Credits

Director: Masayuki Ochiai Starring: Koichi Sato, Masanobu Takashima, Mari Hoshino, Michiko Hada, Kaho Minami Screenplay: Masayuki Ochiai Tagline: Death is just a breath away Country: Japan Year: Kansen

In the ER a desperate call from an ambulance comes through. They have a patient that seems to have a disease that is spreading across his whole body at a phenomenal rate and are looking for any hospital that will accept him. The ER staff don't respond to the desperate call from the ambulance driver as they have no room or the staff available to deal with the emergency. What's more, a burn patient suffers from complications and is rushed into the ER for emergency treatment. A mistake is made, and the patient dies. In fear of an official report ruining the careers of the staff present, the doctors and nurses involved decide to cover-up the mistake. The burn victim has no immediate family or friends so no visitors ever come to see him. The staff ascertain that the only people that will claim the body will be the Health Department who may do an official autopsy. The substance accidentally injected (Calcium Chlorate) dissipates from the body after 48 hours, so they decide to heat up the body to accelerate the rate of decay, in an attempt to cover-up their fatal mistake. The body is put in an isolated room and heaters are placed around it and a staff member is put on watch.

At about the same time as the royal screw-up with the burn victim, the ambulance driver with the infected patient turns up in the ambulance bay pleading for the ER staff to take his patient. He is naturally concerned for his victim because the infection has now reached and covered the patient's whole face and his body temperature has reached dangerous levels. The doctor in charge reluctantly refuses to admit the patient and then goes back to the problem at hand with the deceased burn victim. The Ambulance driver in frustration and with little or no choices left decides to leave the mysterious patient behind in the hospital foyer. After dealing with the death of the burn patient the doctors realise that the patient with the infection has been left with them to deal with. On examining the patient they discover that his internal organs are beginning to liquefy and green slime starts to ooze out from every orifice.

The hospital now has a new patient, and before the night is out, he could be the death of them all...

Now you think I've given away the whole storyline for Infection, but this is merely the first 10 minutes of the movie which sets the foundation of the story in concrete, builds up the characters, and firmly establishes the ground roots for where the storyline may or may not go. Each of the characters get establishing scenes in the beginning to give the viewer insight into each of their personalities. The characters develop quite nicely through the movie from their initial establishing scenes and they start to fit to the unveiling story like a jigsaw to a puzzle. Most of the main cast share equal screen time.

Writer/Director Masayuki Ochiai, purposely does not attempt to capture an authentic or realistic feel of how an ER is run in a hospital; I should know; I've worked in a major city hospital for over 10 years. My office was in the basement right by the morgue, I shit you not. Many TV hospital dramas like ER try to depict an authentic and realistic feel but any authenticism in Infection is more or less intentionally thrown out the electronic sliding doors and down the drainpipe. The hospital is merely the isolated setting for the story to unfold which is a good move on the creator's part. The setting for the film could have been anywhere.

This hospital and the action unfolding within has a lot more in common with Kingdom Hospital and characters from a David Lynch movie rather than anything else, leaving the director to concentrate on creating the sense of dread, fear and isolation required. Many of the characters are absolutely off the wall; a nurse that has no confidence in using needles practises inserting needles on unconscious patients. When she is busted by one of the other nurses she then begins to practice on herself. Priceless. There's the Charge Nurse who is colder than the South Pole and makes The Terminator look like personality of the year; and then there are our two primary doctors, Dr Akai and Dr Atibu, who seem to play it straight until the hospital goes into total chaos and then start delivering their best 'I'm having a really bad day' performances to the point of insane black humour. On the patient side we have the old lady that seems to see dearly departed family members and friends in mirrors or window reflections and gets her jollies from observing other peoples discomfort or pain. She really freaked me out, man! This character is actually based on a real patient from a documentary that director Masayuki Ochiai had previously worked on. Then there's the young boy, a patient in the hospital that seems to spend most of his time running around unsupervised with a spooky looking mask on. The young boy has no lines in the movie and virtually no interaction with any of the other characters. He is like the invisible observer, the silent witness or the fly on the wall so to speak. I can't help but feel that the boy symbolises the viewer, in that we can react but we can't interact so therefore we have no influence on the outcome of the story or the fate of the characters. In some ways we are as helpless as any patient in any hospital. We must have faith in the Doctor to do the right thing.

Gore is kept to a minimum and green slime is pumped up to its maximum. Director Masayuki Ochiai who has already been down the dark path with his previous effort Parasite Eye, uses incredible restraint in what he wants the viewer to see or not to see. Just enough ooze and blood to unsettle us and plenty of horrible things lurking within the dark shadows just out of sight. It's very easy to lay the SPFX on thick to cover up obvious flaws of a movie. Ochiai balances his visual FX, character development and storyline on a delicate highwire to provide a movie that fits securely in the 'Goldilocks zone'. In that I mean, not too hot, not too cold, just right.

J-Horror Theatre Press conference - Cast and Crew promote their movie.

Short Interviews from 3-5 minutes with: Masayuki Ochiai – Director, Koichi Sato – Dr Atibu, Masanobu Takashima – Dr Uozumi Kaho Minami – Charge Nurse, Mari Hoshino – Nurse, Yoko Maki – Nurse Yuko Tae Kimura – Nurse Nanae, Michiko Hada – Dr Nakazomo, Reiko Kusamura – Patient, Shiro Sano – Dr Akai.