Pulse
In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.
Critics Sentiment
Michi discovers Taguchi has hanged himself, his body decayed, leaving a black stain
Harue removes a plastic bag from her head and shoots herself in the abandoned factory
The film swings from its peak atmospheric horror in the opening act (score 8.5 around minute 15) down to its most criticized stretch of slow, cliche-laden industrial sequences in the third act (score 5.5 around minute 95), a drop of 3.0 points driven by near-universal reviewer complaints about pacing collapse.
Pulse opens with genuine, widely praised dread as Michi and Ryosuke's parallel encounters with ghostly technology build an atmosphere reviewers call mesmerizing and ahead of its time. The film sustains strong scores through its first half on the strength of its loneliness theme and iconic visuals, but reviewer consensus turns sharply negative in the third act as pacing collapses into slow industrial wandering and narrative incoherence. The ending recovers modest goodwill for its bleak nihilism, leaving the film as a celebrated but frustratingly uneven work whose atmosphere outpaces its script.
Full cast
Showing 20 of 23
Kumiko Aso
Michi Kudo
Haruhiko Kato
Ryosuke Kawashima
Koyuki
Harue Karasawa
Kurume Arisaka
Junko Sasano
Masatoshi Matsuo
Toshio Yabe
Shinji Takeda
Yoshizaki
Kenji Mizuhashi
Taguchi
Shun Sugata
Boss
Ken Furusawa
Convenience Store Employee
Teruo Ono
Doroningen
Show Aikawa
Employee
Koji Yakusho
Ship Captain
Masayuki Shionoya
Ghost (uncredited)
Kaori Ichijō
Girl with Long Hair (uncredited)
Takumi Tanji
Man with Bag (uncredited)
Jun Fubuki
Michi's Mother (uncredited)
Hassei Takano
Student A (uncredited)
Atsushi Yuki
Student B (uncredited)
Go Takashima
Student C (uncredited)
Akiko Kitamura
(uncredited)
Crew
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