While some stories may seem too fantastic to believe, many come from the most horrifying of sources…the truth. Terrifying and sensational tales of ghosts hold Japan in the grips of fear. The best, most frightening of these have been assembled here in this unique anthology.

Not to be confused with the theatrical version, this version of TALES OF TERROR FROM TOKYO is the first season of a TV series which aired in 2004 in Japan. Each episode is roughly 5 mins long. Unfortunately, this is nothing different from the last 50 J-horror films released in the US. The magic in J horror seems to have vanished. There definitely isn’t any magic in this. Since each episode is just a 5 minute short, each episode tries for a quick scare and surprisingly ends up not providing any scares at all. These stories might be true stories but some of them are simply boring. Even five minutes is too long to wait for a scary moment which doesn’t pay off. Each story is so completely predictable that within the first few frames, you can tell what is coming. It is very disappointing because of the fact directors like Takashi Shimizu and Norio Tsuruta are involved.  It is time for the Japanese to reinvent the genre once again.

This 1st season contains the following episodes: Elevator, The School Excursion, Kengo Nishioka, Visitor, Covering The 100 Tales, Cassette Tape, Spilt Water, Backward Suit, Examination Room #3 (part 1 and part 2), An Forgotten Item, Video, A Drop Of Blood, Enlightenment, and Waiting Time.

DVD DETAILS:

Video: presented in full frame of 1.33:1 ratio and details of images are not as bad as one can expect in this cheap production of miniDV. It creates certain sequences of low lighting come out very muddy and grainy but overall it is sharp and decently detailed.
Audio: disc supports Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles, its mix is average. Dialogue is clear and centered and even though it contains fair amount of scare moments wanna be, usage of rear channels or low frequencies is very minimized.

Special Features

Trailers: trailers of upcoming and previous releases from Tokyo Shock include, One Missed Call, Sisters, Samurai Resurrections, and Dogora.