The story begins with Midori Fukada returning her place of birth, the town of Nanzumi. There is a strange custom in Nanzumi of standing at street corners and covering one's face while asking a passer-by to read one's fortune. This fortune reading, called 'tsuji-ura', is rumoured to have resulted in a suicide many years ago, but regains popularity amongst high school girls who want to find out if their love will be requited. As tsuji-ura becomes popular again in the town, girls report having had their fortunes read by a mysterious handsome youth - and every girl who meets him becomes unbalanced and eventually commits suicide. Midori holds crucial memories about the original suicide which gradually begin to percolate to the surface as she meets her childhood boyfriend, Yusuke, and unravels the mystery of the handsome youth.

Review: Of the Junji Ito stories I have seen translated to film (Uzumaki, Tomie, Tomie: Replay, Lovesick Dead, Nagai Yume), Lovesick Dead is second only to Uzumaki in its success. In fact I am almost certain that the director, Kazuyuki Shibuya, must have consulted Uzumaki's Higechunsky or at the very least borrowed some of his more successful techniques. Stylistically, I think the movie lies somewhere between Uzumaki and Love Letter, with a nostalgic romantic nuance (also present to a lesser degree in Uzumaki) mixed in with gruesome teenage gore. The music isn't quite as bonkers as in Uzumaki, and is bizarrely reminiscent of the music to The Sweet Hereafter in parts, but it is very appropriate to the movie and competently supports the mood.

Unlike the Uzumaki manga, the Lovesick Dead comic is a narrative whole - but narrative from the comics has been largely ignored/changed in this adaptation and only the core theme has been retained. That's probably a good thing, because the budget for this movie looks to have been very small and a faithful reproduction of Lovesick Dead would have been very expensive. As it is, many scenes which probably should have been shot on location (or at least in believable sets) have been filmed in rather dodgy looking studios which make me wonder if they didn't just borrow some old Doctor Who sets. The movie was also apparently filmed during a very overcast period of the summer - or perhaps the white sky is due to humidity and limitations of the filming equipment? - and this cheapens the appearance of the production somewhat.

Computer animation is used extensively for atmospheric effects and although the results are not entirely realistic, I found them adequate and not distracting. In fact there is one scene which takes place during a school assembly and apparently was filmed by having only a handful of actors stand in multiple groupings throughout the auditorium and then superimposing all the shots -- see what I mean about a small budget? How much could high school extras possibly cost? -- Even on the first viewing this scene looked a bit strange, but it was sufficient and I never would have pinpointed exactly what was strange about it without many repeated viewings or watching the DVD extras. The director hasn't entirely eschewed traditional effects, either, and there is a rather disturbing scene with a crumbling wall which benefits greatly from the skillfull use of old-school methods.

Minor quibbles arising from budget constraints aside, the core of the story is quite powerful, the cast is strong, and the brooding sense of growing despair which pervades most of this movie is emotionally true to the original source material. The inclusion of the 'Mold' related plotline is a bonus for Junji Ito fans since 'Mold' could never have stood on its own as a movie, but makes for a pleasantly gruesome addition here.