Kyoufu Shinbun (2020)

Although I won't go too much into details, so as to avoid major spoilers, I have to say that right until literally just a few minutes before the end of the last episode, I was pondering within myself whether I was gonna give this a 9 (or more probably an 8, 'cause it did have its faults anyway - more on this in a while), but then imho the writer decided to ruin everything just for the sake of a silly, shallow, "hollywoodian" final scare. If I ever rewatch this, I'll make sure to stop watching before that point (just as with an American TV series I liked as well, but only except the very last minutes, "Point Pleasant" - but that's another story).
Too bad, 'cause otherwise this dorama could've been a much better one, more coherently Japanese (in that horror is used also to convey deeper moral messages), despite the fact that it still had some script problems (most of all, the inconsistence in some characters' behavior - namely, the FL's BF and the mom - but also the fact that it had too much going on for only 7 episodes, and the writer wasn't able to wrap everything up nicely anyway).
Acting wise, another great performance by the lovely Shiraishi Sei and Kuroki Hitomi, whereas the rest of the cast was ok but nothing to call home about, imho. Direction, photography and music were also OK.
All in all, if you're a fan of Japanese horror, a pleasant watch.

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La mise en scène de l'horreur

Peu nombreux à la tv, les dramas d'horreurs n'échappent pas à la codification si chère aux japonais. Silences puis jumpscares, réveils soudains, pertes de cheveux ou sourires figés, ... Les clichés sont nombreux et font parfois autant sourire que frémir. Kyoufu shinbun est donc bourré de poncifs et assène à nouveau une légende urbaine aux ficèles maintes fois tirées. prédiction de catastrophes, dont l’héroïne est la seule à voir et que évidemment personne ne croit. Une Cassandre des temps modernes, quoi que, ce passant à Kyoto et souvent dans les vieux quartiers. L’atmosphère de la ville est surement le point fort de la série. Kyoto est une ville empreint de spiritualité et de mystère d'autant plus pour un occidental et les légendes peuvent être croisées à tout les coins de rue. C'est peut-être ce qui donne un semblant de crédibilité à l'histoire. Ce ne sera malheureusement pas le jeu des acteurs (même si j'adore Kuroki Hitomi, toujours géniales dans les rôles de maman) ou l'écriture poussive, avec des personnages qui changent de personnalité toutes les 10 min. Des morts violentes en cascades, et notre héroïne qui continue à faire ses livraisons Uber Eat comme si de rien n'était (y en a qui attendent encore leur pizza d'ailleurs ). Très maladroit et surement bien moins bien construit que le manga dont il est tiré, Kyoufu Shinbun nous attire malgré tout. Pour savoir où il va nous mener, nous malmener, car il faut bien avouer que finalement, malgré les maladresses, le malaise est bien distillé et c'est à ce demandé si elles n'étaient pas voulues. Dans ce cas, acteur comme scénaristes sont des génies et je me demande s'il n'aurait pas mieux valu que cette critique ne vienne jamais au monde.

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Love the directing, editing, acting and aesthetic of this, but I was questioning some of the writer’s choices for both the characters and plot lines.

First, I don’t quite get the mother’s character. She switched from crazy to normal to crazy far too quickly without truly good reasoning. Matsuda Yusuke's massive love was at least weird. They tried to somehow explain it with the origin story, but even that brought more questions and annoyance.

So why do I have a problem with the origin of the newspaper? It had no place in such a short drama. With the past story, the whole new world of possibilities has been opened, but close to nothing was explored. The dynamics between characters have changed, but it was not organic enough for me to accept, it was a normal progression in the story. Sometimes not explaining every detail and keeping viewers in the dark till the end is a better choice. Nothing's more scary than the unknown.

The mechanics of the Terror Bulletin were also questionable: Can the same bulletin be delivered more than once? Why would past bulletins work? And wouldn't the last episode "cheat way out" not only not save her receiver but also create more victims?

I have to say though, I enjoyed Shiraishi Sei’s performance a lot. The character was well written and realistic. It showed some flaws and the bad/questioning choices were almost made. The will to survive and the empathy in her were a nice internal conflict that had me shocked a few times.

That said, the ending disappointed me greatly. It should have ended around 31 minutes in the last episode. That would be a nice commentary on how selfish people are, and the fact one good person cannot fight it on her own.

Do I think it’s scary? No. Not only that, but I believe some of the deaths could be seen as funny for few viewers. I found them disturbing and weird, but they never frightened me. The plot got a bit messy closer to the ending, but it was an enjoyable watch with a few good pictures created.

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Holy crap I have such a love/hate relationship with this show. I loved it, okay. Freaking LOVED it!
I remember when I tried to watch it a while back, for some reason I couldn't seem to get in to it? How? I have no idea so it's been sitting in my PTW list for way to freaking long. Not sure what got me to click on it today but you best bet when I clicked "play" on episode 1, I literally binged and watched every single episode in one sitting. Lol

I know if you were to look at my updates as I watched this show, you would see my losing my mind in anger and if you could hear me, I was probably worse in person. This show had my blood pressure so high I thought steam was coming out of my ears. When I tell you the characters played their parts waaaayyyyyy to well........ Taiki, hunny, I love you but... It's gonna take me a bit to not growl scream in frustration when I see your beautiful face on screen. Lol. I really did have a love/dislike thing for him because there were so many times I was so mad at him, I could have lost my shit -- only to find out later he did what he did for a reason. But there were 2 things his character did that I just... Bro.... what the fuck? There was no reason for those to happen. I know things happen, but wtf .

I'm still on the fence about her mother, honestly. I loved that eventually they got close but I won't lie, I was sus the whole time thinking she had some hidden agenda or something going on.

I'll say this, the one character I hated and takes the cake on all this bullshittery was Momoka. Fuck that crusty-dusty-should-have-been-swallowed-bitch! I hate her with a passion and that is saying something because technically she's not even the "big bad guy" -- yet she sure was the fucking worse!!! "best friend", my ass. I never understood why she blamed Shizuru for what was happening, and I still don't. Because this whole time she was making morbid ass jokes about Shizuru's dead father and other dead people. She had NO PROBLEM being a morbid bitch and laughing when it came to Shizuru's trauma. Oh no, but "bestie, let's be besties. I won't let you do this alone! I'm with you!" --then after she finally sees a dead body she loses her fucking shit. And let's not even pretend, from the second she saw Yusuke, she wanted him. Before alllllllll this went down, the MOMENT she saw him it was "uhhhh Shizuru who?" people like her genuinely make me want to vomit. So no remorse on what happened to her. She's a bitch.

I liked that they gave us a bit of backstory about origin and all but I feel like they could have delivered it better. I thought I was tripping balls for a second thinking I had started watching the wrong show. Lol I mean, I know it was needed, I just feel like a warning would have been nice for that trip back. Lol

As it started to end I feel like it was getting kinda crazy to be honest. Especially that last episode. Like, I get it but I don't? It was smart as hell for what that girl did to save her own ass, that was fast thinking. But.... When it showed so many people getting the newspaper, does that mean they got it all at once? Or did they all die that quickly?
I also didn't understand why --if she was doing good in this life, was she dragged to hell? Like, I get it, she was terrible in a past life, but if she kept getting reborn and finally picked to "take over" (which was a lie) shouldn't that count for something? I just don't understand that ending.

It wasn't a bad ending, just wish I could wrap my head around it at bit better. Lol All in all, this show was extremely amazing.

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