There are astronomical gulfs separating this film from others of its type. The main character is a working medium convincing spirits to leave disturbed locations. She’s not some elevated guru; she’s a gig worker with a marketable skill. It’s a pretty niche career path with no benefits. And she doesn’t work at night. Because that’s when the veil thins. It’s a grind.
She’s pretty good at what she does, though, and one of the best scenes in the film is a demonstration of ritual mechanics. She has a number of toys to help her cross the veil, and you’re not simply shown how they work; you’re drawn into the mechanism of trance, disembodiment, and altered perception. The ghosts are appropriately creepy and menacing, but it’s not really them you need to worry about. “Ghosts aren’t scary,” she proclaims. “The living scare me more.”
There’s a dark sense of humor about things; I had a favorite moment where she drunkenly dismisses a menacing apparition as she’s “off the clock.” Moeka Hoshi is fantastic in this role, and the script gives her a lot to work with.
It is a slow burn, a decent mystery, but then things twist, and… While the reveals are telegraphed and explained in advance, they land and upend the tradition of nearly every ghost story. To say more would be spoiler, and this movie is better unspoiled.