Before you watch Harawata Man, you need to get the DVD of Ikenie Man. This is the sequel. While you can still enjoy the film separately, it’s best as a double feature. Both films are short so watching them back-to-back is about the running time of the average horror film. How do these two slasher films remain thoroughly entertaining while half as long as a traditional feature films? Because along with murdering off half the cast, Harawata Man slices away the second act. Let’s admit an unspoken truth: nobody really likes second acts. The first act sets up the characters and gives us the inciting incident. The third act has the character at their low point and ends with the big finale. What about the second act? Mostly the second act is padding that allows the film to be 110 minutes long. When I was at film school, there were times during required screenings that I’d take a nap during the second act. Rarely did I miss anything that mattered. Because if it mattered that much – it would be part of the third act. Writer-director Yu Nakamoto doesn’t waste a viewer’s time with an hour of second act padding. Imagine how much better the sequels to Halloween, Friday The 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street would be if they’d killed the second act instead of two more bland characters? Like Ikenie Man, Harawata Man gives us a creative film that doesn’t waste our time while wasting its cast in a blood drenched third act.
The college film club is back for another year, but things have changed. The original director from the first has graduated and the assistant director is now getting to make his film. He’s been left the Ikenie Man outfit, but he doesn’t want to make a sequel to Ikenie Man. He has renamed the character Harawata Man. Instead of being a killer in the woods, the character now is a vigilante who rips out the intestines of evildoers. The first scene has him attack a druggie who is stalking a schoolgirl. The camera woman from the first film is having to play the Harawata Man since she fits the costume. They even have new students join them. During class, a film professor asks the camera woman if she wants a job with a professional crew. Instead of grabbing the gig, she wants to finish her classmate’s movie before he graduates. For the final day of filming, the director has found an abandoned factory. Everyone shows up except the director since his love of buying last chance Bento boxes at gas stations has finally caught up with his stomach. Instead of going home, the kids are going to shoot the film themselves. They have a sense what Harawata Man needs to do. Before they can roll tape, they run into a psycho killer with a gas mask and cleaver. The gang splits up and two of the kids are cornered by the deranged maniac. But it turns out this is also a video shoot using the factory as a location. The “professional crew” think the two kids are supposed to be production assistants. They play along as the PAs to get a bit of experience. The duo sense that they’ve stumbled upon the making of a gonzo adult film video. Except during the first scene, the real nature of the video comes out. The students learn a hard truth about the cutthroat world of showbiz.
Harawata Man is the perfect sequel to Ikenie Man. It brings back a lot of familiar surviving faces from the first movie. Yu Nakamoto comes up with another twist that makes perfect sense. The people in the professional video crew do remind me of the folks I’ve worked with on various reality TV shows. The gore level is maintained. Most importantly, Harawata Man is also short and to the point. Writer-director Yu Nakamoto deserves major praise for once more killing a second act that would have bored viewers. Critic always complain that horror films are too long. Here’s the horror film that’s just the right length. There’s no reaching for the remote control to fast forward to something interesting. You can watch Ikenie Man and Harawata Man as a satisfying double feature in less time than it takes to watch David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer. And you’re going to get five times the thrills, chills and laughs. Both DVDs are worth adding to your horror collection. Harawata Man is a slasher that slices away time and characters.
The Video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. You can see the gore effects clearly. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo in Japanese. The levels are sharp so you can hear echoes inside the factory. The movie is subtitled in English.
Original Japanese Trailer (1:23) has the chaos of what happens when the kids show up on the wrong movie set.
Theatrical Trailer (1:01) is the one from Wild Eye Releasing with English titles.
Trailer Gallery includes Bloody Muscle Body Builder, Ikenie Man, Nurse Exorcist and Violator.
Wild Eye Releasing presents Harawata Man. Directed by Yu Nakamoto. Screenplay by Yu Nakamoto. Starring Yûko Gotô, Marie Kai, Tanabe Nanami, Tsugumi Sakurai, Sumire Ueno, Yû Yasuda & Shigeo Ôsako. Running Time: 46 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: September 10, 2024.
