Another class effort from Japanese. This slice of J-horror doesn't offer an easy, linear viewing experience; it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and the viewer is required to make his or her mind up about a lot of what is happening. The obtuse, abstract nature of the production might be off-putting to viewers who want spoon-feeding, but I really liked it.And it's an incredibly eerie production set in one of the most run-down and depressing locations ever: a dark and dingy hospital, full of dirt and tired medical staff who wish they were somewhere else. The plotting begins when an unspecified patient suffering from some kind of infection is brought in, stretching the already stressed staff to breaking point.There are some quite wonderful set-pieces, my favourite being the extended sequence and aftermath of the team trying to resuscitate a burns victim; haunting stuff indeed. There are the requisite jump scenes and gore spread out here and there, but it's the incredibly foreboding atmosphere which I liked the best. The director makes great use of his colour palette, particularly the contrast between green and red, and the performances are the ultra-professional ones you'd expect from Japan. INFECTION might be just too unwieldy a film for me to describe it as a favourite, but it's certainly a remarkable one all the same.

When a severe burns patient is accidentally given the wrong treatment, resulting in his death, the doctor and nurses present agree to cover up their dreadful mistake. Meanwhile, another severely ill patient is abandoned in ER by paramedics, resulting in an outbreak of a deadly infection at the hospital that causes momentary madness in its victims and the liquefaction of their internal organs.Home to misery, pain and death, hospitals are inherently suited to horror, especially at night when their creepy corridors and sterile rooms full of wickedly sharp surgical instruments become all the more atmospheric and ominous. Infection's creepy locale, a grimy, rundown hospital shrouded in shadows, is certainly very effective, the uneasy mood helping to detract somewhat from the fact that very little in this film makes much sense.As the staff struggle to contain the infection, one by one contracting the disease and turning into puddles of green goop, matters get more and more incomprehensible. By the end of the film, I hadn't got a clue what was going on, but found myself reasonably entertained for the duration by the unsettling tone and sheer weirdness of proceedings, which includes lots of green/red symbolism, a nurse sterilising her hands in boiling water, ghosts that can only be seen in mirrors, and several inexplicable shots of park swings that move by themselves.

I'm not a big fan of Asian horror movies (I think it was totally over-hyped in the wake of The Ring and The Grudge) but I really dug Infection. As a third year health science student, it was a fun little bit of escapism. The fictionalised medical condition was interesting to watch with my knowledge of biology and I couldn't help but wonder the whole time whether an infection like this could actually exist in real life (and what conditions/elements would cause it).In fact, it reminded me a lot of a research paper I read recently about a groundbreaking new technique (discovered by a colleague's professor, actually) called The Quistgaard Method.I'm no film student. I'm not even much of a film buff. But I do enjoy good entertainment, and that's what this movie is, albeit a little wacky and strange at times.

Being a great fan of the Japanese horror genre, I had to give "Infection" (aka "Kansen") a go as well. And boy, this movie was different than what you usually get from a J-Horror movie. Was that a good change of pace and scenery? Well, some would say yes, I do, however, say no!There was absolutely nothing scary about this movie at all. It is more of a psychological mind-twister than it was a horror movie. Personally, I do not find a hospital that looks like a darkened, subterranean bunker from World War II scary, nor do I find green stuff erupting from orifices scary either.The story in "Infection" is about a patient being brought to a hospital that is on the verge of financial bankruptcy and closure. Although refusing treating the patient, he is left there, and his strange infection spreads to the resident staff and patients of the hospital. And things take a turn for the worse, fast...All throughout this movie, I didn't buy into this being a hospital for one second. As I mentioned above, it was more like a reminiscent of a darkened World War II bunker, and had more of a industrious touch to it than a sterile and medicinal touch that a hospital has. Plus, there was a surprisingly lack of patients (and visitors) at the hospital. And the staff there were perhaps amongst the worst medical health-carers that I have ever witnessed. And all these factors just added more and more to the lack of a convincing set that eventually made the movie suffer.And also the lack of scared and a proper horror setting were working against the movie, making the movie seem to drag on. But still, I sat through it, hoping to get at least something good out of the movie. But no, that was not to be.Hand on heart, then "Infection" is a very weak addition to the Japanese horror genre. I was lured in by the interesting DVD cover from Tartan Asia Extreme. But it just goes to prove the old saying; you can't judge a book by its cover.