I loved the crazy performances here. I saw this movie many years ago and still remember how bizarre it was. The one scene that stuck with me was the hairdresser and her scissors... I am actually doing a search on Korean horror movies to watch at the moment and came across one called Wig/Scary Hair. (2005)..and the plot sounds very similar so I am guessing this Japanese one was inspired by the Korean one! If anyone has seen both, which one was done better?

This is the first movie I've seen with Chiaki Kuriyama playing the lead.Okay, how can all the hair appear the way they do ? The way they shows up is totally unbelievable. Then the Yamazaki character is also unbelievable. I didn't like the owner of the beauty salon at all either. She was totally selfish in that she indulged herself as the owner of the shop.This movie is a caricature of Japanese's propensity to be cruel to one another. The problem of "Ijime" (Treating others without mercy) is quite a phenomenon there, both in schools, and in society. This movie vividly depicts the society that has this nature at its core. Combined with above unbelievability, and also making jokes out of cruel situation makes it an awful combination.Everyone in this movie were so cold and selfish. I would have loved to see Kiyomi get her comeuppances.This movie really shows the bad side of Japan, like "Perawan" (Virgin) did for Indonesia. Recommended for viewing to see the bad side of another society.

Positively bizarre supernatural Japanese horror regarding killer hair extensions! A female corpse is found engulfed in hair, her organs removed by those black market surgeons, and becomes the immediate fixation of a nutty mortician who kidnaps her body taking it home with him. Enamoured with her hair, Gunji Yamazaki(Ren Osgui) begins furnishing salons "samples" with horrifying results. The film focuses on hair stylist Yuko Mizushima(Chiaki Kuriyama), a young apprentice in a salon whose cruel sister, Kiyomi(Tsugumi)drops in unannounced to cause disturbance, leaving behind an abused daughter, Mami(Miku Sato)while embarking in a relationship with a sleazy lover at night. Yuko and Mami form a bond as Kiyomi is away ruining her life, while the hair extensions used from the dead girl cause death to customers. The extensions carry the hostile feelings of the dead girl and those who happen to wear the hair are recipients of the vengeance she so desperately harbors. Soon Yamazaki will drop off samples at the salon for which Yuko works bringing the separate stories together. Also, Yamazaki, with an unhealthy obsession with hair, is drawn to Yuko and Mami and wishes to possess what they have..beautiful hair, of course. We also follow two detectives pursuing the one responsible for kidnapping the corpse and how their search will soon lead to Yuko and Yamazaki. Unsettling violence to human victims mainly displaying how hair bursts from body orifices and wounds, increasing in size as it flows out, often wrapping around arms and throats, out eye sockets, even bleeding when cut by scissors. The film really gets serious with Mami's neglect at the hands of a monstrous mother, whose presence yields nothing but anguish and misery. That bitch gets hers, though. Chiaki Kuriyama is a very likable lead with a wonderful smile that lights up the screen, and a pleasant disposition that is a direct opposite of her polarizing sister. The film grows darker and darker as Yamazaki becomes more and more unhinged, his home besieged by the corpses hair as it grows following fits of anger during violent acts towards victims. You just have to see this to believe it!

I have a good time watching works like this. Films like these use visual, and symbolic codes specifically directed to a certain dark piece of audience, who is willing to live a life in films outside the most widespread conventions, and accept what comes with that. One of the thing i like the most when watching such a piece in a public venue (usually crowded with the hard fans of these kinds of productions) is to observe how those fans respond to certain conventions inside the 'genre'. To me, because i only make occasional visits, it's something equivalent to visiting a foreign country, i observe how people behave, what's mood of the place i'm visiting.Inside those alternative conventions, this is a good film, i suppose. At least it made it for me, to the point of wanting to know more work of this director. He has a vision, in the middle of this kind of capillary horror, he has an interesting concept which spreads clearly and embraces the film, as much as the hair embraces all the characters.Hair as open channels. Hair as an element to connect people, to connect lives, and past lives. And to share death. It's an effective narrative device. The dead hair growing girl works as a kind of noir agent, someone who controls the action, but we are the whole time inside the device (we had to be to make the whole thing credible, and also because it was important for the creators and for the genre to explore the one-eyed dead girl). She manipulates through hair, and has a human puppet who delivers hair, and makes the whole thing work. That silly man is her hands in the street, giving death randomly. That agent believes all the way that he controls her, but we come to understand it's the other way around.This clear storytelling strategy makes the film pleasant enough to me. It's a solid production work, the stop-motions were made with competence, and you will enjoy this if you like to explore interesting storytelling and if you're willing to accept, at least for 2 hours, the conventions of this corner in film universe (that if you're not already inside it).My opinion: 3/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com