It's a Tetsuya Nakashima horror film, but it's also so much more than that. It's about parenthood and children. I imagine almost anyone of the right age would recognise someone in this story, be it:

1. HIDEKI TAHARA, who loves fatherhood, practically worships his daughter and would explode with fury if you called him a bad parent. Played by Satoshi Tsumabuki, who's brilliant at being charming, friendly and flawed. He's very relatable... but also insensitive.

2. KANA TAHARA, Hideki's wife, who understands all too well what this "perfect father" looks like underneath. He's a self-centred piece of shit. Mind you, she goes somewhere even worse. She's always hated her own (appalling) mother, so guess what she turns into. That's not even ironic. It happens in real life.

...and those are just two of the film's characters. There's so much here. Mothers who hate their children. People who never wanted children to begin with and might have chosen abortion. Others who love children and would have made a wonderful mother, but can't conceive (for a horrifying reason). See also the slightly bitchy comments from man-chasers at Hideki and Kana's wedding. There are happy children, or abused children, or hypothetical children you didn't want because the whole thing's a burden but they'll come to you anyway as ghosts and discuss their own non-existence.

...and there's a bogeyman. They call it the Bogiwan, but hell. Let's call it the bogeyman, because you really, really don't want it coming for you.

I dislike the official translation of the simple, evocative Japanese title, incidentally. "It comes" is a slightly misleading conjugation. It gets used for bus timetables and so on. It comes on Mondays at 3pm, etc. I'd have chosen "it's coming", although even "it'll be here in a moment" would have fitted better.

Despite its supernatural and psychic elements, this is a grounded, realistic film. It's much more like Confessions (including a role for that film's Takako Matsu) than it is like Paco and the Magical Book. I watched it back-to-back with The World of Kanako, which was a mistake since that other film is restless, compelling and explosive. That's a hard act to follow, even for Nakashima himself. In contrast, this is a sober, clear-eyed character study that's capable of being somewhat uncomfortable (while also having the odd gore scene).

It's one of the best J-horror films ever made, although I don't think it tops the best of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Ringu and Ju-on are scarier, but this is also a serious work of both art and literature. It's not fun, but it's saying brutal things about a subject that couldn't be more personal. If you have children, you'll wince.

And I love the ending. (Thankfully. I'd been bracing myself for something gruelling.)