Kenichi Ugana • THE CURSE - STARBURST Magazine

In director Kenichi Ugana’s The Curse, “After discovering that her friend’s social media accounts are still posting months after her death, a young Tokyo woman is drawn into a terrifying digital curse that spreads like a virus – and now, it’s coming for her.”

It’s a throwback to classic ’90s J-horror, updated from VHS cassettes to social media, and from the opening scene, The Curse is a tight, taught horror thriller wrapped in a mystery package that’ll leave you gasping.

As part of Fantastic Fest, we spoke with director Kenichi Ugana via email about the movie and his upcoming projects.

STARBURST: This is one of three films you’re premiering this year, with two films this year. How are you so prolific?

Kenichi Ugana: In fact, I have already announced three films for this year. The first is I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn, in which a famous Japanese actor visits New York and falls in love with a Z-grade director there, and it had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

The second is The Curse, which you mentioned this time, and the third is Incomplete Chairs, a film about making chairs out of human materials, which had its world premiere at the Slash Film Festival. There are many subjects I want to try, and if I have the opportunity to freely shoot films, I would like to continue taking on new challenges.

The Curse feels very relatable to anyone who’s fallen out with a friend, only to keep up with them via social media. What’s your relationship with the various social media apps?

As a film director, I often have to share information about my films, but I try not to share my private life or emotions as much as possible. Social media these days is too violent.

While many of your films cover all kinds of genre ground, The Curse is rooted in classic ’90s Japanese horror. Were there any films you looked to for inspiration?

I was greatly influenced by the way director Kiyoshi Kurosawa creates worldviews in his films, and I think I was also influenced by The Ring, albeit subconsciously.

In particular, it feels as though we’re always looking over Riko’s shoulder or peering in to see her. Why did you choose to keep the camera always slightly moving?

This is a subjective feeling, so there is no clear answer, but I usually prefer fixed images, but this time I wanted to keep the camera moving from the beginning. Perhaps I wanted to increase the sense of anxiety.

Did you intentionally keep the lore surrounding the titular curse simple in order to focus more on how it affected the characters?

I’m not always interested in the suspense elements of how something happens or how it develops. Personally, I’m interested in what happens in front of the camera and the emotions of the characters. So, before I knew it, the lore surrounding the curse had become simple.

Where did that opening scene come from? It’s a real shock of a start to the film.

The opening scene is very important for a horror movie, so we put a lot of effort into it. I’m very happy that so many people have mentioned the opening scene.