Event

THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND

aka SECURITY GUARD FROM HELL)
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1992
Japan, 96 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

Unfairly derided as a generic slasher flick ground out before Kiyoshi Kurosawa moved on to better-known and -received works, including CURE and PULSE, THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND features all Kurosawa's signatures in nascent form loneliness and isolation amid the everyday, dingy, banal locations made haunting, terror stemming from the gloom and nihility of human existence rather than shock or gore. Art historian Akiko begins her new job at a corporation the same day as an immense security guard, who happens to match the description of a murderous sumo wrestler released due to an insanity plea. The outsized antagonist is a true void - stating no one truly believes people like him can exist and repeatedly telling people not forget him, he's a walking warning monsters are real and around us.

Kurosawa's penchant for layering on social commentary is also present Akiko's corporation is so large it outsources and doesn't control its own security, and her department, hastily thrown together to buy and sell art as commodity, technically doesn't exist. All this housed in a sallow, sickly building constantly trapping its occupants even without the help of a vicious killer. Kurosawa once named Hitchcock and Ozu as his influences, and GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND's direct blend of moody atmosphere and meat-and-potatoes suspense lands squarely between them.