An avatar of the J-horror boom with his hit “Ju-on” series, Takashi Shimizu hasn’t managed to create another iconic ghost like the vengeful Kayako since. Nonetheless, he has carved out a career as a horror maestro, turning out a steady stream of shockers over the past two decades.
His latest, “Who’s That Girl?” is another journey to the dark side along some well-trodden if labyrinthian paths. Co-scripted by Shimizu and Rumi Kakuta, the film features such standard J-horror tropes as a haunted school and a cursed cassette player similar to the videotape that doomed its viewers in another J-horror classic, Hideo Nakata's 1998 “Ringu.”
Shimizu combines these and other familiar genre elements with a practiced hand while adding fresh, bizarre twists. Did you ever see a ghost play the piano with her junior high school classmate? I hadn’t either.