Otoshimono

Litterly translated to Lost property. The title is fitting to the story, more on that later on.
Otoshimono is however the title of the 2006 japanese horror movie named Ghost train in the western part of the world.

Erika Sawajiri plays Nana, an high school girl whos little sister, Noriko, has gone missing in the subway tunnels. Noriko have just like Takashii, an 10 year old boy, picked up an lost passport in the subway.
Takashii and Noriko have encountered a ghost/spirit who repititly says; Give it back, give it back.

Not only is Otoshimono a great scary visual ghost story, it also has some other elements to it. The word Ghost train ( a spiritual entity), is a ”paranormal phenomenon describing phantom trains”, so to put this story in this environment, a subway tunnel, is a smart idea.










You also have to clearly looking for details in this to get the whole story. As for the number 507 on the train when Nana goes to locate her sister, the numbers is indeed Not a coincidence. In japanese the numbers 5 and 7 is pronounced as ”Go” and ”Nana”. Someone clearly doesn´t want Nana to go where she is going. Coincidences you might think?

To understand this perfectly, you need to understand that the japanese do believe that ghosts and spirits exists. You may not believe in it/them (the ghosts) yourself, but it surely helps to get more out of the japanese horror movies or horror stories in general.
Also the ending is something that wouldn´t have been made as it is in any other country then in Japan. Without giving to much away, this is my take on why it ended as it did.
The repeatatly building of tunnels, you have to dig deep in the earth and by shintoism doctrine the earth more or less is the spirit and the main entity to worship.

Not only this can be seen in the ending, also it can be seen in the phile of human bodies that have been lost along the subway rail and its tracks.
The satanic symbol that appears on the faces of the missing persons photos, a clear hint to what director/screenwriter Takeshi Furusawa wanna say.
Also, as stated in the beginning of this text Otoshimono means Lost property.
Yaeko, the spirit that lurks in the subway system has been exposed to a crime when she was a human and now tries to avenge the wrongs done to her. As in many ghost stories a special object is used to help the spirit/ghost get in touch with the normal living world.
In Otoshimono it is not only a train ticket it is also a bracalet that Anema is given to by her boyfriend. Anema recievs it with the lie that Shigeru (the boyfriend) has purchased it after some part time work, this surely upsets Yaeko.
Yaeko gets her revenge - Give it back, give it back.

As much as it is a ghost story about revengefull ghosts, Otoshimono is in some parts a sad story wich most of these japanese horror movies are. The ghosts are not 100% evil, they have a reason for their evil doing.
Ghost stories told the japanese way may not fit everyone becouse of these terms; no one is completely evil.
We who do know and understand this, we like movies like this more and appriciate them better.
Obsession and the will and hunger for possesing things (material needs) may bring a downfall for you, in one way or another.

The only complain I have is the use of CGI effects.

In some scenes it works, but overall it looks bad, really bad to be honest. However, that is not something that should keep you from avoiding this movie.

So if haven´t allready, get Otoshimono.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- A strange looking woman told me I´ll die soon. Because, I picked this up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trailer presented by Erika Sawajiri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22jRyZ0KA6I