with one of the nurses. A while later, an ambulance team tries to deliver a patient - who has a lethal infection - and even though one of the doctors says they cannot admit him, the ambulance team still leaves the patient. During a check-up of the infected patient, a nurse finds that he has seemingly dissolved and when other staff members start to act strangely, it becomes evident that this is no ordinary infection.

Infection is another of those Japanese horrors that holds so much promise but fails to really deliver and it's definitely not one of the more remarkable horror's I've seen. I do give it plus marks for at least trying though.

This is a classic "thinker" which means it's not a movie that spells everything out for you as it has plenty of hidden meanings, symbolism, and subliminal type messages. So many, in fact, that you may end up just confused to the point of not caring. However, even when you get all the hidden meanings, symbolism, and subliminal type messages it's still just a jumbled mess.

Along with the mess of a story, the acting was pretty poor, and it was lacking any really true creepy moments (which we have become accustomed to experiencing with Asian horror). It did, however, have a decent atmosphere and the setting of a depressing, near empty hospital was portrayed well. In fact, if the story wasn't such a mess and along with this good setting, Infection could have been a downright scary movie. Unfortunately, it's just a humdrum mediocre film that misses the mark of entertaining.

Watchable but definitely not memorable.

One of the best recent Asian horror films

[BrandtSponseller · 10/10 · 20 July 2005]

Like many horror fans, I've been watching a lot of Asian films recently. Although Asian horror isn't new, easy availability of it in the United States is relatively recent. Unlike many horror fans, though, I'm not generally of the opinion that Asian horror is better on the whole than American horror. That's not to say I think American horror is usually better, either. I just think the two are different.

The odd thing is that even understanding that difference, a lot of reviews for Infection are complaining that the film is a bit "confusing", "disjointed", or more charitably, "non-linear". That's to be expected from a viewer who hasn't seen a lot of Asian horror yet. But oddly, those comments are often coming from viewers who seem to love the genre. It's odd, because the genre is characterized by being more non-linear. Compared to the typical U.S. horror film, Asian horror has many of the same differences that European horror from the late 1960s and early 1970s had--it tends to be more surreal and poetic. Rather than a focus on transparent literalism, there is a focus on metaphor, symbolism and dream logic. For anyone familiar with academic philosophy, the difference is reflected there. U.S. horror is equivalent to analytic philosophy, European horror to continental, and Asian horror seems rooted in Zen, Taoism, and so on.

Thus, when you begin watching a film like Infection, you have to expect something different than what you'd expect from, say, Cursed (2004) or Valentine (2001). Although in many ways, Infection is more straightforward and spends more time providing explanations than the typical Asian genre film. It's nowhere near as inscrutable as Charisma (aka Karisuma, 1999) or Chaos (aka Kaosu, 1999), but it's not as transparent as Dark Water (aka Honogurai mizu no soko kara, 2002). Rather, it fits nicely in the middle of the two extremes.

The story is set in a small Japanese hospital. Right from the start, we see that they're having odd problems and things are beginning to get out of control. The hospital is understaffed and quite a few employees do not seem to be as competent as they should be. Meanwhile, we see an ambulance that keeps announcing that it has a patient with a possibly dangerous infection who needs to be seen immediately. We're not sure who they're broadcasting this to. After a while, it becomes clear that they're broadcasting it to no on in particular. Eventually, The ambulance drops off its patient despite protests from a doctor about not being able to handle the case. The patient has a bizarre, possibly fatal infection, and it seems to be spreading.

Although infection makes a fair amount of sense on a literal level, much of the film is meant as an extended, in-depth metaphor for infections, and not just literal biological infections. Director/co-writer Masayuki Ochiai and co-writer Ryoichi Kimizuka stress a phenomenon that's more like meme theory--they're looking at how ideas, or any kind of information or state, starts with a seed that's passed on and evolves/transforms over "generations". Since this is a horror film, a lot of the focus is on how that can go sour.

At the same time, the film works just as well on another level--an unabashed series of cringe-worthy horror set pieces. All of these layers co-exist happily, and most viewers can choose to engage (or not) with the film on any or all of Infection's modes. Like most artworks, you get out of Infection whatever you put into it. That means that this isn't really for passive viewing.

Just as would happen in an infection, or under the various infection-like phenomena that are being symbolized, Ochiai gives us a gradual transformation in style, structure and content. The opening scenes are normally lit, the hospital is well populated with relatively normal folks, and the patients' problems seem only slightly odd. At the very beginning, the film could just as well turn into something of a hospital "soap opera". But imperceptibly from moment to moment (it's only perceptible when you take a step back for a "broad" view), the lighting and color schemes change, first becoming a bit darker, then emphasizing pinks, reds, yellows and finally greens and blues--a color transformation not unlike a minor inflammation leading to bruising, sickness and strong nausea, and finally death.

At the same time, our cast of characters--both medical professionals and patients--gradually dwindles until we're left with only a small core or normality. Infection becomes increasingly claustrophobic, and Ochiai makes a similar transformation in his physical threats--from "hard", external problems, to a gradual getting under the skin, to complete bodily dissolution. At the same time, a ghostly presence becomes more prominent. These kinds of infectious progressions imbue every aspect of the film and are quite ingenious.

But wait--there's more! Ochiai has also given us a mind-bending "rubber reality" film. He makes a philosophical point about color perception early on that ends up being correlated with the changing color schemes on a completely different level, rooted in the mental. This aspect comes as something of a twist near the end, and imply a recontextualization of the whole to that point, although the point may just be the role of the mental in "infections". But just so we don't forget the ultimate aim, Ochiai gives us a small horror set piece tag at the very end that exists only for its own sake.

My love of this film might also have personal roots--just about the only things that disturb me in reality are medical in nature--doctors, hospitals, treatments, sickness, etc., so films like this hit close to my phobias. At any rate, for me, this is one of the best Asian horror films of recent years, right up there with Ebola Syndrome (aka Yibola bing du, 1996), Battle Royale (Batoru rowaiaru, 2000) and Suicide Club (Jisatsu saakuru, 2002). Don't miss it, but go in with the right frame of mind. And bring penicillin.

After watching this film I am not really in the mood to go to the hospital.

[Aaron1375 · 6/10 · 23 October 2011]

Not the best Asian horror film I had ever seen, but it was a bit entertaining just had a couple of loose ends. Of course, loose ends in a film such as this is very typical. The film is about a hospital that is understaffed and looks to be eroding quickly. Patients being dismissed when they should be getting immediate care, patients wandering the halls, and all in a very dreary looking hospital. I do believe I would rather die at my house than receive any care in this place. During the night things begin to happen as a ambulance driver keeps trying to get any hospital to take a patient of his who has a bad rash. Another burn victim falls from his bed and is in need of immediate care. The ambulance driver finds his way to this hospital and the doctor turns him away as he rushes to try and help the victim who has fallen from their bed. Well things are in chaos and the burn victim dies as the wrong combination of drugs is administered. Well despite one of the doctors saying he would take the blame the others want to cover it up. Thus the strange things ensue as the ambulance driver apparently left his patient who has a very strange condition and another doctor who has overheard the cover up wants to study this strange illness. Has its moments, but it has a lot of plot holes. Such as the strange suture guy, moving swings, fox boy and a host of other things. Things added for seemingly no other purpose than to try to make this movie more complicated than it really needed to be. Kind of made the ending crash as suture guy seemed so pointless as he was not involved in the whole thing then somehow he did something that seemed to suggest he may have had something to do with it. The setting and the atmosphere were great, but as to often happens in these films they try to make the ending as confusing as possible, to make themselves seem more clever. If you ask them what their intentions were they would probably not even know, you have to know what your intentions are when crafting an ending such as this so that when one thinks upon it everything can make sense, here I just can not tie it all together. Still, good enough to keep me entertained.

An absolutely disjointed mess (SPOILERS --- BUT THEY WILL BE MARKED)

[darkpast2000 · 2/10 · 17 January 2006]

The plot, as best as I can understand it, involves overworked doctors in an underfunded hospital, not so much caring for patients as simply attempting to get through the shift.

That's actually the problem. The plot.

Anyone familiar with Japanese culture is aware of the fact that mood, symbolism, atmosphere etc. always play far more important a role than, say, reality. Cartoon characters can leap thirty feet in the air, and suddenly the background changes into a disco random light pattern (that way the sequence can be used over and over again in other shows....) as opposed to the venue of the show in question, that kind of thing.

But even so, for a movie to work, it has to have some sort of internal logic. It must at least conform to some degree to some ground rules set up. Neat tricks like cuts to a schoolyard, or dimmed lights, claustrophobic shots, etc. mean absolutely nothing if the narrative of the story is senseless.

The acting is weak, the characterisation (or lack thereof) is as such that sadly the racist joke about telling Orientals apart being impossible actually starts to become true.... and the actors simply do not make their characters behave the way they're supposed to. EMTs do not harangue doctors about whether or not they "have" to take in patients, nor do they bring in someone who is alive with a sheet over his entire body and completely lacking in any kind of life support (could the props dept. not afford an IV or an oxygen tank?)

If you don't want to read spoilers, simply stop reading here and pass on this disjointed mess.

SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS

Alright, so now I can discuss further what didn't work in this waste of celluloid. Back to the plot, or a complete lack thereof. The movie is about some sort of contagion - we can infer that much from the title. And yet, what exactly is it? Is it a pathogen brought in with a body raced into the ER? (I find it hard to believe that an EMT would drive for an hour with a rapidly crashing patient in a crowded place like Japan.... surely to God there's closer hospitals than Our Lady of Borrowed Time?) Is it some psychic ability from some Alzheimer's ridden codger tittering about mirrors? Is it a supernatural haunting, some ghost/revenge thing? Guess what, you're supposed to decide FOR YOURSELF what's going on, and just when you think you've arrived at a conclusion, they throw in some visual image or superfluous detail to derail your theory. This is lazy film-making. Write a plot, figure out what's going on, and make it happen. In an effort to keep the audience unbalanced, the writers actually abandon deciding on what's actually happening, rather than decide on what's going on, and throw in red herrings along the way. The result is a movie that has no clue what it's saying or where it's going.

Characters seem to be thrown in for any random reason. We see them once at the beginning and once at the end, to throw in some story detail that makes no sense, like a "failed pediatrician" who may or may not have killed a character in Act One that everyone therefore would have had to have consensually hallucinated en masse throughout the rest of the film.... alright, enough about the plot or lack thereof.

Yes, there are some nice, creepy shots. There's some serious atmosphere, and a few nice visuals that'll squick people who wish to be squicked. However, the complete abandon of reasonable character study, plotting and/or sense in this movie derails it completely, no matter how many little arty details, momentary subplots never resolved, or pop-philosophy musings about whether green is actually green or not you throw in.

To give you an idea what kind of movie this is, in the message boards section someone raves about a beautiful actress he's lusting over, and asks the question as to which character she plays.

Yeah.

Imagine a movie in which someone can't figure out who Angelina Jolie plays.

I'd say it's well into Ed Wood category by that point.

Great J-horror! What "Cabin Fever" should have been!

[willywants · 8/10 · 27 May 2005]

A run-down hospital receives a patient one night with bizarre symptoms. Symptoms that defy medical explanation. A virus that liquefies organs, muscle tissue—yet keeps the host alive. One by one, the staff of the hospital contract the disease, hallucinating, going crazy, and literally melting to piles of rot. Will anyone survive through the night? Is the disease a real, horrific virus, or one with supernatural origins? Wow, what a creepy, unsettling movie. Good acting from the whole cast, an intelligent script, top-notch direction, and man is it scary! Writer/director Masayuki Ochiai did a great job on this one. The imagery, cinematography, and effects were beautifully done. The plot twists towards the end were a little too fast and confusing but the movie is definitely worth while. This is great J-horror in my opinion, much better than the overrated "Ju-On" and its definitely better than 2002's similar virus-themed horror-comedy, "Cabin Fever". Rent it, but don't expect to sleep well afterwords! 8/10.

Exciting and Bizarre

[Uriah43 · 7/10 · 11 August 2014]

A large hospital in Japan is on the verge of bankruptcy and as a result the administration is unable to pay the doctors and the staff and there is no money to order new supplies. Because of this desperate situation, the doctors are forced to turn away new patients because they simply cannot care for them in an adequate manner. Things then go from bad to worse when an ambulance arrives with an extremely sick patient who appears to have a strange disease that is rare, deadly and very contagious. At that exact same moment an accident in the emergency room causes another unforeseen problem as well. Now, rather than disclose the rest of the story and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie managed to keep my interest from start to finish. I found it to be both exciting and bizarre. In any case, I should probably add that this movie was initially filmed in Japanese and subtitled in English. I say this because even though I personally didn't mind it it's possible that there might be some viewers who do. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this movie and recommend it to those who might be interested in a film of this nature. Above average.

An infection of boredom perhaps...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 24 March 2013]

Being a great fan of the Japanese horror genre, I had to give "Infection" (aka "Kansen") a go as well. And boy, this movie was different than what you usually get from a J-Horror movie. Was that a good change of pace and scenery? Well, some would say yes, I do, however, say no!

There was absolutely nothing scary about this movie at all. It is more of a psychological mind-twister than it was a horror movie. Personally, I do not find a hospital that looks like a darkened, subterranean bunker from World War II scary, nor do I find green stuff erupting from orifices scary either.

The story in "Infection" is about a patient being brought to a hospital that is on the verge of financial bankruptcy and closure. Although refusing treating the patient, he is left there, and his strange infection spreads to the resident staff and patients of the hospital. And things take a turn for the worse, fast...

All throughout this movie, I didn't buy into this being a hospital for one second. As I mentioned above, it was more like a reminiscent of a darkened World War II bunker, and had more of a industrious touch to it than a sterile and medicinal touch that a hospital has. Plus, there was a surprisingly lack of patients (and visitors) at the hospital. And the staff there were perhaps amongst the worst medical health-carers that I have ever witnessed. And all these factors just added more and more to the lack of a convincing set that eventually made the movie suffer.

And also the lack of scared and a proper horror setting were working against the movie, making the movie seem to drag on. But still, I sat through it, hoping to get at least something good out of the movie. But no, that was not to be.

Hand on heart, then "Infection" is a very weak addition to the Japanese horror genre. I was lured in by the interesting DVD cover from Tartan Asia Extreme. But it just goes to prove the old saying; you can't judge a book by its cover.

Fairly Entertaining

[ratzzila · 18 August 2011]

I like how much work Japanese directors put into the pacing, atmospherics, and suspense of their horror films. This one is no exception. If you ever saw Kingdom Hospital and enjoyed it for the mix of suggestive spooky supernatural undertones clashing with rationalism and materialism thematically, then you might like this film as well. At first I thought this film would turn out to be something like 28 Days with ferocious infected zombies feeding on humans, but there is a much more clever plot line going on which I won't reveal. The plot seemed to have some holes in it til I realized what was really going on in the end. Mainly though, I enjoyed the mix of film with a suggestion of a supernatural influence in a materialist or rationalist world. Visual storytelling gets this idea across with images of, for example, swings swinging on their own near the hospital, or an old crazy lady who sees her dead relatives in mirrors staring at her reflection in a window looking like an apparition. I must say that after discovering Japanese thrillers and horror films, it is hard to go back to Hollywood offerings for sure. They seem so predictable, tame, and cookie-cutter in comparison.

Eerie, creepy, and completely haunting J-horror.

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 11 May 2015]

Another class effort from Japanese. This slice of J-horror doesn't offer an easy, linear viewing experience; it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and the viewer is required to make his or her mind up about a lot of what is happening. The obtuse, abstract nature of the production might be off-putting to viewers who want spoon-feeding, but I really liked it.

And it's an incredibly eerie production set in one of the most run-down and depressing locations ever: a dark and dingy hospital, full of dirt and tired medical staff who wish they were somewhere else. The plotting begins when an unspecified patient suffering from some kind of infection is brought in, stretching the already stressed staff to breaking point.

There are some quite wonderful set-pieces, my favourite being the extended sequence and aftermath of the team trying to resuscitate a burns victim; haunting stuff indeed. There are the requisite jump scenes and gore spread out here and there, but it's the incredibly foreboding atmosphere which I liked the best. The director makes great use of his colour palette, particularly the contrast between green and red, and the performances are the ultra-professional ones you'd expect from Japan. INFECTION might be just too unwieldy a film for me to describe it as a favourite, but it's certainly a remarkable one all the same.

Wait for the American version, and then don't see it

[rhyatt1 · 1/10 · 6 May 2006]

This movie definitely had potential to be scary, but ended up all over the place. Anyone who tells you that you don't like a movie like this because you "don't get it" is reaching too hard and obviously trying to be cool film-buff-guy.

The premise of the movie is a small hospital staff is in a rundown hospital and they try to cover up an accidental death of a patient and then discover an infected patient.

The movie is really slow at first, but it does start to pick up once the patient arrives with the infection. A doctor who wasn't involved with the cover up decides to try and research the new patient and the other doctors go along because they suspect he knows what they did. For a while this idea is explored as the doctors search for the missing patient and they each start to become infected themselves. That idea alone is enough for a decent scary movie, but it just ends up getting too wacky at the end.

SPOILERS AHEAD

It turns out the green slime/infection is apparently a virus of the mind that has infected all of the doctors involved in the dead patient cover up. Basically the doctor's guilt is causing their subconscious to become "infected". When they first presented this idea it seemed kind of lame, but at least it was creative. Then the next thing you know the doctor who wasn't involved in the cover up and discovered the infected patient turns out to either be a hallucination of the main doctor or he was actually the patient who was mistakenly killed at the beginning. That really isn't clear and seems to just be a random twist thrown in to make the story seem deeper.

Another stupid thing is how the director keeps cutting to sequences of a swingset outside the grounds of the hospital. The swings move on their own as if to suggest some type of ghostly activity which makes no sense at all considering the movie is in no way about ghosts or a haunting of any nature. The short swingset scenes are just tossed in for general creepiness, but have no bearing on the story at all. Of course this works for some idiots who are desperately trying to read more into the movie than there is and to make it out to be thought provoking and mysterious rather than accepting it as just being totally jumbled up.

Another crazy ghost scene involves a nurse who runs into an old woman who says she's the mother of the patient who was accidentally killed. Earlier it was pointed out that nobody would miss the patient because he has no family and nobody ever comes to see him. As the camera angles change, in some shots she has no head for some reason. I suppose the woman could be attributed to the nurse's guilt over killing the patient by accident, but why make her headless in some shots? Why you ask? For random creepiness of course. It has no reason for happening and no bearing on the story, but it sure is scary to see a headless old woman right? I guess that's what the director thought when he was writing this script while watching dragon ball Z reruns and noshing on ramen noodles.

Another problem is the very end when a nurse who wasn't at the hospital all night comes back in the morning and discovers the last surviving doctor. This part also almost makes sense until the director screws it up with wackiness. The nurse calls the police because she finds the dead bodies of the staff and realizes the doctor must have gone crazy and killed them all. OK, that's good if that's where it ends, but it isn't. Then as she is leaving the hospital the ambulance lights turn green (like the slime and the lighting throughout the movie) and she freaks out and runs back inside and accidentally cuts herself only to find that.... she's bleeding green blood! hmmm that's supposed to be scary right? Too bad it's not because she has no reason whatsoever to be infected. She has no guilt or remorse because she wasn't involved with the accidental patient death so she couldn't be "mentally infected" as the film seemed to suggest the other doctors were. So why would she start hallucinating and seeing the green tones and green blood? It's just another random twist thrown in for the hell of it. Is she losing it because the hospital is just generally a bad place or did she possibly eat a bad hot pocket on the way to work? If you've got the stones, watch the movie again and maybe you'll figure it out.

The last problem with the movie is the young doctor at the beginning who used to be a pediatrician and was called out by another doctor for not knowing how to do stitches. This dude isn't in the film at all except for the beginning so the zaniness is in full effect when he suddenly wakes up at the end of the movie and apparently realizes that he was practicing doing stitches on another doctor and killed him overnight. Huh? What's the point of this? He also wasn't involved in the cover up and shouldn't be infected so why would he have randomly killed another doctor in the night?

This ridiculous movie was obviously all over the place. It could be a story about how guilt can take over the mind, but then it suggests it's just a story about a evil hospital where basically any sort of general bad things can happen. In the end the only bad thing to happen will turn out to be the fact that you rented and watched this movie when you could have been watching the fifth showing of Kindergarten Cop on AMC that day.

Another great J-Horror

[type_zero · 7/10 · 24 January 2006]

I found this movie to be one of the best I have ever seen. True, they could have chosen a different lead actor and the beginning was a little slow, but everything else was great. The movie takes place in a old hospital, one that is in serious need of some more funding and staff. Most of the other nurses and doctors have quite and the rest of the staff are starting to become stressed from all the overtime. Suddenly a new patient is brought in, and then things start to get good.

Although the movie may have you feeling very confused and cheated at the begging, all explains itself, and if your clever enough to figure out the somewhat complicated story line, then it will quickly become one of the best you've seen in a while. The whole film is intertwined with suspense and a deep psychological aspect that makes this movie worth watching. Unfortunately, not everyone will end up enjoying this film due to the complexity of the plot and the fact that it is easy to get lost, especially since most people watching it here in North America and Europe, will be trying to watch the film and read the sub-titles at the same time.

Over all the movie is definitely worth the time and effort used in trying to find it in the first place; it is truly a must see.

Asia Extreme. Extremely BAD, that is

[ejwells-2 · 3/10 · 6 February 2007]

Bottom tier J-horror nonsense serves as a prime example that not ALL horror films from Japan are masterpieces. Matter of fact, it seems that they churn out junk like this just BECAUSE there's a fascination here in the States with anything made over there. This particular dud is EXTREME-ly poorly acted and scripted. I mean, it's simply terrible. And, aside from some green and red light splashed here and there, it's not even CREEPY, which is the LEAST you'd expect from a J-horror film. Yet...still some seem to like this, and I'm just one small voice. I nearly ejected it 3 times, but decided to give it the benefit of the (extreme) doubt. All in all, I'm glad I saw it. It's good to have the bottom tier perspective.

Bizarre and unsettling Japanese horror film.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 9/10 · 17 July 2005]

"Infection" takes place in an old,dilapidated hospital that is barely able to keep its door open to the public due to a constant lack of adequate medicine,facilities and staff.The hospital is riddled with agony and suffering of countless patients and the strain on the doctors and nurses has reached the critical point.A doctor's negligence causes a patient to die and the panicked hospital staff decides to cover up the fatal mistake setting off a deadly chain of events.Paramedics bring a new patient into the hospital that has been stricken with so deadly that his innards have mysteriously disintegrated.The doctors attempt to contain the virus,but the ill patient escapes through the ventilation system ensuring that everyone inside the doomed hospital will have to fight for their lives from this horrifying epidemic.Unlike overrated "Cabin Fever","Infection" is a creepy and unsettling horror film.This is the first genre movie from the Taka Ichise-produced J-Horror Theater series.Director Masayuki Ochiai is already well-known as the director of "Parasite Eve" and "Hypnosis" ,while the cast includes Kôichi Satô,the star of "Rasen"."Infection" delivers its share of squirm inducing and gory moments and it certainly gets under your skin.Just ignore negative comments and enjoy this creepy piece of horror.9 out of 10.

Very creepy..

[RainofMagic · 7/10 · 16 July 2006]

I don't exactly agree with other comments going around that say this movie is "tired and dead". I just watched this movie for the first time about 12 hours ago, and I must say.. I was very creeped out by most of the movie. I think this movie certainly outshined other Japanese-oriented or remade horror movies. Such as "The Ring" and "The Grudge" to name a couple. This movie had a very eerie element to it. The darkened hospital, the strange patients, and of course the "infection" itself. At first I thought the movie would be much more straightforward than it turned out to be. Infected viral monster, going around killing/infecting others. Fortunately, it delivered MUCH more than that. There are references made throughout the movie (the apple for example) to give some understanding to the very confusing end. Unfortunately, it didn't really pay off. As the ending was still confusing as heck to me. Still, the psychological element to this movie, the fact that the "Infection" turns out to be a subconscious disorder rather than a physical mutation puts a twist on the entire thing. The creepy setting plays well with the odd things the nurses and doctor's end up doing. Such as putting their hands in boiling water, jabbing themselves with syringes and various other things that will make you cringe. Overall I would say this movie was above average for the current horror genre. Being that it was subtitled, it could be difficult for some people to actually watch the movie carefully and read the subtitles. If the ending had made a bit more sense, this movie would've been a bit better. The female doctor getting "Infected" when she wasn't even present for their crazed murders made no sense at all.. Anyway, I'd really recommend this movie if you're looking for a creepy chiller. I actually found that crazy old lady rather funny.

A medical procedure goes awfully wrong and apparently cinematicly wrong

[K_Todorov · 4/10 · 15 April 2007]

"Kansen" had a chance at being a potentially good horror movie, and I do mean HAD. It attempted to devote enough focus on both characters and suspense thus creating the perfect atmosphere for a horror movie. The likable characters mean that these people meant to die wouldn't be just faceless victims but people with lives and worries of their own. Sadly enough, bad film-making ruins this opportunity and regrettably we are stuck with another one of those below-average horror movies.

Directed by Masayuki Ochiai "Kansen" centers around a hospital on the edge of bankruptcy. With only minimal staff, and equipment the remaining doctors and nurses left are under severe pressure trying to do their jobs. Things get even worse when due to a momentary block Dr. Akiba (played by Kôichi Satô) accidentally orders the injection of sodium chlorate on a burnt victim, killing him instantly. After a brief moment of panic and confusion where the characters engage in a lengthly conversation about what to do, they are finally persuaded by Dr. Uozumi ( played by Masanobu Takashima) not to report the accident and thus not ruining their own careers. The real fun begins when a mysterious man bearing a highly contagious decease is found near the emergency room shortly after the burnt man's death. The decease is extremely lethal as the staff soon discovers.

First things first, the plot. It's an interesting premise, one that holds a lot of potential, and it's a shame because it wasn't exploited nearly as good as it could have been. The psychological elements are weakly developed, the plot twist at the end turns the whole thing into confusing mess that barely makes any sense at all. Perhaps director Ochiai wanted a more open for interpretation finale, but he seemed to forget that in order for such thing to exist one must first add enough content in the movie itself. And this is not done. Anyways, moving toward other points. Characters. They are just too stereotyped, with Dr. Akiba being the moral conscience of the group while Dr. Uozomi his stellar opposites. In fact when thinking about it all the characters present a certain type of behavior and another character would often exhibit the opposite manner (the clumsy, weak nurse and the bossy nurse come in mind). This whole limitation of their point of view does hurt the movie, because it makes these people unrealistic, like comic book characters, they are too strongly defined as following just one type of behavior. And there is that problem involving some of the supporting characters (mainly patients) being a bit too annoying (yes I do mean the crazy old lady with that one). For all the good it does, the main actors did their jobs commendable, nothing all that astonishing in terms of skill but it didn't detract the movie's quality further.

And now my main gripe with "Kansen". You see I could have swallowed the loose plot and unmemorable characters had there been some good frightening moments. Well to be blunt, the only frightening thing is that someone actually thinks that green slime is scary. Green slime ?! What the hell? And that is practically the main moving mechanism of the "chill" inspiring horror direction oh and, throw in some random shots of swings swinging that will get the mood up, yeah right. So for future references, unless we are talking about "The Blob" green-slime equals laughably bad way of creating tension.

"Kansen" is a so-so psychological horror movie that lacks atmosphere, lacks strong characters, lacks coherent plot. Masayuki Ochiai just failed to tap on the potential offered by the premise, a story about a medical mistake could have been turned into something far more interesting had he decided not to use the god damn green slime.

This is a really good film

[PrinceBuster5 · 8/10 · 9 September 2013]

I had no idea what to expect from this movie. As it turned out I found it absolutely spellbinding. The dark, moody atmosphere of a financially struggling hospital is beautifully done. The characters are quite different from English-speaking concepts of character development. There's not even a single star rather there are several lead characters and they are all good.

There is no "gore for gore's sake" - the darkness is more subtle. Often I find that Japanese films surprise me, and from beginning to end this was no exception. I loved this movie and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone 14yrs or over.

Too much distractions in this otherwise fine and original J-horror.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 13 November 2010]

It's nice and refreshing to every now and then see some genuinely original horror movies, come from Japan. This movie does not really feature any white ghosts or scary young children, like you so often see in Japanese horror flicks. It instead has an original horror concept, placed at an always classic and effective horror setting; an hospital.

Small problem with the movie though, which prevented me from absolutely loving it, was that it seemed to have trouble with keeping its focus. It's a movie with quite a lot of characters in it, who basically all more or less have their own story going on, with as a result that the movie at times differs away from its main plot-line and all characters get an equal treatment, which allows none of them to ever fully develop because there are just too many of them and there is not enough time in this movie to completely flesh them out. The movie could had used a clear main character and the movie actually doesn't really pick a main character until the last 15 minutes or so.

Nevertheless, the movie remains obviously a good watch because of the reason that it's being quite original. But being original is of course not always enough, it also needs to work out as well. And yes, the story works out for the movie. You can also really say that the story gets strengthened by its settings, that truly adds to the movie its atmosphere.

And this is a movie that relies for a large part on its atmosphere. That doesn't mean that the movie doesn't feature any gore or scare moments though. It's a really good looking movie, that got professionally done.

The story itself, despite its fine concept, does not always work out convincing enough. There are some silly and unlikely moments in the movie, which are mainly just some bad and at times lazy choices from the writer it seems. Also a bit weird seeing all of the characters respond to the situations. The Japanese are people that can get very easily scared but in this movie the characters are times don't seem to be that heavily troubled by all of the extremely weird and just plain scary events that are happening.

Perhaps it also was due to the lacking acting that it didn't always came across as too convincing. Some of the actors in this just don't seem capable enough for the job, or at least not for their roles in this movie. This especially and mainly goes for the younger actors that are in the movie.

But above all things, this still remains a maintaining and certainly original enough watch, for especially the fans of its genre.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

this movie, it sucks

[felipe-ontanilla · 1/10 · 7 September 2009]

oh my god! this movie sucks. It mixes genres...is it supernatural? is it psychological? is it a drama? I know it is not a comedy...but, it ain't horror, that is for sure. I have seen many horror flicks. Some original, some not so much. Pontypool is an original movie, it's might not be a great film, but it sure is original. It's fresh But this? infection? dear god...the only thing that made me scared was to know that I was wasting time. My opinion? if you believe your time to be precious, don't watch this. A Pauly shore film is better, a porn flick has a stronger plot. Maybe next time our beloved japs will stop for a second, think and then and only then, begin filming.

my little chart: a) audio and sound effects: 7. b) plot: 1. it goes from place to place, idea to idea like if the writers did not know and what genre or sub-genre they should focus. c) ending: I will not give ya spoilers...but the ending is consisting with the sucky plot. d) dialogs: we know that a horror flick is not a woody Allen movie, but still, the interactions between characters sucked. e) characters: unrelatable, unbelievable, they had no depths.

this movie: a 1. wanna watch something great, watch Shaun of the dead.