Dragon Blue

Mayuko Mizuki is a feng shui practitioner sent down to Isogata Village located on Tatsunomiya Island. Professor Noriaki Matsubara, the mentor of her boss, reports the disappearances of local woman and tourists, and slaughters of the men they were with. Mayuko doesn't want to go, but her boss tells her "I think you are approaching an encounter that will change your life." Too true. She later has a dream of a woman being chased by a monster.

Mayuko makes friends with Satomi, Matsubara's daughter, her boyfriend Kisuye, the junior high school teacher, and Takuya, Satomi's young but pouty cousin who is deeply attached to her. They make her feel welcome, but then there's the fraudulent Saga, the heavy set local priest complete with robes, staff, and wart on his face, who sees her as an intruder. Not only is he the most odious character, but he does some really extreme overacting in one scene.

She also comes across Detective Ryusaki, who is investigating the disappearance of a woman with an emerald pendant for an insurance company. They rub each other the wrong way at first, but it turns out he's actually a nice guy, only disillusioned with things in the world. "There are worse things around here than monsters. The politicians, and the land developers and the bankers. They're ruthless. They're only in it for themselves." Before long, more incidents occur.

Mayuko, while being the heroine, doesn't seem to get along with two men, her boss, and Ryusaki, and she's pretty irritable and even whiny with the latter, which is too bad as she spends a lot of time with the detective. She does however, establish a rapport with Satomi and Takuya. And this has to be the first film where I've seen someone impaled by a fish.

I've always wondered the purpose of those adult anime of tentacled aliens assaulting young girls, and I found out why from an explanation given to Mayuko: "After many centuries, man's greed and evil desires have become so lethal that the shield [between demon and human worlds] is collapsing. Humanity's iniquity now exceeds the bounds of Heaven and Earth. It cuts loose the demons that had once been fettered. The evil of the world runs rampant. They now feed on hatred, greed, and sorrow. These demons will continue to rage unless they are stopped." I often wonder if those predictions have already come true.

A crime drama mixed with horror and the supernatural, Dragon Blue only mirrors anime in the action scenes, and a low budget feel that's watcheable.