Door III (1996)
Miyako is a frustrated insurance saleswoman stuck in a major dry spell. She tries every trick in the book, including aggressive flirting, which gets her plenty of gropers but no buyers. One day while venturing down a narrow stairwell, she injures her ankle and happens upon Mitsuru who works for some mysterious foreign company. Decked out in high goth style -- complete with long inky black hair and mascaraed eyes -- Mitsuru cuts quite an odd figure, yet his seductive though menacing ways make him difficult for Miyako to resist. Escorting her to his office to treat her ankle, Miyako notices that his all-female staff seem more glassy-eyed and soul-deadened than the average office workers. In fact, they seem almost like zombies. Later, weird things start happening. Mitsuko finds vomit on her doorstep, she seems to be tailed by a shadowy woman in a red dress, and most strikingly, she finds herself utterly powerless against Mitsuru's advances.
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Too much of everything
Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
An ambitious insurance saleswoman is stalked by a mysterious client and haunted by otherworldly ghouls in this film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. This is probably the earliest film in Kiyoshi's portfolio that powerfully exhibits his trademark style (especially the camera-work and sound effects) as well as a number of elements that would serve as the foundation for his subsequent films (e.g., the effects of the supernatural on the mind, ghosts, shadows, suicide, etc.). Fans of this director should get a real kick out of recognizing these elements and assigning them to specific sequences in his other works (he even breaks out the plastic sheeting at one point). Most of these elements were better implemented in his future outings, but they still have a certain effectiveness here."Door 3" does have its own personal foundation with its ubiquitous themes of seduction (and society-based expectations of women to sleep their way up the business ladder) as well as a science fiction component. The ending is weak, but the film as a whole is still pretty cool and far more entertaining than "Guard from the Underground" (1992), "Eyes of the Spider" (1998), or "Bright Future" (2003).If you're a fan of this director and have tapped out all of his horror entries – including "Sweet Home" (1989) – then you should probably move on to this one. It's not a great film, but it's surely a treat.