Gakkō no Kaidan 2 (学校の怪談2) (also know as The Haunted School 2) is a 1996 live-action movie that is the second of a four-movie ghost movie series. It is based in the book series of the same name writen by Toru Tsunametsu. It was directed by Hideyuki Hirayama, just like the first movie. It was written by Satoko Okudera.
Synopsis[]
A test-of-courage adventure at the old schoolhouse goes awry when one of the kids jams the tower clock at 4:44, leaving the spirit-portal open to the land of the dead. In order to escape the schoolhouse, they will have to face all of the spirits who were unleashed, and restart the clock.
Plot[]
Test of courage at the old schoolhouse
During summer vacation, a group of elementary-school students were attending a training camp at a rural Buddhist temple. The monk in charge of the temple, Masayuki, took great pleasure in telling the visiting children the local region's many ancient ghost stories. The kids were intrigued by the creepy tale of the principal of the local school who was killed 30 years ago. Rumor has it that she died at precisely 4:44 on April 4, and thereafter strange things continue to happen when the clock reaches that very minute.
The students decided to go on a test of courage that day at the school. At the precise minute of 4:44, one of the kids, Ken, is in the clock tower, and gets a shoe jammed in the gears of the clock, causing it to seize up at 4:44. The ghostly portal was thereby left open, allowing a number of ghosts to pass into the school, and also trapping the kids and their teacher, Rika, inside. Also stumbling into this situation was an unwitting cat burglar, Asano, intent on pilfering the temple and school of its valuables during the summer break. In the school safe he found an antique gold pocket watch; the very watch the dead principal had with her the night she disappeared.
The kids receive a jump scare
Several of the usual ghosts show up: Hanako, Man-faced dog, Teke teke, the statue of Kinjiro Ninomiya, the hand reaching from the toilet. The ghost of the principal arrived to chase Asano in order to retreive her pocket watch. Later, she was given the watch by Ken, and disappeared. Afterwards, in her wall portrait, she was now holding the watch.
The boss monster was called Nushi, a ghost that lived in the clock tower. He blocked the kids from getting the clock started again. Eventually some of the children, Koji and Yoshio, manage to remove Ken's shoe from the gears, and just barely escaped as the entire clock tower collapsed and was destroyed.
The kids took some pictures of ghosts using a Polaroid instant camera, but after the events were concluded, the images in the pictures became regular old men.
Cast[]
- Hironobu Nomura as Kazunari Asano (thief)
- Naomi Nishida as Rika Odagiri (schoolteacher)
- Masakane Yonekura as Masayuki (temple priest)
- Kiyoko Kishida as Shizuko Tokiwa (Dead principal)
- Aki Maeda as Nanako Imai (Female student in pigtails)
- Shohei Ota as Miyoshi Ken (Male student)
Gallery[]
