iFilm Connections: Asia & Pacific

Black House, The

Kuroi ie (1999)

With "The Black House" Morita Yoshimitsu turns his camera on the horror implicit in such everyday mundanities as bowling balls, goldfish, a large kettle, child suicide, insurance and rustbelt industry…. His excursion into mystery released earlier in 1999, with the film version of Kishi Yusuke's best-seller, a tale of murder for insurance published by Kadokawa Shoten that has found parallels in several widely publicized real-life cases that have come to light since the book won the Japan Horror Novel prize for 1997.

… Set in and around the city of Kanazawa on Japan's western coast, the film is also a commentary on the horror of post-industrialization, withaging factories forming a backdrop for the action as it leads to its climax in the claustrophobic stairwell of a nondescript city office building, the noise and cheer of the city's annual harvest festival forming an ironic outdoor counterpoint to the desperate struggle unfolding within.

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