That was pretty damn creepy. It's not without a few scenes of tits and arse, but it's mostly J-horror and a good deal scarier than most of them.

Michiru is going to marry her colleague, Shunya. We see them consummate their relationship... but then she goes home alone, late at night. In a multi-storey car park, a clown is waiting for her. No one else, just Michiru and this weirdo in a red outfit and garish red make-up, with a balloon. I'm reminded of Stephen King's IT, which also famously has a killer clown with balloons. This definitely isn't Pennywise, but his balloon is just as red and I notice that this film was released in the same year as the start of the recent two-part IT adaptation with Bill Skarsgard.

This possibly supernatural clown is performing for an audience of no-one, in a depressing location after dark. This is kind of disturbing even before he sees Michiru, does a strange grinning dance and starts following her. I started freaking out when his balloon appeared on her bedroom ceiling. Evil things follow, leading to a suicide.

Thereafter, the ghosts start coming.

Daisuke Yamanouchi understands J-horror ghosts, which can occasionally almost overlap with zombies. They're sinister as hell and they're watching you. Can they kill? It seems likely.

The living humans might be worse, though. They betray each other and sleep with the wrong people. Yes, a clown under your bed is terrifying and will probably lead to a one-way trip over a balcony, but there's something uniquely chilling about seeing a man kill a girl who loves him for no reason except being married. He slips behind her and urgh, then finishes it with a spade.

This is nasty, unsettling horror with a grim view of human nature and a twisted ending. It's a road to evil. What the hell is that clown? Why does he take that girl on a pleasant-looking boat ride on the river? He might be connected with the ghosts, but he's also a rapist who caused this whole tragedy. This is quite an impressive film, I think, with quite an interesting treatment of J-horror ghosts. The sex scenes will pull it into the pink film ghetto and stop it from reaching a wider audience, but it scared me.