Chizuko's Younger Sister

Another fine fantasy/drama from Nobuhiko Ôbayashi. It seems that during the late 80s/early 90s Ôbayashi made a couple of films geared at a younger audience. Luckily he never seemed to have lost his unique touch. Though Chizuko's Younger Sister feels like a kid's film, there's still plenty of trademark Ôbayashi here.

The story revolves around Mika, the younger sister of the deceased Chizuko. Mika has always lived in the shadow of her older sis and had a hard time growing up. Until one day, when her sister comes back from the dead to rescue her from a perv. From then on she keeps seeing Chizuko whenever she's struggling.

There's a little visual weirdness that is definitely appreciated and the film fares best when Ôbayashi keeps it light and breezy. It gets a bit too dramatic near the end and a little editing to get it closer to the 120-minute mark would've done the film some good, but overall this was a pretty warm, quirky and agreeable film.