Gekijōban Zero

Gekijōban Zero
Poster
Directed by	Mari Asato
Based on	Fatal Frame by Tecmo (game series) and Eiji Ōtsuka (novel)
Starring	Ayami Nakajō Aoi Morikawa
Release dates	26 September 2014 (2014-09-26)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Gekijōban Zero (劇場版 零〜ゼロ〜, lit. Fatal Frame / Project Zero The Movie) is a 2014 Japanese lesbian romance horror film directed by Mari Asato, starring Ayami Nakajō and Aoi Morikawa and based on a novelization by Eiji Ōtsuka of the Fatal Frame video game series. It was released on 26 September 2014.

Plot

Aya Tsukimori, the most popular girl at a Catholic school in a small town, suddenly shut herself in her room and won't come out. One of Aya's admirers, Kasumi Nohara, starts to miss her and one night kissed her photo right before midnight as the rumour about a curse that affects only girls started to spread in the school. One day, Risa Suzumori and Itsuki Kikunobe skipped school and begins to discuss a rumour in their school about a recent popular ritual; if you kiss a photo of the one you love, you will be together with the said person. Mary, a former student of their school, explains the origin of the rumour, but Itsuki dismisses it since Mary never actually graduated. During gardening period, Michi, Kasumi's close friend, takes a break with Kasumi and takes her to the forest for a walk. However, while discussing about Aya, Kasumi suddenly disappeared. At night, Michi, sneaks into Kasumi's room and finds Aya's photo and decides to keep it. The next day, during class, Michi sees Aya outside the classroom, but the others doesn't seem to notice her. Aya then whispers into Michi to 'free her from her curse' and Michi collapses shortly after the class was over. Risa and Itsuki helps Michi into her room and discovers Aya's photo and placed it at the chapel until Kasumi return. Risa then sees a vision of Aya, also telling her to free her from her curse before finding herself trying to kiss Aya's photo at the chapel.

Michi, Risa, and Itsuki discusses this event and realises that the three of them also experienced the same vision. This panicked Itsuki who then has another vision of Aya approaching her before finding herself once again trying to kiss Aya's photo, but is interrupted by Risa's arrival. Before Risa could kiss the photo, Itsuki snatched and kissed the photo right before midnight. The next day, the same as Kasumi, the Headmistress announces that Itsuki went missing. Suddenly, Michi has vision of Aya floating in front of them as most of the students, one by one, collapses, including Michi. One of the nuns, Mayumi Asou, discovers one of the students' cellphone has the photo of Aya that taken from the photo at the chapel, which spread the curse and the following days, several students disappeared. A few days afterwards, Mary's son, Susumu Kusanagi, found Itsuki's body floating in the river, as well as the bodies of four other students including Kasumi. Fearing that they will share the same fate, Michi and Risa sleep together to make sure none of them will disappear, but Risa has already gone when Michi awakes. Michi has another vision of Aya and was about to kiss Aya's photo, only to be stopped by the real Aya who explains that she has a dream of a girl who looks just like her drowning and pleads to be freed from her curse. Deciding to break the curse, they seeks answer from Mary, whose real name is Kazumi Kusanagi. She explains that since Meijin era, same-sex relationships are strictly forbidden, and those who were found out to commit such act will be forced to separate, so the girls decides to practice a ritual by placing their photo side by side in the shrine and kissing their partner's photo before commit suicide together by drowning themselves in a lake so they can be reunited in the afterlife. The curse originated from two girls who decided to commit suicide together, but one survived, resulting with the dead one to haunt her lover.

Risa is later found walking in daze by Kuro Karatsu and Keiko Makino and is taken back to the school. Kuro, who is an Itako, helps Risa regaining her soul back as she reveals that she needs to go to the girl who look like Aya and save her from her curse. Deciding to end the curse for good, Michi uses herself as a bait by kissing the ghost's photo while Aya follows her, but got separated by an earthquake. While looking for Michi, Aya encounters Takashi Asou, Mayumi's younger brother, who was startled when he saw her and knocks her out, throwing her into reservoir. Meanwhile, Michi, who was about to enter the reservoir, is stopped by Mayumi and taken to the river to be drowned, but is stopped by Takashi's arrival. Realizing that Takashi went to the reservoir and threw another girl, Mayumi goes to the reservoir with Takashi following her. However, on their way, Takashi fell into the river and due to his crippled right foot caused him to drown. Mayumi was about to help him until the searching team that sent to find the girls are nearby and let him drowned. At the reservoir, Aya finally meets the ghost who resembles her and remembers that the ghost is Maya, her twin sister that she was unable to save from drowning. Maya explains that she was cursed when she died and the curse can only be broken once she and Aya met. Finally remember everything, Aya promises Maya that she will never leave her side anymore, but Maya tells her that she was already dead and Aya needs to live in her place. Maya's body changes back into a skeleton, ending the curse. Michi, regaining consciousness, helps Aya from the reservoir.

The police investigation reports the discovery of Mayumi and Takashi's corpse as well as Maya's in the reservoir, concluding that Takashi was the one who killed Maya and Mayumi tries to protect her brother by killing all the students who went near the reservoir and they committed suicide together when they were found out. At the graduation ceremony, Mary visits the Headmistress and recognises her as one of the two girls who started the curse. The Headmistress admits that she and her lover intended to die together by drowning themselves in the reservoir, but she hesitated at the last moment and let her lover died. As she ages, her lover's ghost told her to free her from her curse. Thinking that the curse will be broken if she offer a sacrifice, she chose between Aya and Maya, orphaned twins. She offered one of them a comfortable life while the other one die at the reservoir. Maya volunteered since she's the older one and is thrown into the reservoir. Aya tried to help her, but the Headmistress stopped her from helping Maya, thus revealing she was the one who killed Maya, not Takashi.

After the graduation ceremony, Michi tells Aya she decides to go to Tokyo and learn photography, while Aya decides to stay in the town. As farewell present, Michi asks Aya to allow her to take her photo since she didn't get a chance before. Borrowing Susumu's camera, Michi is about to take Aya's photo until she sees through the camera lens the spirits of her schoolmates who have died are smiling beside Aya. Michi decides not to take a picture, but instead tells Aya that she will comes back to take her photo properly after she studied hard in Tokyo, and Aya promises to wait for her return.

Cast

• Ayami Nakajō as Aya Tsukimori
• Aoi Morikawa as Michi Kazato
• Minori Hagiwara as Waka Fujii

Reception

The film has grossed ₩213 million in South Korea.

Richard Eisenbeis from Kotaku gave the film a positive review. He commented that the best aspect of the movie is the way in which it is told. Rather than focusing solely on Michi, the movie constantly shown the story through many viewpoints other than her own, which intertwining with each other and slowly expose the truth behind the mystery in the film. He found it interesting that a large portion of the story revolves around being a lesbian in Japan not only during the modern era, but also at Meiji era. He also noted that the movie's "intensely creepy and atmospheric" tone are what builds the fear, a feat many horror films could not hope to accomplish. However, he has a mixed review for the lack of ghost killing via camera in the film, which is supposed to be one of pivotal elements in the game franchise. Nevertheless, he noted that the movie is a film very much worthy of the Fatal Frame name, and stated that "if you are a fan of Fatal Frame or Japanese horror in general, this is most certainly a film to watch."

External links

• (Japanese)
• Zero at IMDb