So last weekend, my bf and I decided to watch one of the movies that he got off of his NetFlix list. The movie was a Japanese "thriller" called Kerei?. It was supposed to be a slightly creepy psychological thriller about a vain, shallow but beautiful plastic surgeon who meets an “ugly” girl who seems have some psychological issues stemming from her self-image. From the summary on the DVD case, the plastic surgeon’s life “is changed forever after they meet”.

Sounds good right? Lots of potential for creepyness. Wrong!

First off, lemme start by saying that hypothetically if I were to create a psychological thriller, I would not film it in a way that suggests that it is actually soft-core porn on Cinemax. The slightly blurry, soft-focus shots might confuse the hypthetical viewers and make them re-check their DVD and DVD case. Also, I would try to get more than $2000 for the budget so it doesn’t look like the entire movie is filmed in some guy's rented townhouse.

Also, I would make sure that the “ugly” character, a person so ugly that supposedly people stare at her in the street, is in fact “ugly”. The girl they got to play this part could not be the Ugly Creepy-Girl, because she was actually the Not So Good Looking But Maybe If She Took a Hairbrush to Her Hair Once in While It Wouldn’t Be That Bad-Girl. Also, for the first half of the movie she wears an awful wool hat to disguse her unattactiveness. This is what I would do: Get rid of the hat, the bulky coat, slap some cover-up and lipgloss on her face and brush her hair. There you go. And she wouldn’t even have to pay millions of yen for plastic surgery that would make her face asplode in the end.

In conclusion, do NOT rent this movie. For creepy Asian thrillers I recommend some Miike, specifically, Audition. Ooh, also, Tale of Two Sisters which is Korean and Shutter (Thai).