Forbidden Siren (film)

Forbidden Siren (サイレン FORBIDDEN SIREN, also known as Sairen) is a movie adaptation of the videogame series Siren. It was released in Japan on February 9, 2006 to coincide with the Japanese release of the sequel game, Forbidden Siren 2, on which the movie is loosely based.

Forbidden Siren was directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi and stars a host of actors such as Yui Ichikawa, Leo Morimoto, Naoki Tanaka, Hiroshi Abe, Naomi Nishida, Suzuki Matsuo, Kyûsaku Shimada, Mai Takahashi, and Jun Nishiyama.

The film begins by noting the sudden disappearances of people that occurred in the Lost Colony in Roanoke, Virginia in 1590 and the ship, the Mary Celeste, in 1872.

The film starts in 1976, the inhabitants of a solitary island of Yamajima seem to have disappeared but searchers find one person who gives a mysterious warning: “When you hear the siren, never go out”.

Thirty years later, Yuki Amamoto goes to the island with her father, a freelance reporter, and her little brother, Hideo, who appears to be mute.

Though they are welcomed by a young doctor, Minamida, who shows them the island, all the islanders look creepy and unfriendly to Yuki. The house they live in has long been deserted, full of dust and old blood stains. Her neighbour, staying next door, helps her clean the house and gives her the same strange warning: “When you hear the siren, never go out”.

Yuki then talks to the doctor asking if Hideo will ever recover. He tells her it takes time. It is the beginning of a series of mysterious incidents, as Yuki explores the island: A group of dancers in fancy clothes, mysterious scribbles on the walls of a ruined house, a diary from 1976, a suddenly deserted market, a pretty girl in a red dress standing on the hill who appears to be telling her brother a story. Additionally, the diary is that of the sole survivor of the 1976 disappearance of the villagers, containing the truth behind the incident. It describes how the villagers were murdered and how the murders took place, but the diary is missing pages as it appears to have been torn in half.

After her father tells her he is going out to take pictures of the nocturnal animals, Yuki hears the siren for the first time. She is again reminded to not go outside but does so anyway in order to look for Hideo, finding him outside and pointing to the metal tower where the siren is coming from.

The next morning, Yuki and the doctor go looking for her father who has not yet returned. It is here that Yuki tells the doctor that the people of the village might not be trustworthy. However, Yuki then finds herself lost. She decides to explore the island more but runs across many odd occurrences. Eventually the doctor catches up with her and from the things Yuki has seen, she and the doctor summon a police officer to help them as Yuki believes her father is dead. Nothing is found, but when she returns to her house, her father is there although something is very wrong with him as he seems cold-blooded and behaves like a different man. Curious as to what the problem is, Yuki finds her father’s video camera from the night the siren went off to see if there is anything on it. Nothing appears out of the ordinary with the exception of her father falling and slightly injuring himself. She discusses the island and the siren with the doctor again but returns home. She decides to find out more information on the internet. She reads about the Roanoke colony and the Mary Celeste. At the same time, the doctor begins to do some research on what Yuki has told her and, we see Hideo is being told a story by the woman in red again. The story appears to be about victims of a terrible disease were once isolated on Yamajima. The story goes that the flesh of a mermaid could bring ever-lasting life, a cure to the disease. They reportedly captured a mermaid and ate it. But before the mermaid died, it let out a terrible scream and cursed the island. Yuki sees old video footage from 1976 that was filmed by the rescue party who found the one survivor. After seeing this the website shows a picture of the woman in red.

Yuki rushes out to find Hideo and finds him sitting with the woman in red. Yuki tells Hideo to come to her and he does, just as the siren begins to wail again. She takes Hideo to an old house where a man is living and who had also previously warned Yuki of the siren. While there, Shibito begin attacking and attack the man tries to fight them off but is killed. This gives time for Yuki and Hideo to head back to their house. There, Yuki declares that she and Hideo will leave the island in the morning. While looking for things to take with them, Yuki finds a hidden room in their house. In the hidden room, there are pictures of people from 1976. Including a picture of the doctor who looks exactly the same as he did in 1976. Just as she discovers this, the siren begins wailing again and the power in the house goes out. That’s when Yuki sees that her father is now a Shibito. He tries to kill them but Yuki and Hideo are able to escape. Outside, they try to find help, but discover that every person on the island is now a shibito.

While trying to escape, Hideo points out the metal tower with the siren on it. Yuki and Hideo head that way and begin to climb to the top. On the way up, they are being followed by Shibito with many more coming to the metal tower. Yuki finally makes it to the top and begins to destroy the siren. After doing so, Yuki realizes she can still hear the siren. By then the doctor has climbed to the top of the tower, yelling to Yuki that there is no siren. It’s all in her mind. And that Hideo died a long time ago. We then flash back to several scenes in the movie, seeing Yuki going through the same motions as before but Hideo is not there, explaining why people were looking at her oddly. We then flash back to a scene of her father and Yuki in an ambulance, with paramedics trying to revive Hideo but to no avail. Realizing that there is nothing left for her, Yuki lets herself fall off the metal tower.

We then see she survived the fall with the doctor and her father talking about Yuki and her recovery. While watching over her, the doctor notices Yuki still has the half of the torn diary in her pocket. He takes it from her and puts it together with the other half of the diary he had from the files of the massacre in 1976. Reading it, he sees that the person who wrote it states that when the siren sounded the fourth time, he must kill them all. We then see Yuki awaken to the sound of the siren. She appears behind the doctor with a scalpel and attacks. We then see the woman in red singing about hell’s gate opening as the movie ends with the sky turning black and the sea turning red.

Many things are left unclear throughout the film due to the complex nature of the plot, the fact that what Yuki is seeing may or may not be real. It may be that Yuki's already unstable mind is merely influenced by the tales and the diary that she comes across. Also, the role of the hidden room in Yuki's home is also left undecided, as it is unknown whether any of the images inside (those dating the islanders back to 1976) are actually factual. Likewise, the role of the woman in red is not made explicit but it is assumed that she is the spirit of the mermaid that died long ago due to her likeness to the girl in the painting. It is suggested by the doctor in the final scene that the siren is only heard by those "conditioned" to hear it and that there may indeed be some supernatural force behind the events.

One possible explanation of the plot is that the inhabitants or the villagers of the island did achieve a kind of immortality which explains the photos in the hidden room. The woman in red is likely to be the mermaid seeking revenge.

• Although the sightjacking ability from the videogames plays no part in the film, there are several moments where the camera takes the perspective of a prowling Shibito (corpse person). This is clear reference to the game where, seeing oneself briefly through the Shibito's eyes will alert the player to danger.
• Another nod towards the games is the use of music that plays during the scene where Yuki enters the isolated market and wonders where all the islanders have gone. The music could be collected as informative documentation that the player can view in the Archives.
• Mai Takahashi who plays the 'Lady in Red' is also an actress from the second game. She plays Yuri Kishida, Kanae and Ryuko Tagawa.

• The folktale of the mermaid is very similar to the Legend of Yaobikuni found in the first game.

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• Official Japanese website - No longer active.
• Interactive movie website - No longer active.
• Forbidden Siren at IMDb