User Reviews

Forbidden Siren is a mixed bag of a movie. Yes, it's another video game movie. But unlike House of the Dead, this one is capable of holding your attention and is sufficiently frightening.

The story follows a young woman, named Yuki, who has moved to the island of Yame with her father and little brother. From the get-go, things on the island don't seem right. The villagers are strange and unfriendly. Throughout the movie, Yuki seems to have a hard time keeping up with her wandering little brother Hideo, and has strange encounters with a woman in red. And then she is given an ominous warning: never go outside when the siren wails.

It's a good premise for a horror/thriller movie. And I must admit that conceptually this film is strong; a feature which complements the awesome directing. That's why it's a shame that Forbidden Siren's ending is so poor. This movie excels in almost every area and would have been a great Asian horror if not for the ending. I won't spoil anything, but suffice to say that if someone tried to submit a story with a trick ending, like we see in Forbidden Siren, to any major magazine, they would not be published.

The ending of any story is crucial and they teach you not to write trick endings because they are deceptive and ultimately let your audience down. Which is what we observe happening in Forbidden Siren. We are built up from the very beginning to believe that something memorable and shocking is coming at the end, then it's just a big let down.

I was tempted to give this movie a 5 instead of a 6; however I was impressed by the good scares and the originality of the plot (even if they could have gone in SO many interesting directions with it.) These days it isn't often that you find a good Asian horror film that doesn't center around a "vengeful ghost" picking off a small group of young adults. So Forbidden Siren gets a 6 out of 10. Watch it and enjoy the creative scares and smart direction, then when you get to the climax turn it off and make up your own ending. Trust me, you can't do any worse than they did.

I never heard about the 2006 Japanese horror movie "Sairen" (aka "Forbidden Siren") before now in 2023, as I had the opportunity to sit down and watch it. I happened to come across the movie by random chance, and with it being an Asian movie that I never have seen, of course I opted to give it a chance.

Writer Naoya Takayama put together an okay enough script here for the movie. I mean, it wasn't exactly rocket science, nor did Naoya Takayama revolutionize the horror genre in any way with the storyline here. But I will say that the movie made for an adequate enough viewing experience, though a bit on the mundane side, if I have to be fully honest.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but the actors and actresses put on fair enough performances in bringing the characters to life on the screen and telling the story.

For a horror movie, however, then director Yukihiko Tsutsumi's 2006 movie "Sairen" was a bit bland. It was a movie that left no particular impression on me. And I guess that by next week I will have forgotten about the movie. So it wasn't a grand horror gem that I had been missing out on for the past 17 years.

Watchable for what it was, "Sairen" is a somewhat bland foray into the horror genre. While I managed to sit through all 87 minutes, this is hardly a movie that warrants a second viewing at any time down the road.

My rating of "Sairen" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Forbidden Siren is based upon the Siren 2 Playstation 2 (so many 2s) game. Like most video game turned movies, I would say the majority don't translate into a different medium really well. And that goes for this one too, painfully.

There's a pretty long prologue which explains and sets the premise for the story, and the mysterious island on which a writer (Leo Morimoto) and his children, daughter Yuki (Yui Ichikawa) and son Hideo (Jun Nishiyama) come to move into. The villagers don't look all too friendly, and soon enough, sound advice is given about the siren on the island, to stay indoors once the siren starts wailing.

Naturally and slowly, things start to go bump, and our siblings go on a mission beating around the bush to discover exactly what is happening on this unfriendly island with its strange inhabitants. But in truth, you will not bother with what's going on, as folklore and fairy tales get thrown in to convolute the plot even more. What was really pushing it into the realm of bad comedy are its unwittingly ill-placed-out-of-the-norm moments which just drew pitiful giggles at its sheer stupidity, until it's explained much later. It's one thing trying to come up and present something smart, but another thing doing it convincingly and with loopholes covered.

Despite it clocking in under 90 minutes - I think it's a horror movie phenomenon to have that as a runtime benchmark - it gives that almost two hour feel with its slow buildup to tell what it wants to. Things begin to pick up toward the last 20 minutes, but it's a classic case of too little too late.

What saves the movie is how it changes tack and its revelation at the end. Again this is a common device used to try and elevate a seemingly simple horror movie into something a little bit extra in the hope of wowing an audience. It turned out rather satisfactorily, but leaves a bad aftertaste as you'll feel cheated somewhat. There are two ways a twist will make you feel - it either elevates the movie to a memorable level, or provides you with that hokey feeling. Unfortunately Forbidden Siren belonged more to the latter.

The saving grace will be its cinematography with its use of light, shadows and mirrors, but I will be that explicit - it's still not worth the time, so better to avoid this.

I finally got to see this film after buying it in Singapore. I had heard very little about it from horror fans, so I put the disc in last night and was prepared to be underwhelmed. But from the opening scrawl I was hooked by the atmosphere. The film was really enjoyable to watch, and while I had some worries at first about its short run-time (about 87 minutes), by the climax, I had none. As other reviewers out there have said, despite its lack of length, the film has the feeling of a 2 hour film. This is probably due to its slow burn, something that I adore a lot of Asian horror for. The film builds up a strong foreboding atmosphere, before descending into one of the more memorable climaxes I have witnessed in the genre.

It seems that the film has copped a lot of flak from fans and critics, and it is perhaps due to the idea that video game films can't possibly be good. I have never played the games, instead just drooling over the cases in shops and admiring the artwork. From what I can gather, the film follows the second game in the series, and does so pretty closely, with of course some inevitable changes that restraints require. Unlike many films adapted from games, Siren actually contains some clever plotting and dense atmosphere. Here, characters are typically over the top and quirky. In some ways the film reminded me (a little) of Uzumaki in its off-kilter approach, though Uzumaki went to an extreme in that. Some may say that one major detail is telegraphed a mile away, but unlike another film with a similar idea, I don't think that Siren is trying to keep it such a big secret. The fact that knew that something wasn't right from the get go really added to the suspense.

Get the R3, the subs are great, and the picture quality is quite good, and it is anamorphic. The only let down is perhaps going to be inherent in all versions, and is that the DVD only has a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track. I haven't been able to check if the Japanese DVD has DD 5.1 or DTS. However, despite the stereo audio, I could here some great separation through my speakers, and as a Prologic II track, it didn't sound so much like one. Other than that, there are almost no extras of note, in fact there are only 3 versions of the movie trailer, and what does one need them for when they have the film? I have never understood the inclusion of trailers as "extras" for that reason. I would liked to see some SFX reels, or even bloopers, but perhaps in a film such as this one, the budget didn't allow much room for trial and error.

In all the film was easy to watch and not too challenging, yet still carrying with it an aura of freshness. There are no dark haired ghosts (though if it did, how could one complain about it when the majority of people living in Japan have such hair), and the budget of the film keeps the production honest and small. The film has a slow build up that may dismay viewers of short attention spans, or a lust for blood, but the climax is quite gripping, and helps elevate the film beyond where it may have settled without it.

I don't know anything about the original videogame, so I don't know if this movie lives up to it or not. The atmosphere and premises are good, and they set the right tone for a well-balanced tension buildup. The main flaw of the movie is that it doesn't explain much of what's going on, and some bits seem very rushed and pointless. And the lead actress spends the whole time screaming or waiting for bad things to happen, through very loud orchestral music and shaky camera movements. The ending kind of makes up for the mess before.

In 1976 the inhabitants of an isolated island of Yamajima were massacred.Thirty years later,Yuki Amamoto goes to the island with her father and her little brother who suffers from neurological disorders.The islanders are not very friendly towards them.When the siren begins to roar,the severed bits of mystery begin to assemble together to reveal the truth of the 1976 massacre and finally unravel the creepy secret of the siren...This adaptation of popular PS2 game is pretty decent.The pace is slow and there are several quietly menacing moments.The film lacks gore and draws certain parallels with "Silent Hill" film adaptation.The mystery aspect works quite well and the acting is fine.Give this one a look.7 out of 10.

I feel like this movie has gotten some bad reviews, but I honestly think it's a great piece of work. The slow build of suspense works well in this movie, the characters are great (acting too), and the storyline is original. And the ending? Let's just say--I didn't see that coming.

I was tempted to be let down by the ending--but what I loved about the ending is that it still evoked questions inside of me. I had to go back and connect the dots throughout the movie to get a new understanding of it. After the ending, you see the movie from an entirely different perspective--which makes it quite powerful. Also, what do you make of the ending? While some people will view the ending and say "No--the end definitely means this"--I think that the ending can be interpreted many different ways.

The question is--what do you believe?

When the siren sounds...don't go outside.

This is an entertaining movie which achieves its objectives within its genre. Without offering an amateur critique and regardless of its basis on a video game, it is well enough scripted, acted & filmed to provide 90mins of distraction.

Whilst not offering the seasoned viewer of Japanese horror/thrillers a great deal to enthuse about, this movie is clearly effective in bringing the genre to a wider audience, without a reliance on the inane Hollywood style special effects we have come to expect.

Simple and pleasing, the story is developed, extended, twisted and concluded with reasonable suspense and intrigue. Visually and audibly intense at all the appropriate moments - whats not to like. If you are viewing with AC3 or DTS sound - crank it up good and loud.

The movie starts off fairly light (aside from the intro), but with clear signs that there will be trouble to come. That trouble doesn't take long to start occurring, but you never really expect what the ending brings with it. I have to say, the ending truly was not what I had expected.

The movie unravels itself over time and slowly things come into perspective, although the truth is not revealed until the end. The atmosphere grows progressively dark as it goes on. This movie doesn't rely on some of the traditional scare tactics, although there are some towards the end, but it is more so a atmospheric and psychological before things hit the fan. So, a good build up to the climax in my opinion.

Cinematography is pretty good, although that depends I'm *assuming* on if you can find a good quality version. Perhaps there is no higher quality version. Despite the low quality, the scenes were well shot and most of the time enhanced the atmosphere.

I never played the video game, so I can't comment on how well the two relate to one another in terms of story-line...

The actors do a good job of keeping it more realistic rather than cheesy, as they are are pretty good at playing their roles.

Ultimately it was a fun watch, and with a short time span it is perfect for a horror movie marathon or to show to a friend. It isn't a perfect movie, but it certainly isn't bad (at least not in my opinion, everyone is different).