Neighbor No. 13 [2005]

Neighbor No. 13 [2005]
Original Title: Rinjin 13-gô
Japan
Director: Yasuo Inoue
My Rating: 5/10

I watched this because it was recommended as a good violent horror movie, but really it's more of a thriller.  Worse, it's a thriller with a very tired and overdone premise: bullied kid seeks violent revenge. This is the set up for a lot of the slasher films of the 80's.   I couldn't help being rather bored from the start.  I didn't really care for any of the characters, and I found it hard to believe that the bully in the film could go through life like he did without being horribly beaten himself by someone at some point.

I also didn't understand how the main character had no scars from the violence done to him as a child, yet his split personality has them.  Did he imagine the violence?  Did he just magically heal?  Did it not actually happen?  The movie just never addresses this.  The fact that he has a split personality is not a spoiler (despite the wikipedia page implying that it's some sort of revealed twist), it's right there on the poster and it never even occurred to me that it was anything other than overtly obvious.

Despite all of its problems, I liked the ending so I still give it 5.