I fully admit that I sat to watch with a double disadvantage. For one thing, not being from Japan, I assume there are ideas herein that would bear much more significance for someone who is, and therefore I might well be missing something from my viewing experience. Secondly, I was so exhausted as I sat to watch that I actually passed out for several hours all told, and what should have been two hours became more like eight or nine. Then again, it's hardly as if this is the first Japanese film to be firmly rooted in Japanese folklore or culture, and I've enjoyed many others immensely. And while a middling or bad film might put an alert person to sleep, a good film usually has the effect, in my experience, of rousing me when I am drowsy, and that didn't happen here. And beyond these secondary or tertiary considerations, it must be mentioned as the foremost criticism that the single most defining trait of 'Demon pond' is a laboriously slow pace. I speak partly to Shinoda Masahiro's direction, if not also to Ikeda Zen and Yamachi Sachiko's editing, for the pacing within individual scenes as they are executed is all but reduced to soporific slow motion. However, I do also speak to the plot development, for not a lot actually happens over two hours, and even as scenes and the plot are written it is with a certain sense of lethargy.
I'm not familiar with Izumi Kyoko's play, and in the strictest of terms I can't speak to this as an adaptation. I can only judge the picture on its own merits, and to that end, Tamura Tsutomu and Mimura Haruhiko give us a story that's quite compelling once it meaningfully picks up. It is also, however, a story that reserves all its drama and hearty if recognizable themes for the back end; in turn, it is a story that probably could have seen fair portions omitted such that it would have comfortably fit into a feature that was shorter by between thirty and sixty minutes. The acting is earnest and commendable, the sets and lighting are lovely, and a lot of hard work went into the costume design, hair, and makeup. I deeply appreciate the practical effects that are employed. Yet apart from the slothful pacing, what most catches my attention is the original music of Tomita Isao, an airy, synth-driven soundtrack of somber ambience that quite recalls Tangerine Dream's flavorful dalliances with fantasy. I do also like the narrative, yes, but in all earnestness this is so meagerly paced that it is considerably longer than it needed to be or should have been. If 'Demon pond' had been as rich, engaging, and judiciously rendered for its full length as it was in the last forty-five minutes or so, I can guarantee that my evening would have looked much different.
I think this movie is fine. It's also plainly flawed, though, and those flaws are easily discernible in how the writing, direction, and editing treat the material, severely diminishing its strength. All that was necessary was for the same vitality we see toward the end to have been applied throughout. As that is not what happened, I find it difficult to offer an especial recommendation. It's still duly worthwhile, perhaps, on account of what it does well, but I couldn't begrudge anyone who finds the initial deliberation so off-putting that they stop watching and never see the value that this does have to offer.
