Hanako of the Toilet is one of Japan's most famous ghosts, but this film is simple and cheap-looking. The actors aren't great and the camerawork isn't trying to get the best from them. It'll stand back for bland mid-shots instead of approaching for close-ups. The film's not scary until almost the end.

Its story, though, is quite interesting. The characters startled me.

Hiiragi Hanako has transferred to a new school and she's about to get bullied... but she's almost asking for it. When her new classmates tried to talk to her, she ignored them and went on reading her book. When a boy tries to protect her, she doesn't thank him and instead says it's none of his business. Does she even want to be helped? In fact, though, there are bad (i.e. lethal) things in her past that explain her attitudes. She doesn't think she's even allowed to have fun. The film doesn't make us care as much as we should about what happens to her at the end, but even so. Bloody hell.

The three mean schoolgirls startled me. They don't even regard their bullying as bullying. When their teacher asks them to stop, they don't acknowledge her interpretation of events and deny that they're in the wrong... despite among themselves at one point saying, "Next time, let's tease her in a way that doesn't draw blood."

Yoshioka-sensei, their teacher, is useless. She means well, but she's so wet that she can't impose authority on fourteen-year-olds. Her colleagues, though, are disgusting. They're so relaxed about bullying that it looks like approval. They tell Yoshioka to turn a blind eye and stop rocking the boat.

DISGUSTING-SENSEI #1: "Yoshioka, stop it."

USELESS-SENSEI: "Why? I'm just warning Yamamoto and her friends to stop bullying."

DISGUSTING-SENSEI #2: "Her parents are angry because a teacher is favouring a student."

There are black-and-white flashbacks from Hanako's past. Despite the death, the most horrifying thing is the cheating husband's expression on seeing that his wife was standing there all along. World class knob. There are surprisingly good (although understated) special effects for the ghost hands, weird shudder-faces, etc. These days, even low-budget films can do well by being clever about their CGI.

What puzzles me, though, is the newspaper on the classroom windows when Hanako arrives. What was that? Bomb threat? An emergency measure after vandalism? Was there an accident, or a leak? It's never explained. Incidentally, I'd been assuming that this was a rural school with only a few students, but we'll learn that the school's mildly eccentric founder had admirable goals that didn't work out as expected.

As filmmaking, this film is mediocre. Most of the cast never acted again, I think, and they're child actors anyway. (Well, early teens.) Unusually, these junior high school characters are being played by actors their own age. (The director isn't a dead loss, though. I'm not a fan of the cinematography, but it ensures that his inexperienced cast don't wreck the film, while I like the special effects, the flashback and the atmosphere in general.) The script, though, is interesting. The scriptwriters have pretty solid CVs, incidentally. The characterisation managed to shock me, while as for that ending...