One of my favorite things about the Overlook Film Festival is the selection of international titles presented by Mubi. Last year’s offerings included instant Korean horror favorites like Sleep and Exhuma. So, I was eager to see what nightmare fuel the fest would be serving us this year. Overlook didn’t disappoint as they introduced us to The Ugly Stepsister from Norway and Hallow Road from the UK. However, my heart belongs to the gross and surprising Japanese horror movie Best Wishes to All.
The film is based on a short of the same name. It follows a young woman visiting her grandparents in the countryside. However, because this is a horror movie, she discovers the shocking secret to their happy life. What follows is a twisted and chaotic ride that will change the family dynamic forever. Best Wishes to All is Yûta Shimotsu’s first feature film, and I do not know if I am ready for whatever will follow this one. However, I am excited to see what other sick things are also lurking in Shimotsu’s mind.
J-Horror for the Soul
Best Wishes to All is the kind of creepy mystery that keeps us coming back to J-horror. It has plenty of moments that are nearly impossible to explain. I watched it twice, but I’m still uncertain if I can believe what I saw. There are also so many layers of weird shit that your eyebrows will spend most of the runtime on the ceiling. However, there are also many laughs to be had as the film begins to stray from its almost realistic roots and run toward something more campy.
Kotone Furukawa plays the lead in this film, where no character gets a name. On the surface, Furukawa’s character seems like she is getting the usual setup. As a child, something weird happened, but the family has seemingly moved on. The audience knows that whatever the incident was will come back to her as we foam at the mouth awaiting details. So, when her picturesque stay with her grandparents starts getting strange, we lean in. It soon becomes apparent that her elders are into something wild that it is connected to the childhood incident.
The Price of Happiness is Steep
This is when Best Wishes to All expands to become an unpredictable ensemble piece. We discover our protagonist is the only person who was not in on this huge and strange secret to happiness. This allows her mother, father, and little brother to join the comedic chaos as the film attempts to break our protagonist and push her into joining them in the madness. The script is fun but also makes us think about how people suffer even for our smallest joys. Countless people put in blood, sweat, and tears literally to make the media we consume. How many people are suffering from student loan debt to (hopefully) work in the arts? Or some other fields that provide things that spark joy for other humans.
It’s 2025, and I am forced to watch a tyrant do what he promised he would if he got back in office. So, I am also thinking about the people who came here hoping to build a life. The countless people who did the hard thing of moving to a new country to provide what was supposed to be an easier life for their future generations. The things they endured in hopes that their kids would have opportunities that were not provided for them. Ideally, their immigration stories should be unfathomable to their offspring, who would be able to realize some version of the “American Dream.” However, they are facing a different nightmare and are expected to show up for work, class, etc., while living through this. Their happiness is indefinitely on hold because only bigots are finding joy easily during this administration.
Anyways…
I digress. Best Wishes to All is one of those films that is fun and weird on the surface. However, it also has plenty to unpack if you are in the mood to be less shallow. It is the kind of outrageous gift that keeps on giving. This review could never do this movie justice, but I hope you watch it anyway. It is the good kind of unsettling that reminds us cinema is alive and well. It is also a welcome escape as it provides almost 90 minutes at the intersection of happiness and weirdness.
Best Wishes to All is now available on Shudder.
