
A star, Miyuki Goto plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa cast in the play, even though he's a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina and Jun Suzuki lust after Miyuki. Off stage the cast's possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the play and reality, the cast's feelings for each other are amplified. When it becomes clear that love isn'... (Full plot summary below)
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A star, Miyuki Goto plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa cast in the play, even though he's a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina and Jun Suzuki lust after Miyuki. Off stage the cast's possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the play and reality, the cast's feelings for each other are amplified. When it becomes clear that love isn't meant to be both on and off stage, love turns into a grudge and crosses the blurred line between reality and fantasy.
Leave your thoughts about Over Your Dead Body.
| The Film StagePeter LabuzaOver Your Dead Body will certainly appeal to Miike's hardcore fan base, for his technical mastery of blood is on display throughout. |
| AV ClubA.A. DowdThe movie is dull right up until the point that it becomes completely, characteristically bonkers, with Miike trotting out some of his trademark obscene violence. |
| Under the RadarJason WilsonInstead of relying on frenetic insanity and buckets of viscera, this movie sets an uneasy tone where tension slowly crawls to its peak. |
| South China Morning PostEdmund LeeA stately backstage drama that gradually morphs into a full-blown supernatural horror movie, [this is] a synthetic experience that sporadically intrigues but never fully engages. |
| TheFrightFile.comDustin PutmanEvocatively shot and earns a few winces of discomfort on its way to a lurid finale twist. What the picture fails to accomplish, however, is giving the viewer someone to care about, relate to, or understand. |
| Sight and SoundAnton Biteltwo parallel narratives bleed into one another in a deeply irrational manner, blurring the boundaries between theatre and film, antique and (post)modern, actor and character, the living and the dead. |
| Asian Movie PulsePanos Kotzathanasis"Over Your Dead Body" is one of the greatest works of the prolific director, who, at last, manages to stay away from the nonsensical manga adaptations, in a way reminiscent of the atmosphere he created in films like "Audition." |
| User ReviewCarlos IWell that was interesting... albeit confusing. I guess the play they were making was coming to life and affecting them. Still not sure what happened at the end there though. It was well shot, acted and had some decent effects though. |
| User ReviewMark KI'm used to waiting for my thrills. I'm used to sitting through tension and even a confusing plot. There has to be a payoff involved, though, and as morbidly amusing as the final scene is, I have no idea what I just witnessed. I'm meant to assume some sort of witchcraft is involved (I think) but I'm not even sure about that. We have a play that is starting to influence reality. Is the play haunted? Is this just an excuse for our characters to act the way they do? The film is honestly quite dull for so long and when things get interesting it is more interesting in the "this is just random images thrown together isn't it." There are attempts at giving hints but they either are terrible hints or I don't speak the language. I love Takashi Miike's films so, yes, perhaps I set my expectations too high but man do I feel let down. |