Japanese feature Best Wishes to All (2023) tackles that country’s problem with its aging population in a fright-fare context that combines folk horror and supernatural elements. The result is an intriguing work that starts off in slow-burn style but delivers a jaw-dropping revelation that kicks off a dizzying whirl of suspense and paranoia.
Kotone Furukawa gives an excellent performance as a young nursing student from Tokyo (all characters in the film are nameless) who visits her grandparents in the small rural town in which she grew up. As a little girl, she was greatly bothered by a locked door in their house so much that it haunted her dreams even as an adult. After her grandparents display decidedly odd behavior — which she at first considers might be dementia — she soon learns that he fears about what might be behind that door were nowhere near what she could imagine.
Director Yūta Shimotsu, working from a screenplay cowritten with Rumi Kakuta, paces the proceedings deliberately, introducing viewers to the young woman’s family and some of the neighbors in the rural town, before ratcheting up the tension. Furukawa’s performance is electric, nailing everything asked of her as her character goes from a confident, kindly person to someone terrified and repulsed by what she witnesses as those around her ply their decidedly dark ways of achieving happiness. She leads a fine cast.
As Shimotsu continues to build the maddening secrets behind the secrets to finding happiness, he also leaves a good deal of ambiguity for viewers to read into as they wish. Best Wishes to All — with Takashi Shimizu (director of Ju-On: The Grudge [2002], this year’s Sana, and 44 other films) serving as executive producer — is weird, shocking, and thought-provoking, and comes highly recommended for fans of J-horror and fear-fare dealing with social issues.
Best Wishes to All screened as part of Japan Society’s Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film, which runs from July 26–August 6 in New York City. For more information, visit www.japansociety.org/film.
