The Persona 4 anime is now on Hulu to watch! I believe this is going to be another deal with Funimation that they'll have the episode subbed shortly after it has aired in Japan!! So far, so good. The animation is really top notch and effectively captures the style of the game's artwork. While some things are shortened (they fight in the Midnight Channel in the first visit) due to that there will be limited episodes, I hope it stays true to the main story of the game. I do wonder if we will be seeing some of the new story elements for the PSVita version here. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but would be interesting. I don't want the adaptation to be completely loyal to the source, I find that rather boring. So far, is way more interesting to the non-canon Trinity series they did awhile ago.
I'm just going to give a brief opinion on Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Nights. I don't want to rewatch this movie just to say that it is the equivalent of when we remake their horror films, with the exception of The Ring and Ju-on 1 & 2. As a note: I understood everything they were saying and could comprehend what was happening. After Calling, I got tired of people saying I hated that game because my Japanese was admittedly weak, but I still knew what was going on. Also, it has been awhile since I watched this, so some details will probably be off.
The movie will even copy shot-for-shot the original PA, it opens with a douchey guy recording his reflection. This time, it revolves around a brother and sister, not a couple. Incest, alright. Not really because his sister has returned from America and both of her legs are in casts, unsexy casts at that. The minute she gets back, he sets up a camera in her room and records the entire night. I want to say that this might be after a few nights of restless sleep, but I literally do not recall previous mentions of hauntings. In the original PA and what we learn in PA2, there was at least three weeks of strange occurrences prior to when Micah bought the camera. In the Japanese version, it lacks any real reason for the camera other than just cuz.
The first night is just noises. Noises that I could barely hear until the dude was playing it on his computer. The Japanese are quite superstitious (ghosts > zombies according to some yosakoi club members during my study abroad) and they go rather quickly into the powder test (it's like night two). There is also the obligatory psychic friend who freaks out in the house.
Eventually, we learn that the sister ran over Katie from the original film. This caused the curse to transfer onto her and that is what is behind all this. Apparently, Japan forgot that PA took place in 2006. This remake takes place in 2010. While it may be possible that she ran over Possessed!Katie four years later, it is too much of a stretch for me. There is also PA2 that lets us know that the curse is "genetic" and should have ended when Hunter was captured, in 2006. Maybe, I haven't seen PA3 yet. The demon also apparently resembles a dog. Go figure.
The movie ends a bit differently than the original PA, as in it's boring. The sister's body is brought to the morgue and she drags her brother off screen (or into the shadows to be more accurate). A cut back and she's just smiling on the floor. It is way more predictable than Micah being thrown at the camera, despite that scene was in every trailer! And it still made me jump!!
The film was made to capture on the success of PA, which did well in Japan. I actually saw the first PA in Japan and the audience I was with was quite interesting. A lot of Japanese schoolgirls. One of them right next to me was clinging onto her boyfriend for 98% of the film. I think she cried towards the end. Despite that it is a lackluster remake, the film tries to place itself into the canon. Yet the connections with the original PA are weak and the scares are the same as in that movie. The same complaint could be said with PA2, but that film at least expanded on the mythology in a rather interesting way.
The same can be said about foreign remakes anywhere. Rarely, does it ever translate. The Ring is one of those rare ones that work. I personally found the Japanese original, Ringu, quite boring compared to the Verbenski remake. Some comments I've seen seems to fall under the pretentious thought that Japan does horror better than the US and this is a good example of that. No, no it really isn't. PA is one of my new favorite horror franchises and I genuinely find them quite heart-pounding as any good survival horror game. PA2:TN was quite boring and is too similar to PA, without any original thought or new scares. If you're curious, you should be able to find it on Youtube. Note: When I watched it, there were no videos with subtitles. I don't know if there are ones now, but take that into consideration.
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