I stumbled across Last Quarter at the local library (if it weren't for the cracked out and evil security guards, I'd totally be in love with Seattle Central Public Library) and just had to rent it. For one thing, I love Japanese films, and horror films (though Japanese horror films are usually a hit-or-miss affair). Plus, the stars of this movie are J-Rock artist Hyde (from the band L'Arc En Ciel) and Chiaki Kuriyama of Kill Bill Volume 1 fame (she plays my favorite character, Gogo Yubari)! I couldn't wait to see what kind of chemistry these two have together, whether Hyde is much of an actor, and how the story of star-crossed lovers seperated by the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead.

And surprisingly it turned out to be a great film. Based on Ai Yazawa's popular manga (first published in the magazine "Ribon"), Last Quarter tells the story of Mochizuki Mizuki, a girl who on her 19th birthday is totally sick of her life and everyone around her. After her mother commits suicide and her father marries the mistress that drove her motehr to it, she discovers that her boyfriend has cheated on her with her best friend. Fleeing from him in a state of despair, she wanders the streets until a stray, haunting melody catches her ear. She discovers the musician, a young man named Adam, sitting on the street playing a guitar. They strike up a conversation, and soon a friendship. She cuts herself off from her other friends and eventually moves into his estate. One day, his belongings disappear and he doesn't return home. Waiting and wondering, Mizuki decides she will live in his house forever, it that's what it takes, hoping that he will return to her. While in the depths of these melancholy musings, she receives a call from Adam on her cell phone, even though she never gave him her number. He says that he is leaving, and wants her to go with him. She, of course, agrees and gets into a taxi to meet him. While riding in the taxi, she hears his song playing on the radio and discovers that he is actually a famous musician with the band Evil Eye and that the song is called "Last Quarter."

In her happiness and excitment at seeing Adam again, Mizuki walks out into the street towards him and is struck by a delivery truck. From then on, the film takes several strange and potentially confusing turns, leaving the viewer to piece things together. Bits of plot are doled out, information is turned up that leads in one direction only to be a bit of a ruse and lead in another direction. Through it all, Mizuki, now a lingering spirit in the house, searches for her love, hoping to be reunited with him in death. But this is no typical ghost story, and Mizuki isn't exactly a ghost at all. The twists and turns in the plot are delightful and suspenseful, and will keep the viewer guessing until the very end. Last Quarter is a beautiful, lyrical love story filled with emotional resonance and intellectual fulfillment, sure to touch the heart, mind and soul.