Kakurenbo (2004)

Original title

カクレンボ

Directed by

Shuhei Morita

Genre

horror film

Country

Japan

Runtime

25 min

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 52 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Children who play a version of hide and seek in a ruined city sometimes disappear. A boy joins the game to look for his sister who went missing.

atmosphericeeriemelancholiccreepydreamlikeunsettlingtenselonely

What happens

Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek (カクレンボ, Kakurenbo; lit. "Hide and Seek") is a Japanese cel-shaded anime short film written and directed by Shuhei Morita. The film entails a game of "Otokoyo" (オトコヨ; lit. Man Hunt), a version of hide and seek played by children, wearing fox masks, near the ruins of an abandoned old Kowloon-inspired city. The children who play this disappear, believed to be spirited away by demons. Kakurenbo follows Hikora, a boy who joins the game with hopes of finding his missing sister, Sorincha. The storyline is built on the idea that Tokyo is losing its natural aesthetic, which includes child's games such as hide and seek in order for industrial progress to ensue i.e. lighting the city of Tokyo costing innocence of childhood games. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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