Pulse

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

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swo17
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Re: Pulse

#51 Post by swo17 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 9:59 am

I might feel worse about getting such a low price if Amazon hadn't just added hidden taxes to a couple of digital orders I placed yesterday.

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dwk
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: Pulse

#52 Post by dwk » Sun Sep 24, 2017 6:14 pm

Bah, Amazon cancelled my $16 pre-order on this.

kekid
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:55 pm

Re: Pulse

#53 Post by kekid » Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:07 pm

dwk wrote:Bah, Amazon cancelled my $16 pre-order on this.
Same with me, while their site continues to say the item is in stock.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Pulse

#54 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Sep 24, 2017 10:04 pm

I received this (at the price of 12.49 pounds) -- but haven't gotten around to seeing it due to the Vietnam War...

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Morbii
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2004 3:38 am

Re: Pulse

#55 Post by Morbii » Sun Sep 24, 2017 10:06 pm

It’s because it’s being sold by a third party only now, and no longer amazon. A complaint is likely to get you nowhere, unfortunately.

I do wonder if they sold so many that the loss was no longer acceptable and they’ve decided to no longer stock it after waiting to see what would happen (ie to look for mass cancellations) if they just were really slow getting them.

eastguy
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:23 pm

Re: Pulse

#56 Post by eastguy » Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:18 pm

Currently back in stock & sold by Amazon. I contacted them because of there being only a few days between my order getting cancelled, due to lack of availability, and it being restocked. The reply was prompt, and I was able to reorder and get the difference refunded, honoring the $16 purchase price.

Might be worth giving it a shot.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Pulse

#57 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:41 am

Finally got around to watching the new Blu-Ray -- which looks markedly better than the old DVD. Still just as chilling and unnerving as when first viewed. If only someone would rescue Charisma...
SpoilerShow
Does anyone see the heroine as being a potential plague carrier (given her possibly accompanying ghost-turned companion)? Or do you think he simply passed completely out of existence?
I still don't understand why Kairo was called "Pulse" in English rather than "Open Circuit" - which is not only correct but (to me) more evocative.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Pulse

#58 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Jan 11, 2020 1:26 am

My second Kurosawa horror, but after this and The Cure I’ll have to keep going as this was genuinely creepy and uniquely interesting in finding similar emotions as typical genre entires through new perspectives. For example, like many horrors this film is actually pretty funny, but instead of artificially Kurosawa opts to find humor in the way these events would actually be funny if they occurred in real life from the point of view of an objective viewer not involved in the danger. Characters are appropriately confused by the strange occurrences and when the actual scary confrontations occur, the reactions and mannerisms are hilarious (at first..) in the imagined authenticity of how one would be paralyzed in perplexity. The camera pans across medium shots framing actors and actions with restriction and limited stylized scope, yet the fluidity is completely cinematic in its voyeuristic objectivity. Kurosawa uses these amorphous techniques to form a bridge between viewer and image, inviting us into the fear but allowing us to distance ourselves from full participation in surrogate experience, which can actually intensify the anxiety because we are not provided any one outlet of relation and are thus divorced from all equally, forced to become our own character with our own sets of fears instead of escaping into theirs.

The music plays a critical role in emerging spontaneously to signify further seemingly randomized disturbances for the audience outside of any foreseeable triggers by a character or dynamic we have figured out. We’re left guessing, in the dark; and this strength of nonlinear and unpredictable progression shakes the psyche. When even the style or camera movement is subject to unexpected shifts, we become constantly ungrounded as if gravity or time were suddenly undone only to be re-implemented passively as if nothing happened. There is probably some thematic reference to technology as both a portal toward and a barrier against accessing deeper reality. Or more specifically, the process of screens diffusing connection with the world and how fear invading these safe spaces we turn to in order to escape such discomfort is the ultimate nightmare of the y2k generation. The ending even opens up the door for total cynicism in the disintegration of society, possibly from a lack of personable connection, too little too late with the wonderful partnerships brought together in the film! But I’m much too interested in the manipulations of the form to analyze the content passed these genre innovations too deeply. Kurosawa’s exhibition of blended dry humor and crippling horror only works because he takes everything so seriously, and this novel fusion works against all odds to emerge as a distinctive vision for the medium that cherry picks from more models and masters than the average joe to feed his deceptively-straight genre piece.

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Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Pulse

#59 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Jan 11, 2020 6:19 am

Kurosawa made an outright romantic comedy, Doppelganger, but of course approaches the situation through his own strange and unaccountable lense. Very much worth seeing if you like Kurosawa in a humourous mode. And before anyone else says it: Charisma is a must-see. Unclassifiable.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
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Re: Pulse

#60 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Jan 11, 2020 7:58 am

The ship has long since sailed on this, and I'm used to calling it Pulse now (and someone like Arrow changing the title at such a late stage can only potentially cause more confusion, especially now that it is so well known under the title), but one thing that always slightly irks me is the English title of this film. The Japanese title is actually Kairo, which translates to Circuit, which in some ways I think fits the story a bit better as it better conveys that sense of both the technological angle (the connections that lets technology communicate across the internet, connecting the world, and potentially others!) and that sense of relationships being forged and people themselves transmitting the same message between them. Especially as the film is really all about connectivity set against isolation(ism), with links being made in an accidental and haphazard manner, and eventually broken but only once the lasting damage has been done (or another person has left their mark on you!). Pulse on the other hand, whilst it does still have that sense of equating the electronic with the bodily feels a bit more fleshy and visceral, or as if it is conveying a sudden and jarringly intense event, which is a bit opposite to the nebulous and intangible sense of futility on display here. Aside from what happens during the water tower scene of course!

In some ways another great companion piece to this film is the French film from Robin Campillo, Les Revenants or They Came Back (later turned into the TV series The Returned), since that also deals with a kind of overflow from the ghostly realm causing havoc for the living forced to cope with the overcrowding issues that result!

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Pulse

#61 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Jan 11, 2020 2:08 pm

Seconding recs for Doppelganger and Charisma (still no decent release of the latter, however, so far as I know). Curiously, I don't think any initial review I read for Doppelganger recognized it was a romantic comedy (of an extremely eccentric sort). My favorite KK film is Journey to the Sea -- and the recent Before We Vanish also has entered my top KK tier.

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