Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I had been intrigued by Shikoku for a while. The plot sounded interesting and the movie featured Chiaki Kuriyama (Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill Vol. 1), so I finally decided to give it a chance. The summary on the back of the DVD case ("Hinako returns to her childhood home on the island of Shikoku after many years. She learns that her childhood friend Sayori has passed away and the Sayori's mother, a local priestess, has slowly gone insane with grief. When strange things begin to happen on the island, Hinako and old friend Funiya learn that Sayori's mother has spent ears conducting a pilgrimage around each of the island's 88 temples in reverse order, which, according to folklore, is supposed to release the spirits of the dead and turn the island into the 'land of the dead'"), however, is very misleading.Had the movie actually followed this plot description, Shikoku might have been a much better movie. Instead, we are treated to one of the dullest, most inane love stories I've had the misfortune to see (I suppose a love-triangle story would be a more appropriate description). What little horror there is in Shikoku comes from the fact that one of the participants in the love-triangle is dead. But, any real scenes of horror are too few and far between. And the other characters' reactions to the moments of horror are totally unbelievable. Once the two non-dead characters see the ghost of their dead friend, do they seem alarmed, surprised, or frightened? - NO! Based on their reactions you would think that seeing ghosts was just another part of their incredibly boring existence.I will admit, however, that there are parts of Shikoku that I enjoyed. Regardless of whether you're a fan of the new wave of Asian horror or not, it would be hard for anyone to disagree with how beautiful most of these movies are. Despite it's flaws, Shikoku is another beautiful Asian horror movie. And if you're a fan of Ju-on style horror, some of the movie might appeal to you. The few subtle moments of horror are beautifully filmed and genuinely creepy. Finally, although it's underdeveloped, the whole subplot of the mother trying to bring her dead daughter back to life is interesting. There's a good, entertaining movie here somewhere. It's too bad we didn't see it.

I'll be the first to point out that if you're a fan of the 'Ju On' series of films or something similar, you may find this a disappointment. It has a few creepy moments but overall it moves a steady, gentle pace to allow for the story to unfold. The 3 main characters at the foreground of this movie (Sayori, Hinako, and Fumiya) are each quite intriguing and flawed. But i'd have to say the character of Sayori is the most developed and faceted while the other 2 merely support her and the plot.Now this was not a complaint of mine but of the boyfriend that watched this picture with me. So this may bother other would-be viewers. It is mostly shot with what seems to be a hand-held camera so it will wobble and shake. (Please correct me on this as I am unfamiliar with the many cameras and styles of shooting.) In specific moments of the movie, it seemed to add to the suspense. I thought they did a fair job of setting the mood as well. There were just a couple of times where say background music that had been edited in seemed to loud or didn't quite settle in with the flow of events. Particularly during some personal exchanges between Hinako and Fumiya.The basic premise of this movie is set around Hinako, whom moved away from Shikoku as a little girl and has returned to take care of family business. She left behind 2 childhood friends, Sayori and Fumiya, that she was hoping to see again as well. Unfortunately she finds out that Sayori died when she was in high school and her mother, the local priestess lost her mind and has been on this pilgrimage for the past 8 years to visit the 88 temples on the island. Naturally strange things begin to happen once Hinako has started to settle in. She and Fumiya together start to investigate. Much to their horror, they find out that this pilgrimage Sayori's mother has been doing is apart of a ritual which would turn the island into the land of the dead!

Really liked this movie, throughout it of course I was saying, "who is she? I've seen that actress before!" At the end of the movie, found out it was Go-Go Yubari from Kill Bill Vol. 1. This movie, like most Japanese horror movies was quite strange, but was also quite picturesque and well done. I kept expecting some sort of wild twist in the movie, but it never really came. There was a lot of guesswork as to who did what to whom, but the story was actually quite a bit simpler than that, and by the end, almost sweet. I highly recommend that you go to the foreign section of your video store and see if they have this movie. Although its quite old (1999) they may have the newly released DVD in stock. I can see why Chiaki Kuriyama has had so many film roles since this one, she definitely deserves it. (you can also find her in Ju-On, aka The Grudge, I believe she's the crazy girl in that one...)

Teenage girl Hinako returns to her home village on the Japanese island of Shikoku (which she left for Tokyo with her parents when she was a little girl) for the first time. Back then, a girl named Sayori and a boy named Fumiya were her best friends. Now Hinako meets Fumiya again, but Sayori died when she was 16. Hinako soon discovers that strange things are going on. Sayori's mother, a priestess, wants to bring her daughter back from the dead. 88 temples circle the fog-shrouded island as a seal to protect its inhabitants from the dead. But by traversing the temples in reverse order for every year of a deceased person's life, the seals can be undone and the dead person will come back to life. And Sayori's mother is about to travel the temples for the 16th time...Shikoku is the smallest of the four big Japanese islands (the others are Honshû, Kyûshû, and Hokkaidô). Written in Kanji, "Shikoku" means "island of the four lands", but the title of this film changes the first Kanji - you still read it "Shikoku", but now it means "island of the dead". This island is still a remote place far away from the great Japanese cities, there are large, fog-shrouded forests and mountains and it makes a great setting for an eerie ghost story. The film was released together with Hideo Nakata's "The Ring 2" and produced by the same company, Asmik-Ace Entertainment. Beautifully filmed and filled with atmosphere and some very spooky moments, this is a highly recommended modern "shinrei-mono" (ghost story).