We take this short little break in the Best and Worst of 2008 to bring you my latest review of the recently released fourth film in the Kara no Kyoukai series entitled The Hollow. Also known as Garan no Dou and Void Shrine so I don't know exactly why in the movie it was called The Hollow other than that makes a lot more since considering a large part of the movie was talking about Shiki's hole in her chest (figuratively speaking that is) and how she was empty on the inside with out the other Shiki. Again this movie jumps around in the timeline taking place before episode 1 and 3 but after episode 2 so keeping track of how things go is quit interesting to say the least. That and the long ass wait from the release of the third episode to this one doesn't help matters either.
So yeah about this movie. Well there isn't nearly that much action or suspense this is more of a development film where we get to see the meeting of Shiki and Touko in the hospital where Shiki develops her power of "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception" after being in a coma for two years. Again in this film there is some rather stunning visuals both with Shiki's Red and Blue eyes and the what I'm guessing is the afterlife or the area between reality and the spirit world. Also it features a wonderful soundtrack as well.
Towards the very end of the movie it does toss in a great little fight for Shiki as she goes from laying in bed to fighting off a reanimated corpse that is being used by evil spirits from the Hospital. It was pretty good stuff but I was curious as to why when the end credits started to roll there was a good ten minutes left on the timer. Well it turns out that after the credits and before the short preview for the next episode (which looks like it's going to be awesome) there is a bit in there where we learn just how things started for those other kids in the previous movies. Rather interesting actually but I'm not going to spoil it for you'll just need to see the movie and don't forget to stay after the credits for an interesting bit of information.
While it wasn't the best or most action packed film in the series it does give you a great amount of information and isn't unlikeable of a film but if you haven't seen the other three films it just wont mean anything to you or keep you interested in finishing it for that last little bit of action at the end. I still haven't heard of anyone licensing this series which I think is rather stupid as I still think this would be a great release for here in the states. But what the hell do I know right. I just know you should be watching this if you haven't already.
