Content Advisory: Self-injurious behavior, Suicide, Excessive or gratuitous violence
A series of deaths are tied to those who dream of an unusual man in This Man. A series of gruesome deaths have been piling up, with the connection between them visiting psychiatrists with reports that they dreamt of a strange man with a unibrow. This affliction soon affects Hana (Arisa Deguchi) and her husband Yoshio (Minehiro Kinomoto), when the former ends up dreaming of the man. Desperate, Hana seeks the help of a local sorcerer to rid herself of the affliction.
This Man Synopsis
The Man is a J-Horror film written and directed by Tomojirô Amano, loosely based on a real urban legend that circulated in Tokyo in the 1990s. The plot comes off as a combination of Ringu and last year’s Dream Scenario, as anyone who dreams of this strange man with a unibrow finds themselves doomed to die a horrific death. This affliction soon affects the protagonists of Hana and Yoshio, whose attempts to circumvent this curse have tragic consequences.
My Thoughts on This Man
On paper, The Man has a premise that could have made for a modern J-Horror classic. However, Tomojirô Amano opts to depict the events in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, with the villain having an incredibly goofy appearance and the reactions of the public to this epidemic of death becoming increasingly ridiculous. Even the use of extreme gore in some of the deaths comes off as incredibly disappointing. This Man is a completely skippable film, other than to mock while watching.