A note explains that Psychic Vision: Jaganrei is a reconstruction based on tapes from a TV documentary about a teen idol that was never aired. It’s a classic found footage set-up. This means we’re in for some spooky specters, dark figures, strange sounds, and people running from spooky specters, dark figures, and strange sounds.
But first, before we begin, let’s have a business development meeting.
Then after that, we must discuss marketing.
Then after that, let’s talk about songwriting.
Then after that, we must check in on the idol, who is practicing singing.
Then after that, let’s take a really deep dive into the process of singing. Like, what does it mean…to sing?
Then after that, let’s circle back and discuss songwriting and lyrics.
We should probably spend time watching people build sets, too.
My point is that we get very little spooky specters, dark figures, and strange sounds—the things that make found footage riveting and suspenseful. What we get instead is a bunch of people doing their jobs, and let’s face it, we can do that at our own jobs.
Eventually, a mysterious ghostly image does appear in photographs. Lights fall, cars explode, and someone throws up blood. The last ten minutes of this fifty-minute film explodes in mayhem. The camera swirls and bounces as things are literally on fire. People run, fall, get up, and repeat.
Shot on video, Psychic Vision: Jaganrei is one of those films that make you really work for the final few minutes. It’s 95% people having meetings and 5% chaos, when, of course, the percentages should be reversed. It is less of a slow burn and more of a slow warm because the sense of drama, foreboding, and suspense don’t ever get too intense, which means the ending goes somewhat unearned. You ask yourself if sitting through it is worth it, and for the most part, the answer is a solid maybe. There’s entirely too much time spent on set-up and establishing the edifice of it being “real” documentary footage. At times it feels like a recorded Zoom meeting that the project manager sent everyone in case you wanted to watch the meeting you just had…again. And you never do.
But what makes this film stand out is that it’s from 1988, a year before its American SOV found footage cousin, The McPherson Tape. It’s also ten years before Ringu, and many similar elements are seen in Psychic Vision: Jaganrei. In fact, there are certain tropes and themes that are now hallmarks of J-horror. While it may not be the first found footage film, Psychic Vision: Jaganrei is certainly part of the found footage canon and certainly one of the earliest SOV examples. The film was ahead of its time, and obviously today the subgenre has exploded and adapted. So watching Psychic Vision: Jaganrei is like watching a home movie of an infant that you knew grew up to become an absolute maniac.
