It's true all these Japanese horror films look alike, but I've only watched a few, so it hasn't bothered me much yet. Though to be honest, the scary child-ghost with too much make up has lost its appeal. The film isn't great, but it keeps your interest till the end. It has a couple of interesting twists but doesn't really take full advantage of them. The backstory is rather vague and needed a little more work because it could really give the plot an extra boost. Other than that, everything flows without many surprises but keeps you watching, with a voice in your head asking how on earth all the train stations happen to be completely empty whenever the characters are there..
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Ar_Pharazon_the_golden20 August 2011
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HumanoidOfFlesh29 October 2007Oh gosh,I'm really fed up with all these generic Japanese horror films about long-haired female ghosts and ghostly kids."Ghost Train" is no exception.It is clearly influenced by "Ringu","Ju-On","Shutter" and "Pulse".Two years ago I was into such modern ghost stories,because they usually managed to give me some goosebumps,unfortunately there is nothing fresh or interesting in "Ghost Train".In fact the film is really boring.Noriko goes missing in a subway tunnel-like an elementary-school classmate-Nana must investigate a mystery of multiple disappearances,with the help of a youthful train conductor and another "disappeared" child's mother.The film offers some mildly creepy moments,however the CGI effects are laughable and the climax is illogical.Skip it.
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LovecraftLass8 January 2019I've been watching a lot of Asian horror lately. I love it but it's hard to watch while you're doing other things because you have to watch the screen for the subtitles. And I refuse to watch dubs since they usually don't sound very good. I like Asian horror because in general they rely on practical effects instead of CGI overload. Ghost Train wasn't great but it wasn't terrible, either. First off, don't read the synopsis. It is so far off from the main story. The plot of Ghost Train is this: A spirit of a woman who was killed by a train leaves her stuff on the train and platform. When Random Traingoer picks it up the spirit comes for them to reclaim its property. The pacing is really, really weird and the hauntings, spirited aways (and returns) don't seem to make any sense. When they get returned they're something akin to zombies but they're not. It's not even really clear on if they are returned to normal after the haunting/curse is resolved. There also are weird time passages. For example: Nana's sister goes missing and it seems to take Nana a couple of days to start looking for her. Nana also takes a time out for her and Kanae to go for coffee and chat and become friends. The subplots don't go anywhere and the character interactions seem really off. The one relationship that is developed well is the friendship between Kanae and Nana. They frame it more of a romantic friendship which I liked. The actress who plays Kanae (Chinatsu Wakatsuki) also played in a movie called Ju-Rei that was really good and I think she's a pretty good actress. Her character wasn't very developed in Ghost Train but she did what she could with it. The sets are very strange as well. Everything is empty. Even the train platform has only one person on it. That just seems weird to me. It looks like a fairly large city and the streets are literally empty. The ending seems abrupt and also has an odd resolution that presents more questions than answers. Did the haunting actually begin with this person? Because she looks pulled down by a disembodied hand. And it's never explained. A random character is introduced near the end which seems a bit cheatery and while her role does make sense it also raises even more questions. All in all it's a decent movie that is worth a watch but there are far better ones to enjoy. Like the aforementioned Ju-Rei.
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kevn5725 March 2007I don't generally like horror movies, I absolutely hate slasher stuff and the real gory horror movies too. But I occasionally do enjoy a good Japanese horror movie because most are long on suspense and pretty low on gore. The Ring and Ju-on being prime examples. I gave this one a try because two of my favorite stars are in it Oguri Shun and Sawajiri Erika, they were good but the movie in general is nothing special. One really cool thing about it though is that it used some of HP Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos, a carved relief in a subway tunnel and Erika's character is looking to goto school abroad at the Miskatonic University.
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vghb95a25 July 2007I like this movie, it has great beginning and ending but the middle part makes me give this movie five stars instead of more. This movie should be re-titled "Ghost Station", or "Ghost Tunnel" as much of the story doesn't takes place on a train.
The movie centered around a high school girl called Nana whose kid sister found a lost train pass at the train station. She then disappeared the following day. The story goes, Nana's sister is not the only person who happens to vanished into thin air around that station. Many people who come across lost items on the train or at the station seem to be cursed by a woman dressed in black. It's been a bad week for our heroine Nana, not only has her sister gone missing, but her mother is in hospital for heart condition as well. As she search for her sister, she meets a guy who works as a train conductor. He too, sees strange happenings in the darken tunnel of the subway. With his help, they are able to find out something much more darker and eviler within the tunnel.
As I watch this movie all sorts of questions popped up in my mind, such as, why are the locations of inter-cutting scenes don't match?, Why is a teenage melodrama doing in a horror movie?, And how can a woman without depth perception able to drive a car? This movie has a check list of things that needed to be in a J-horror movie, for example, ghost children, checked, evil ghost woman, checked, evil curse, checked, high school girl, checked, sound cue from Ringu, checked, unexplained ending, checked, and last but not least, zombie ghost, checked. As I said before, I do like this movie at the beginning for its creepy atmosphere and locations, and the story about a ghost haunting a subway tunnel although not new but still very interesting. I also like this movie for its zombie ghost stampede at the end of the movie. Still, due to editing and/or directing, the pacing of the film at time goes from slow to a dead stop. Lighting could be better also, as in the abandon tunnel scenes, the tunnels were too well lit to have any creepy atmosphere. This movie is good, but not very well thought-out. -
gapst25 March 2007I've been watching a lot of Asian horror movies lately, but this one has to be the worst so far. It started out interestingly enough, but lost momentum after the first 15 minutes of the movie. The added "drama" scenes, flashback sequences and serious plot holes left me hanging. What really happened in the tunnel? Just "something terrible"??? Who started all the killing if it wasn't the ghost? What did she want returned to her????? No answers whatsoever! Overall, not very scary at all and the movie makers need to come up with a lot better ideas than this...
One positive was the cute actress, but that's about it.
Not recommended. -
To start with, i would like to say something about Asian horror movies in general. Like the westerns horror culture; the Asians got their own style on their horrors; as we have seen under the years which has passed; Long hair, cellphones, nails, small kid (almost always boys) and girls dressed in white. White means "Death" in many Asian cultures, as Black in our culture often refers to death.
In Western we got serial killers that rapes women or killers that enjoy killing teenagers after their beer-party mixed with characters that looks like been picked directly from a Play Boy paper. So there's two stereotypes in the Horror movie culture we have on both side of the globe.
This particular move we're gonna talk about, is indeed a bit of a Asian stereotype movie - but it also have some parts that makes it a bit unusual. Many views here has judge it as a bad movie, which i think could be a bit of a miss-leading and unfair.
The plot of this movie wasn't all about to scare the soul out of your body; it had a undergoing line in it's story; friendship. By that i don't mean that kind of friendship that all Asian horror movies seem to love to show up; a bunch of kids that bullying one other; or fails the other one. This showed a lot of times, the great fear of loosing one you keep very close to the heart; and also how someone want to become friend and actually succeed - if only for a short time. That is actually very rare in Asian horror movies. And there between all the ghostlike things happens.
The only thing that really destroyed the movie was when Kanae died - in order to save Nana's life from the hunted tunnel. However; that "mistake" to brag Kanae her life by a very stupid accident, Director Takeshi Furusawa made up well for at the very end of the movie. By shutting down the sound and just let the moment go between Kanae and Nana gave me creeps - not of fear, but of sympathy for real friendship. For me, that made the whole movie.
As a horror movie, it didn't really worked. I got the feeling of watching a TV-series, and that Takeshi Furusawa was a bit of a "beginner" when it comes to real acting. The CGI could have been better. But, the idea behind the story was good - even better than One Missed Call. Everyone says it's a regular Japanese horror movie, but if you look at the details, it isn't a very regular story after all. First of all, almost whole movie, was filmed inside or around a train station. It wasn't that much screaming and spacey sounds, or strange "burps" from ghosts. No ghost coming out from TVs. Or hair that grows with the speed of light. Or for that matter; small white painted boys/girls; it was actually very sparse with that in this movie.
Takeshi Furusawa has seen lot of movies and based the design on this movie from that; but he got a story that after a bit of polishing and construction could have been a fantastic movie. It isn't too many Japanese horror movies that actually has train as a main "line"; and it is very few J-horror movies that i've seen (or any Asian horror movies for that matter) where two friends actually becomes friends, where the other one is a "bad guy".
Here's what this movie have, that all other H-movies from Asia ones DON'T have: Train as main "line". Succeeded friendship (No failures, revenge or bullying). Cellphones that DON'T causes deaths. A Guy that really does take actions against "the problem" at the end - and succeed. A touch of realism, even tho it's a ghost story.
And it's probably the first movie i've seen that the School students wearing Different types of uniforms in the very same classroom!
My grades: Over all: 5/10 Horror: 3/10 Dialogues: 4/10 Acting: 4/10 Story: 6/10 CGI: 4/10 Ending: 8/10
Thanks for me! Enjoy the movie - try to see it from a different point of view! -
Tokyo-19978 November 2010This is a relatively nice movie for me. This movie deals a lot with friendship among two people, and really does remind me of One Missed Call Final. This movie is original. The entertaining scenes takes place in a train station. The opening scene in this movie is scary. I like the plot used in this movie. I like the cave like setting of this movie. I don't know why this movie is rated so low. The cave like setting for this movie and the use of the train station in this movie is very original. I love the ending in this movie. This movie is a little touching as well. However, there are flaws in this movie. The acting in this movie is a little poor. The GCI effects were very poor except for the last ten minutes. The whole movie was not scary at all. There were only two scenes that were scary. Tension and fear was not built very well in this movie. This movie becomes very melodramatic at times, and its pacing becomes just as slow as a snail,especially the scene where the girl calls her friend using the hand phone. This movie is one of the least scariest Japanese horror movies, but not the worst definitely. This movie shows that a good movie need not be scary. This movie is really entertaining and has some very interesting ideas, like the use of the bracelet being stuck to one of the girl's hand. The train station scene in this movie is nowhere as creepy or spooky as The Red Shoes. This movie is entertaining, though not as great as some of the other J-horrors such as Ringu, Ju-on or One Missed Call.
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kakoilija24 January 2008Oh noes one of these attack of the Japanese ghost girl movies... i don't even remember how many i've seen. maybe it sells... but not to me. not scary at all. the japanese horror movies are have been very similar since the first one of these... also the pulling of the kid. i have seen that pulled under scene so many times in so many horror movies. cellphone scene is also nothing new... the dramaticness of the guy getting hit by a train kinda sucked... i mean it lacked all dramaticness... OK this is for kids 14-16 who listen to japanese rock and think they are so unique... we'll let me tell you. there's a million of you =D this is one of them. 3/10 i've seen worse but you won't be missing anything by NOT seeing this!
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spectral_realmv128 January 2007When i first saw the movie poster for this movie, i expected it to be an extremely generic J-horror film like what most of us have been watching for the past years. I entered the theater not really expecting much plot-wise but more eye candy instead.
The movie started like most J-horrors that roughly tell you the back-story to the film. It was only slightly scary and the "jump" points in this film were few and far between.
Basically, the premise of this film is about a haunted train tunnel and how a girl's brother went missing due to it. The story progresses with the girl acquiring new acquaintances and setting out to solve the mystery of the ghostly sightings.
This is a very generic and expected film so i would say, skip it or get it on home video instead for one of those stay-in days. -
Scarecrow-8818 November 2010"I want what's mine."
A little boy named Takashi picks up a train pass off of the sidewalk and is told by a creepy specter that he will die for doing so. On board a train(all alone which is a no-no), Takashi is carried away from inside the train when it stops temporarily(due to a woman standing on the tracks)setting up the story for GHOST TRAIN. A rookie subway train conductor, Shunichi(Shun Oguri), continues to see the mangled body of a woman, yet when he tells his boss he's considered a little "off in the head" and reduced to working in the station house until he gets his head on straight. Nana(Erika Sawajiri) is the big sister to one of Takashi's classmates, Noriko. Noriko finds the pass and winds up missing. Nana and Noriko's mom has a serious heart problem. Shigeru finds a bracelet while he and some students are riding the subway home and gives it to Kanae(Chinatsu Wakatsuki) as a token of their potential relationship. This bracelet seals the fate of those who touched it like the train pass. Mizunashi tunnel is the place which seems to have been the setting for the fate of the ghost showing up to "kidnap" victims who turn up on "missing persons" boards due to the fact that they were last seen near the subway station. Through all this a friendship develops between Nana and Kanae. A young woman named Yaeko, whose name is on the train pass returned to lost and found over and over, could be responsible. Kawamura also works in the station house, and may know more than he lets on about Yaeko. Kanae narrowly escapes certain death thanks to Kumi(Aya Sugimoto),a woman who lost her son(and eye)to Yaeko. While Nana pursues the mystery in regards to Yaeko, and attempt to find her sister, she'll make another startling revelation within the tunnel, a secret buried deep. The ending is sentimental and saccharine as the power of love and friendship are embellished as Nana faces all sorts of peril and will need the help of others if she is to escape with Takashi intact trying to evade a whole mass of ghouls crawling all throughout the cavernous walls towards them. Shunichi will assist Nana in operating the train as the trio must avoid the ghouls as they descend upon them. What separates this from the formula Onyro films is that the final result strays away from the usual "appeasing the ghost by reconnecting her to whatever has kept her spirit restless all this time since death" because something even more sinister lies inside the walls of the tunnels. A heavy dependence on CGI is quite visible throughout, but Yaeko is quite a creepy presence, particularly in one scene where her reflection appears following Noriko on a window, recorded from a camera in the subway. -
I didn't understood about that the woman without the eye (forgot the name) was the baby on the rails.. What did she had to do with that ghost girl (also forgot the name) who killed everybody? Nana said: so, you killed your own mother.. And then the woman without the eye said: now I can finally see my son. But who was her mother? The ghost girl? You saw that when the ghost girl was still alive she got pushed downstairs on the train, but by whom and why? And how did the baby came on the rails? I really didn't got that. And I also don't think that the baby pushed her down.. It looked like a normal hand. Later it appears she was also just a victim and obviously not the 'big source' of all. But who started this all? Who put all those people there on one pile?
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fedor816 December 2014Yet another Japanese horror flick about a LONG-HAIRED FEMALE GHOST slaughtering people. Once the Japanese get stuck on a shtick, they never ever let go, do they. It's a shame, because there are talented directors in the Land of The Rising Long-Haired Female Ghosts, but the scripts tend to be nearly always clones of one another. After all, the Japanese aren't known for originality.
You gotta love the Japanese though. A girl has just inadvertently killed her own boyfriend (who had attacked her, because possessed by a ghost), and what do her parents do upon picking her up from the police station? They berate her for not taking her school seriously enough. You'd never see this in a Western movie, which is just one of the many reasons why Japanese films are so weird.
A bracelet won't come off – AND your wrist is turning purple and blue underneath it? Ever thought about going to an emergency room? Whether this is a dumb aspect of a badly written film or perhaps something closely related to Japanese culture, I simply don't know. Perhaps it would have been "shameful" for the teeny-bopper to have gone to a doctor "just" for a stuck bracelet and a hand that looks as if it's in advanced stages of gangrene. After all, what's amputation compared to the loss of "face"? What's a little limb-loss compared to being shunned? Meanwhile, the train-station guard is busy covering up all his knowledge about the ghost – just so he can have his crappy job back. It's not as if though he is trying to get back a job as a CEO or something, but as a train-driver, so his stubbornness and unwillingness to help the girls solve the mystery of a fast-climbing number of disappearances (including kids, no less) hits a distinct "duh" note for me. Again, perhaps this is just a Japanese thing: career and social status take precedence over human life, I just don't know.
Eventually, the former train-driver not only joins the effort to solve the mystery, but actually blows up the entrance to Hell (or whatever it is), thinking that this way he'd solved the problem. But did he? Once that station is cleared up of all the rubble (and knowing Japanese expediency, it wouldn't take long) there is no reason why construction workers won't be finding that demonic "entrance" again. Which brings us to the possibility of a sequel. Is there one? I'm not interested.
The BFF sub-plot about the blossoming – and very sudden – friendship between the female protagonist (an awful actress, BTW) and the bracelet-hating teenie-bopper is utterly stupid and completely out-of-place, and comes off as an intrusion perpetrated by a neighbouring teen-drama movie-set.