The Last Coffin (Saigo no Hitsugi) review

In what can only be described as either an obsessive-compulsive need to finish what I started or blatant masochism I’ve decided to continue reviewing last year’s Laguna Productions J-horror DVD releases. For my previous reviews, as well as a preview of what you’re getting yourself into, see Ghost Gate and Demon Hunting.

Toru Kamei (Woman Transformation, Double Suicide Elegy) cut his teeth in the Japanese movie industry as an assistant director on films like Gun Crazy and Antenna. In 2002 he got his first chance to direct in the forgettable erotic V-cinema release Ai Haji Haha (Mother Love Shame). It wasn’t until Series Kyoufu Yawa, a six episode horror series that aired on TV in the summer of 2003 that he got a shot at directing what could pass as a legitimate movie. The third episode of the series, The Last Coffin, was Kamei’s entry. And if nothing else it stands head and shoulders above the first two. Although that conclusion may be partly biased due to the fact that this time around Laguna mercifully included the original Japanese track instead of forcing an awful dub on us - one of my biggest gripes about the first two releases.

In The Last Coffin Rena Komine plays Chiri, a seemingly perma-sullen girl who hates her family and refuses to go back to school. Luckily for her she has a friend named Satsuki (Miyu Watase) who puts up with her sulking and lets her stay in her apartment. Satsuki’s boyfriend Seijiro (Naoyuki Chiba) isn’t exactly thrilled with the arrangement, but he deals with it.

Recently a strange crossword puzzle has begun circulating to people around Chiri. First, Seijiro’s co-worker at a meat packing plant gets one. He diligently fills in the answers on his phone and upon pressing send he’s informed that his reward for solving the puzzle is a coffin. Confused but ultimately indifferent, he decides to check the freezer before locking up. Suddenly the door slams behind him and the temperature is lowered, leaving him to scream and pound his fists while slowly freezing to death. Several more murders occur after completion of the crossword puzzle, including Satsuki. Each time, the corpse is dragged off and placed in a wooden coffin which is sealed shut by a creepy hooded figure.

Chiri’s strange nightmares and recurring bouts with amnesia seem to suggest that she could be the killer herself, but why would she kill the few people that are nicest to her? Slowly childhood memories are triggered in Chiri and she decides to seek out the building that keeps popping up in her distorted mind, somehow sensing that it’s the key to her lost memories. She’s right, but she may not be prepared for what she finds there.

The Last Coffin can best be described as a sloppy rough draft of a really good horror film. All the elements are in place, and yet not quite up to par. With a few modest rewrites to the script and cleaner cinematography (keep the crew’s limbs out of the shot, please) this film actually could have been pretty good. Even so, for a directorial debut in a low budget made-for-TV movie it is certainly a passable horror flick and not at all excruciating to sit through like some of the others of its ilk.

This is a horror film that goes for atmosphere over scares and while that can be effective in some cases, in this particular case it leads to a good deal of meandering along the same predictable path without ever delivering a legitimate payoff. You can see the inevitable plot twist coming fairly early on even though certain plot inconsistencies are strewn throughout the film to throw you off. But given the recent drought in horror coming out of Japan in recent years you could do worse that checking this one out, if for no other reason than the lack of good alternatives.

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