Shirai (シライサン) is a horror film written and directed by Japanese writer Otoichi under his real name Anda Kangao, so it naturally has a considerable degree of appeal to those who are familiar with Otoichi's works.
Seriously, from the story concept, "White Well" does have its own interesting points. The core elements of Oichi's design for this film are quite a combination of Japanese classical weird talk and modern urban legends, and even combine the elements of "Midnight Bell" (リング), so that people can see how the contagious curse, from the past word of mouth, to the possibility of having the opportunity to spread to the world in an instant, is to consider the impact of the change of the times on horror stories, to a very light weight into the "White Well" for a little discussion, so whether it is the weird talk itself as the core of the plot, Or how the characters cope with the plot to have a better chance of survival, etc., can be called quite interesting.
But unfortunately, these advantages, under the sum, can not cover the rest of the shortcomings of "White Well" in the end.
As far as the performance medium of the film is concerned, the most difficult problem of "Shirai" is that among the overall actors, except for Someya Shotai and Mizuki Tanimura, who do not have much role, almost all of them have poor acting skills, which makes the audience feel embarrassed for them from time to time. But if it's just an actor's problem, it's not. Because it is extremely deliberate, there are many places that make people obviously feel that "because the script is written in this action, so I have to do it", which should basically be one of the things that B as a director must avoid. Even if the actor's ability cannot meet the requirements, then he, who is also a choreographer and director, should also make adjustments in a timely manner and try to find another way to cover up these shortcomings.
In addition, from the perspective of the overall plot, "Shirai" also shows the characteristics of B-Ichi's novel to a considerable extent, and the reason why his works are actually not easy to be properly visualized.
No matter what type of novel, Yi Yi's creation always seems to carry a fantasy atmosphere, creating an atmosphere that is some distance away from the real world through the exquisite text, so that you will accept all his arrangements in the story unconsciously. Sometimes, his characters will have a special nature that is different from ordinary people, and there is indeed more room in the novel to describe the thinking of the characters, so it also allows us to accept the behavior of the characters that at first glance do not match the logic.
But in "White Well", because the reader's fantasy of the text is given a clear visual image here, so that the character behavior and reaction in many places, after visual realization, instead emphasizes the lack of logic, and the most of the audience's life experience of the place of the fight, resulting in the final end of a scene that always makes people play from time to time, and even often feel impatient, feel that the character's behavior is not only contrived, but also inexplicable, so that the film appears extremely lacking in terms of realism. The horror of the film is also much reduced as a result.
In addition, the unsolved foreshadowing deliberately buried in the story of "White Well" and the sudden rush to finish also make people feel that Yi Yi seems to be interested in shooting a sequel. Interestingly, judging from the feelings in his past novels, those foreshadowings should have been deliberately left blank for the sake of horror, but in this film, they have become a forceful declaration as if they were calling for a sequel to the film, so that this gap between text and image creation is highlighted in different ways at the end, and these parts are thus another interesting point when watching "White Well".
However, even if it is really interesting, it is ultimately powerless to return to heaven and cannot save the movie itself. This lingering pity is probably the feeling that "White Well" gives people.