Seance

Perhaps because it's inspired by a novel (Mark McShane's Seance on a Wet Afternoon, previously filmed in Britain), this is one Kurosawa film which doesn't fall apart before the end. But the gain in coherence is balanced by distinct shortfalls in excitement and energy. This is a routine B-movie with a better cast than it has any right to expect. Koji (Yakusho) is a sound recordist working on location who improbably fails to notice that one of his equipment boxes doubles in weight - a young girl has escaped from kidnappers and hidden herself inside. By the time he finds her, she's unconscious. His wife Junko (Fukubi), a screwed-up psychic who sometimes works with the police, suggests a scam: she will boost her career and her morale by 'seeing' clues that will eventually lead to the recovery of the girl. But the film feels clunky well before the scam starts to go seriously wrong.