New Japanese film reviews appear every last Friday of the month.

Rinjin 13 Go ****

Based on a comic book by Santa Inoue, "Neighbor No. 13" is a stylish and harrowing trip into the mind of a madman. Shun Oguri is a young man traumatized by his experience of bullying at school. He returns to his hometown and takes a job on a building site with his old nemesis Hirofumi Arai. But Oguri's trauma has created a monster; he harbors a second personality, Neighbor No. 13, a vicious, brutal and disfigured character intent on exacting a painful revenge on his bully. In a coup de theatre, the second personality is played by another actor, the always watchable Shido Nakamura, with dead eyes and malevolent charisma. As No. 13 becomes dominant, the film veers into extremely disturbing territory. No. 13 sets his sights not on the bully, but on his innocent wife Yumi Yoshimura (from Puffy!) and young son. The scenes with the deranged No. 13 and the little boy at a theme park are mercilessly uncomfortable. But look out for a fun cameo from Takashi Miike as a soap-land operator.

Hasami Otoko ***

Veteran splatter director Toshiharu Ikeda, infamous abroad for "Evil Dead Trap" and "Angel Guts," tones it down this time with an intriguing psychological thriller. A couple travel around Tokyo executing young girls in ritualistic ways with scissors. When a copycat killer appears, the murderers find themselves in a hunt to find the usurper before an enthusiastic homicide cop gets to them. Despite Ikeda's background, "Hasami Otoko" stays remarkably gore-free. It's a complex serial-killer psycho-drama, filmed in a deadpan, noir gumshoe style, with an elaborate deception at its core. A far cry from the glam babe role in "Casshern" or the thigh-booted ninja in "Aka Kage," Kumiko Aso is completely unrecognizable in this role as the tortured, disturbed serial killer, while Etsushi Toyokawa gives a solid, sullen performance as her mysterious accomplice. As the over--keen cop, Hiroshi Abe starts subdued but soon turns on the scenery-chomping charm as the story spirals into insanity.

Hana to Hebi 2 ****

After last year's extraordinary depraved art film "Flower and Snake," director Takashi Ishii and star Aya Sugimoto return for a rematch. This time, Sugimoto is the trophy wife of an art critic Jo Shishido (the '60s action star making a brave comeback without cheek-implants and sans clothes) and patron of the underground erotic arts. As part of an elaborate double-cross, Sugimoto travels to Paris to confront struggling artist Kenichi Endo (who, as he should, wears oil-paint-smeared sweaters and lives in a filthy garret). As expected, soon she's being hog-tied and humiliated in front of a group of rich men in tuxedos and masks (the orgy scene here makes the one in "Eyes Wide Shut" look like a sleep-over). This is another grand-guignol erotic horror film, filmed in Ishii's patented, painterly chiaroscuro, acted with a very old-fashioned intensity and honesty. The sound-scape too is worth noting; the creak of rope and the squeak of silk against the atmospheric Arab-tinged score by Goro Yasukawa.

Karaoke **

According to Time Magazine, the man who invented karaoke Daisuke Inoue is right up there with Gandhi, Mao and Pol Pot as one of the most influential Asians of the 20th century. (Certainly, the "empty orchestra" should be included in any list of 20th century crimes against humanity.) This biopic by Hiroyuki Tsuji starts with grim statistics about soaring suicide rates among middle-aged Japanese men, and then launches into a retelling of Inoue's invention of karaoke. In '50s Osaka, Manabu Oshio is a penniless drummer with a Hawaiian band dreaming of rock'n roll stardom. He's in love with Miho Yoshioka, a rich schoolgirl with the voice of an angel and an overly protective father. This is melodramatic stuff, and Tsuji pulls no punches showing the ups and downs in Inoue's life, but the timing is off, the humor flat, the acting half-hearted, the tone simultaneously maudlin and peppy. A fitting tribute to the bane of night-life all over Asia.

Soseiji (DVD) *****

"Gemini" from 1999 marks a turning point for Shinya Tsukamoto, as the maverick indie director of cult films such as "Tetsuo" and "Tokyo Fist" took his first steps toward art-house. Adapted from a short story by Edogawa Rampo, it is a gothic tale of murder and vengeance by twin brothers in Tokyo, 1910, both in love with the same woman. Tsukamoto fashions two worlds: the serene and stylized life of a family of rich Tokyo doctors, and the ragtag, violent, and energetic world of the slums, particularly the other twin's dance troupe. Masahiro Motoki plays the twin brothers with conviction, but the film belongs to the otherworldly beauty of Ryo, in Meiji-era kimono, haystack hair and plucked eyebrows. The sequence where she dances on the river bank, like a mad Ophelia, is a revelation, both for the actress and for the director. Tsukamoto proved there's a heart beneath that mecha-mutated "Tetsuo" iron skin. The film is also notable for some brief but telling cameos too from Naoto Takenaka, Tadanobu Asano, Renji Ishibashi and Butoh dancer Akaji Maro, and a romantic industrial soundtrack by Chu Ishikawa.