Toire no Hanako-san (film)
| Hanako-san of the Toilet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
_(1995)_poster.jpg) Promotional release poster | |||||
| Japanese name | |||||
| Kanji | トイレの花子さん | ||||
| |||||
| Directed by | Jōji Matsuoka | ||||
| Written by | Takuro Fukuda Jōji Matsuoka | ||||
| Produced by | Haruo Umekawa | ||||
| Starring | Takayuki Inoue Ai Maeda Yuka Kōno Etsushi Toyokawa Nene Ohtsuka | ||||
| Distributed by | Shochiku | ||||
Release date |
| ||||
Running time | 95 minutes | ||||
| Country | Japan | ||||
| Language | Japanese | ||||
Toire no Hanako-san (
Plot
On her first day at a new school, a young
Wanting to see if Mizuno truly is Hanako-san, Mizuno's classmates decide to lock her in the last stall in the girls' bathroom overnight, surmising that, if she is still there in the morning, she must not be Hanako-san. Unbeknownst to Mizuno's classmates, the child killer is lurking around the school, and he eventually confronts Mizuno and one of her friends. The real Hanako-san appears, and is revealed to be a benevolent spirit. She summons a mob of students to the school, and they surround the killer, preventing him from escaping until the police and other adults arrive.
Cast
- Takayuki Inoue as Takuya Sakamoto
- Ai Maeda as Natsumi Sakamoto
- Yuka Kōno as Saeko Mizuno[2]
- Etsushi Toyokawa as Yuji Sakamoto
- Nene Ohtsuka as Yuriko Suzuki
- Chiaki Kuriyama as Little Child
Critical reception
In his book Flowers from Hell: The Modern Japanese Horror Film, author Jim Harper writes: "Although it's difficult to imagine American or European parents allowing their offspring to watch a film in which young children are terrorized by a serial killer, Toire no Hanako-san is easily the best of the Japanese horror movies aimed at pre-teen audiences."[3]
References
- ^ Jacoby & Richie 2008, p. 2002.
- ^ a b Harper 2009, p. 19.
- ^ Harper 2009, p. 20.
Sources
- Harper, Jim (2009). Flowers from Hell: The Modern Japanese Horror Film. Noir Publishing. ISBN 978-0953656479.
- Jacoby, Alexander; Richie, Donald (foreword) (2008). A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. ISBN 978-1933330532.
