Review of Pulse (2001) – When the Internet Opens the Door Between the Spirit World and Humans Begin to Disappear

Pulse (Original Title: Kairo) | 2001 | 1h 59m
Genre: Psychological Horror / Supernatural Horror / Horror / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller | Country: Japan
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Writers: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Asô, Koyuki
IMDb: 6.6
My Rate: 7/10

Pulse (or Kairo) tries to deliver horror through technology, when digital connections slowly become a gateway for something unseen that little by little affects humans. Michi and Ryosuke start to feel growing oddities: small disturbances that initially seem trivial, but gradually turn into something that can no longer be explained rationally.

Warning:

Scenes of suicide and self-harm

Synopsis:

Michi begins to grow suspicious when her coworker suddenly becomes unreachable. Her decision to visit his apartment instead leads her to witness a mysterious death she never imagined, while a disk left behind contains strange recordings that are hard to explain. A forbidden room seems to become a clue to the cause of the incident.

On the other hand, Ryosuke, who has just started connecting to the internet, finds strange videos playing on his computer by themselves. In his attempt to understand the disturbance, he meets Harue, who is conducting research and feels that her findings are connected to the phenomenon happening around them.

Without realizing it, this chain of events is connected—a portal slowly opens between the human world and the world of spirits. Souls filled with emptiness seem to be called to disappear, just like Michi’s coworker and the people in those mysterious videos.
Can they uncover the mystery behind this terror before they also vanish without a trace?

Review:

Imagine ghosts using the internet and turning it into a portal to influence the human world. It sounds unreasonable, even a little absurd, because how could invisible beings connect digitally? But in Pulse, a Japanese horror film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, that concept is shaped into a quiet, slow-creeping kind of terror.

The foundation of the story is built quite solidly through two separate plotlines that are indirectly connected. The death of Michi’s coworker becomes the entry point to the mystery, while the videos appearing on Ryosuke’s computer radiate a similar aura—emptiness and a hollow feeling that seems contagious. Clue by clue, through scenes and dialogue, the direction of the story becomes clearer.

The conflict grows stronger as people around them begin acting strangely and disappearing without a trace. Foreign apparitions appear in various spaces, but the greatest terror actually comes from within the characters themselves. That emptiness is not just an external phenomenon, but something that slowly eats away at the soul.

The resolution is handled quite subtly. The meeting of the two main characters does not feel forced, and the mystery unfolds little by little. Even so, the film still leaves a big question—not only about the fate of its characters, but about the wider state of the world.

In one dialogue, it is mentioned that the spirit world has become full, so they begin to intervene in the human world. But a contradiction appears when the spirits instead cause humans to end their lives and join them. This is where the film opens space for interpretation: is this about death, or about unbearable loneliness? Are humans brought over so the spirits will no longer feel alone?

The weakness of this film is not in its idea, but in scene transitions that sometimes feel abrupt. The two storylines are indeed designed to meet, but the shifts often feel roughly separated. Some scenes also feel less important, as if they only keep the characters moving without giving meaningful impact.

Another oddity appears at the beginning of the film when one of Michi’s coworkers finds a room sealed with red tape at a construction site. Instead of avoiding it, he opens it and walks in just like that, making the conflict feel slightly forced.

In terms of acting, nothing stands out too much, and the use of music sometimes feels less aligned with the mood of certain scenes. Still, the main strength of Pulse lies in the meaning it carries—the connection between death and the emptiness of modern humans.

In the end, Pulse is not merely a film about ghosts and technology, but a quiet reflection on loneliness in the modern era. The internet, which is supposed to connect, instead becomes a space of isolation, while unspoken emptiness turns into something terrifyingly real. The film may not offer clear answers, but that is precisely where its strength lies—it lets the audience go home with unease that lingers long after the screen goes dark.

Impressive Scene:

One of the most striking scenes in Pulse is when Harue feels that death might give her relief from the emptiness she carries. Ryosuke does not stay silent; he tries to convince her that life, even when it feels hollow, still has more meaning than surrendering to death, and that they still have to learn how to value it. It is a belief he tries to plant in Harue, who feels hopeless.

This scene feels very close to reality. Emptiness, loss of direction, and confusion about life’s purpose often make someone think that death is the way out. But are we really sure that emptiness will not follow us there?