Pulse (2001)

HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2025

Writer/Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Stars: Haruhiko Kato, Kumiko Aso, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka, Masatoshi Matsuo, Shinji Takeda, Jun Fubuki, Shun Sugata, Sho Aikawa, Koji Yakusho

The internet becomes the medium of expression for an afterlife of lonely ghosts, spreading a plague of suicide and despair that threatens to depopulate the world. 

This film follows a pair of young Japanese (Kumiko Aso and Haruhiko Kato) in Tokyo as they deal with these apocalyptic events. 

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's eerie film, made in the early days of online social networking, suggests that our technology may isolate us more effectively than it brings us together. 

After all, people speak of "hanging out" in a chat room or online forum, when in reality they have neither left their house nor met another person face to face. 

Although this theme has relevance everywhere, it may have struck a bit closer to home in Japan, which has seen the social phenomenon of the "hikikomori."

 These are young people who do not work or socialize; in fact, they rarely leave their rooms and often maintain contact with the outside world solely through computer. 

Of course, this phenomenon is not restricted to Japan; they exist in all technologically advanced countries. 

A deeply melancholy atmosphere pervades this disquieting film.