Wednesday, May 11, 2011

PRAYER BEADS

Prayer Beads is a 2004 Japanese horror TV series directed by Masahiro Okano. The complete series comprises a total of 9 stories ranging from horror to fantasy and drama.

*First Bead: Prayer Beads (director: Masahiro Okano).
Miki, a very depressive woman, whose two miscarriages and the mysterious disappearance of her husband keep her very stressed out., receives the visit of friend Hiroko, who herself has become pregnant. Later is revealed that the women are experiencing bizarre hallucinations and there is a mysterious connection among them.
*Second Bead: Vending Machine Woman  (director: Shigehito Kawata).
A couple of youngsters decide to take a field trip on a remote mountain cabin. But since the very first moment they arrive, they learn it is a bad idea to leave the house after dark due to a local superstition. In need of water and refreshment, they head out into the night looking for a store. Soon, they find an old and seemingly abandoned vending machine with a few remaining cans of a certain beverage. Later, the couple realize that the energy drink is more addictive than any other, and it's due to really gruesome reasons.
*Third Bead: It's Me  (director: Naoki Kusumoto)
Yuki and his friend, a couple of yakuza wannabes,  decide to embark on a phone scam in which they target the elderly. The fraud consist on calling and saying "It's me", to which the victim suggests a name. With such name, they make up an emergency that requires the victim to receive money. The finish by stating that someone will collect the cash. However, things go awfully wrong when one of the victims seems to know one of the crooks.
*Fourth Bead: Real (director: Masahiro Okano).
After the strange, self-destructive behavior of one of his co-workers, and his increasing migraines, an otherwise aspiring surgeon finds his career on the edge of breakdown. Following the only way that seems clear to him, he decides to subject himself to back-alley psychedelics whose horrific visions he will soon understand.
*Fifth Bead: Mushroom Hunting (director: Masahiro Okano)Some friends at a chat-room decide to meet for the first time and go on a field-trip into the wild to collect edible mushrooms. After a long drive, they meet an mysterious man who warns them into going to a certain shack apparently inhabited by a witch. To their bad luck, the friends stumble upon the house where they decide to spend the night. Soon, they discover the severity of the mysterious warning.
*Sixth Bead: Eddie (director: Toshikatsu Kubo).When all of a sudden, a cute seal-like creature appears in the Edo River, the locals and the media decide to dub it Eddie. Soon after, people in the surroundings start to go missing to later appear headless. It looks as though little Ikuo, a local kid, is destined to be the only one suspecting there is something wrong about Eddie. 
*Seventh Bead: Echoes (director: Naoki Kusumoto).
After realizing that Yumika, a beautiful young girl, was violently murdered at the hands of a gangster, her grandparents decide to track the thug down an plot revenge. It looks like a rather difficult task, however these old folks have a weapon of uncanny and formidable skills.
*Eighth Bead: Cat's Paw (director: Masahiro Okano).
Young Shota's life is dismal indeed. His father is abusive, his parents fight endlessly, he's bullied at school; but one day, he stumbles upon a children's cartoon that promises special results. The cartoon's main character, a humorous cat-like samurai that goes by the name Nyan-chan, promises a cartoon character boy, also named Shota, to grant three wishes. It is not long until real-life Shota discovers that the cartoon overlaps his own life and that having his wishes granted can have strange results. 
*Ninth Bead: Apartment (director: Masahiro Okano)
In the final Bead, an abusive father and husband brings his family to a breaking point. This final story tries to tie up together all the prior tales as pieces in a puzzle.

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