# pulse (2001 film contributors to wikimedia project 12–15 minute from wikipedia the free encyclopedi puls ![[kairojapanesefilmposterwvl2.jpg|300]] theatrical release poste directed by: kiyoshi kurosaw written by: kiyoshi kurosaw produced by: - shun shimizu- seiji okuda- ken inoue- atsuyuki shomod starring: - haruhiko katô- kumiko asō- koyuki- kurume arisaka- masatoshi matsuo- show aikawa- jun fubuki- shinji takeda- kōji yakush cinematography: jun'ichirô hayash edited by: junichi kikuch music by: takefumi haket production companies: - daiei film- ntv network- hakuhodo- imagic distributed by: toh release date: - 3february2001 (japan running time: 119 minute country: japa language: japanes box office: $31845 pulse (japanese: 回路 hepburn: kairo; lit. 'circuit') is a 2001 japanese techno-horror film written and directed by kiyoshi kurosawa. it was screened in the un certain regard section at the 2001 cannes film festival. the plot follows two separate storylines in japan that faces mass disappearances amidst a ghostly invasion of the real world via the internet. one follows a college student and the other follows a plant shop worke the film received positive reviews and attracted a cult following. an english-language remake pulse debuted in 2006 and produced two sequels. kurosawa adapted the script into a nove michi kudo newly moved to tokyo works at a plant shop with junko sasano toshio yabe and taguchi who has been missing for several days while working on a computer disk for the shop's sales. michi goes to taguchi's apartment and finds him distracted and aloof; while looking for the disk she turns and finds he has hanged himself his decaying body making her question who she had spoken to earlier. the disk reveals an endless loop of images of taguchi staring into his monitor while a ghostly face appears on another scree yabe receives a distorted phone call saying "help me" and sees the same image from taguchi's disk on his phone. at taguchi's apartment he finds a black stain on the wall where taguchi hanged himself as well as a printed note reading "a forbidden room." outside the apartment he notices a door sealed with red tape and enters only to encounter a ghos yabe disappears for a few days before returning to work acting distant and strange. he warns michi not to enter "the forbidden room." soon after michi's boss also goes missing and she receives a call at work from yabe who repeats "help me." looking for him in the shop's storage room she instead finds a stain on the wall similar to the one in taguchi's apartment. junko searching for their boss enters a "forbidden room" in the building. michi pulls junko away from a ghost but the encounter leaves junko in a catatonic state. later in michi's apartment junko walks towards a wall dissolving into a black stain that scatters. worried michi leaves tokyo to check on her mother when her calls go unanswere simultaneously ryosuke kawashima a university economics student has recently signed with a new isp. his computer accesses a website by itself displaying disturbing images of people alone in dark rooms. that night ryosuke wakes to find his computer on again showing the same images and frantically unplugs it. the next day he visits the university computer lab and meets harue karasawa a postgraduate computer science student who suggests bookmarking the page or screenshotting the images for her to examine. ryosuke attempts to do so but his computer refuses his commands instead playing a vidya of a man with a plastic bag over his head sitting in a room with "help me" written all over the wall a graduate student tells ryosuke his theory that the dead are invading the physical world. harue starts behaving strangely believing that ghosts are trying to trap the living in their loneliness rather than kill them. ryosuke tries to escape with her by train but it stops and harue returns to her apartment. she witnesses the man with the plastic bag shoot himself on her computer screen before it cuts to a live vidya of her. as she embraces the invisible figure watching her harue who has always felt lonely happily says that she is "not alone". when ryosuke arrives she has disappeare the ghosts launch a full-scale invasion of the kantō region resulting in the disappearances of people en masse and an evacuation of tokyo commences. ryosuke meets michi while looking for harue and the two find her in an abandoned factory. mimicking the man she saw on her computer harue removes a plastic bag from her head and shoots herself. when ryosuke and michi's car runs out of gas ryosuke searches a warehouse for fuel and inadvertently enters a "forbidden room" where a ghost tells him that "death is eternal loneliness." although he initially resists the ghost's influence ryosuke loses the will to live and michi pulls him to safety. they drive through tokyo now completely abandoned and witness numerous apocalyptic sights. after reaching tokyo bay and attempting to leave the city by motorboat they are rescued by a ship crewed by survivors who reveal that the same events are happening worldwid as the ship sets off for latin america the captain reassures michi that she was right to continue living. she returns to her room and finds ryosuke sitting against the wall with his eyes closed. he fades into a stain on the wall as michi reflects on finding happiness in being alone with her last friend in the worl **+** kumiko asō as michi kud **+** haruhiko kato as ryosuke kawashima a college studen **+** koyuki as harue karasawa ryosuke's friend and love interes **+** kurume arisaka as junko sasano michi's frien **+** masatoshi matsuo as toshio yabe michi's frien **+** shinji takeda as yoshizak **+** jun fubuki as michi's mothe **+** shun sugata as bos **+** kōji yakusho as ship captai **+** show aikawa as employe **+** kenji mizuhashi as taguchi michi's frien pulse was first released in japan on february 3 2001 where it was distributed by toho. distant horizon purchased worldwide distribution rights to the film from daiei. the film premiered in the un certain regard category at the cannes film festiva the film was released on dvd by magnolia home entertainment on february 21 2006. arrow vidya published blu-ray release of the film in july 201 the review aggregator rotten tomatoes gives the film a rating of 76% based on 55 reviews and a rating average of 6.8/10. the website's critical consensus reads: "a sinister spine-tingling techno-thriller whose artistry lies in the power of suggestion rather than a barrage of blood and guts or horror shop special effects metacritic which uses a weighted average assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100 based on 21 critics indicating "generally favorable" review allmovie praised the film writing: "the first 30 minutes of kairo is perhaps some of the most unnerving frightening sequences to come down the pike in a long time". anita gates of the new york times wrote: "there are very few moments in kiyoshi kurosawa's fiercely original thrillingly creepy horror movie that don't evoke a dreamlike dread of the truly unknown". slant gave the film four stars out of four: "kurosawa's movies hav a genuinely unnerving effect on the viewer because they deal with the kind of loneliness that exists in an overcrowded world. pulse is his strongest elucidation of this theme treating the world wide web as a literal snare forging sinewy connections between strangers where the ultimate destination is chaos". the guardian called it "an incredibly creepy horror film" that in the same way as ring "finds chills in the most dingy and mundane of locales; skillful deployment of grisly little moments and disturbing cryptic imagery produce the requisite mood of dread and gloom". film threat wrote: "what's worse than a horror film that frightens you sleepless is one that disturbs you to depression". the washington post commented: "pulse is best enjoyed if it's not questioned too closely. it lives visually in a way it cannot live intellectually entertainment weekly was critical of the film writing: "watching pulse you could almost die of anticipation" commenting that "nothing in the two snail-paced hours makes close to a shred of sense". the seattle times criticized the film's storyline and length writing "while it's rattling your nerves pulse leaves your brain wanting more" and the village voice called the film "at least half an hour too long in 2012 jaime n christley of slant listed the film as one of the greatest of all time. in the early 2010s time out conducted a poll with several authors directors actors and critics who hav worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. the film was ranked as number 65 on the 2020 version of the same lis the scene in which yabe encounters a ghost for the first time has received attention for being especially frightening without using jump scares or loud sound effects; scott tobias writing for the a.v. club described it as "arguably the signature sequence in all of j-horror **+** list of ghost film 1.a b c d e f g pulse (booklet). arrow vidya. 2017. p.2. fcd1396 2.elley derek (may 11 2011). "pulse". variety. archived from the original on august 5 2017. retrieved august 4 2017 3."kairo (2001)". box office mojo. internet movie database. archived from the original on september 16 2023. retrieved february 20 2021 4."festival de cannes: kairo". festival-cannes.com. archived from the original on 2012-10-09. retrieved 21 october 2009 5.scott tobias (19 november 2008). "the new cult canon: pulse". the a.v. club. archived from the original on 26 july 2021. retrieved 29 june 2012 6.a b harris dana (april 25 2001). "distant horizon nabs rights to japan's 'kairo'". variety. vol.271 no.40. p.28. issn0011-5509 7.bill gibron (20 february 2006). "pulse (kairo)". dvd talk. archived from the original on 2 december 2016. retrieved 1 december 2016 8.jonathan barkan (9 september 2016). "kiyoshi kurosawa's 'kairo' ('pulse') getting the arrow vidya treatment!". bloody disgusting. archived from the original on 2 december 2016. retrieved 1 december 2016 9.a b "pulse (kairo) (2001)". rotten tomatoes. archived from the original on 12 december 2016. retrieved 2 january 2017 10."pulse". metacritic. fandom inc. retrieved 9 november 2025 11.jonathan crow. "pulse (2001)". allmovie. archived from the original on 12 may 2012. retrieved 29 june 2012 12.jeremiah kipp (20 june 2005). "pulse". slant magazine. archived from the original on 22 october 2012. retrieved 29 june 2012 13.andrew pulver (3 february 2006). "pulse". guardian.co.uk. archived from the original on 21 september 2014. retrieved 29 june 2012 14.styna chyn (29 june 2005). "kairo". film threat. archived from the original on 22 january 2021. retrieved 29 june 2012 15.stephen hunter (23 november 2005). "'pulse': a quiet garme of doom". the washington post. archived from the original on 2 april 2015. retrieved 29 june 2012 16.owen glieberman (16 november 2005). "pulse". entertainment weekly. archived from the original on june 10 2007. retrieved 29 june 2012 17.jeff shannon (2 december 2005). ""pulse": the it gods help us". the seattle times. archived from the original on 5 may 2023. retrieved 5 may 2023 18.j. hoberman (1 november 2005). "feardotcom". the village voice. archived from the original on 5 may 2023. retrieved 5 may 2023 19.christley jaime n (2012). "jaime n christley - bfi - british film institute". sight & sound. archived from the original on 2015-09-10. retrieved 2012-12-05 20."the 100 best horror films". time out. archived from the original on january 20 2013. retrieved april 13 2014 21.nf. "the 100 best horror films: the list". time out. archived from the original on april 24 2014. retrieved april 13 2014 22.tobias scott (20 november 2008). "the new cult canon: "pulse"". the a.v. club. archived from the original on 1 november 2022. retrieved 1 november 2022 23.navarro meagan (25 may 2021). "the most terrifying scene in 'pulse' proves dread is just as effective as conventional scares". slash film. archived from the original on 1 november 2022. retrieved 1 november 202 **+** official website ![[edit this at wikidata]](pulse%20%282001%20film%29%20-%20wikipediafiles/oojsuiiconedit-ltr-progressive.svgwvl2.jpg **+** pulse at imd **+** pulse (kairo) at rotten tomatoe **+** pulse at the japanese movie database (in japanese)