Plot: A group of high school kids get involved in a deadly game of body search. They are forced to repeat the same day until they finish the game.
In case you're wondering why the movie title Remember is written as such, it is supposed to be a clever play on the theme of the movie.
In the movie, six high school students must assemble a dead girl's dismembered body to escape a deadly loop. But once the game is over, the participants will forget they were friends.
So, they must Re-member a dead girl as well as try to remember each other when the game is over.
But will you remember this movie once it is over?
RE/MEMBER Movie Plot
Asuka (Kanna Hashimoto) is woken up by her alarm at 7 a.m. Her phone is on charge and it vibrates noisily on her table. This is something we will have to see a couple of times in the movie.
She heads downstairs and her mother is packing an extravagant lunch of shrimp and pumpkin croquettes that she insists Asuka shares with her friends. Asuka pauses while having her breakfast and we glean that she really has no one to share her lunch with.
As she heads to school, a couple of girls behind her call her a loser. She sees a cat on the fence which later comes under a truck.
Then there's a group of boys sitting around who also call Asuka a loser. By now we have to get it that Asuka is the outcast. It couldn't be much clearer at this point.
In the classroom, we are introduced to yet another "loser", a boy this time. Shota (Kotaro Daigo) is wrongfully accused of stealing money from the school committee.
In comes "cool" guy Takahiro (Gordon Maeda) who doesn't make much of a fuss about Shota being a thief because he knows his classmate is being framed.
Asuka has dreamy eyes and is impressed. The outcast has a crush on the cool guy. So far, there isn't anything new going on here.
The archetypal characters have been established but luckily the movie quickly moves on to the horror part.
Asuka has no one to share her croquettes with. She goes outside to eat and at first, hears a girl asking for help to look for her body.
Asuka sits next to a well where bloody hands emerge. Before Asuka can register shock, in comes the construction guys who want to get some work done.
Soon enough, at midnight, Asuka finds herself in school, at the Chapel. There are five more of her classmates: popular but nice girl Rie (MayuYokata), Takahiro, Rumiko (Maika Yamamoto), Shota, and Atushi (Fujo Kamio).
Before they can figure out what is going on, a figure chases them and Atushi is killed immediately.
The classmates are in shock. They are killed off one by one until they realize they have been unwillingly brought into a game of Body Search. In the Chapel is a coffin that belongs to the victim.
The next morning, Asuka wakes up thinking everything was a bad dream until she finds her mother preparing the same tiffin for her. She makes a face and asks "Again?" When her mother tells her the Menu.
The events repeat exactly, including the death of the cat. She enters her classroom but before Shota can be framed for theft, Takahiro drags him outside. The other four follow and they discuss what happened last night.
The librarian descends the stairs only to retreat when he sees the group of kids. It is as if he's thinking, "nope, I'm not getting involved."
Realizing they have no choice, the six devise a plan to collect the body parts. Shota has sketched the entire school map and one by one they cross out the areas they have searched.
Midnight strikes and as luck would have it, Asuka has Takahiro help her in the classroom where they find one of the first body parts, an arm.
But they are attacked by the creature which is creepy enough to give you nightmares.
Takahiro makes the ultimate sacrifice to distract the creature so that Asuka can return the body part to the coffin. Considering they are going to make it without a scratch the next day, it isn't much of a sacrifice.
Anyway, Asuka returns the body part but is eventually killed resulting in the day being reset.
Some loops later, the six have formed a close friendship which includes goofing about at the beach. Asuka and Takahiro talk and get closer to each other.
They get into trouble with some bullies at the beach but are unbothered because the day is going to reset anyway.
That night, the three girls are in the swimming pool and talking when they are attacked by the girl who is carrying her stuffed toy. Before Asuka is killed, she sees the toy sink head first.
She reasons that the last piece, the head, must be in the toy.
However, that night, the creature that attacks them looks like the stuffed toy that swallows Rie.
The day repeats but this time Rie is not with them and none of the other classmates remember her.
RE/MEMBER Ending Explained
The rules of the game have changed. Turns out that if they get eaten, they are forgotten. Can those classmates be re-remembered?
Asuka gets the librarian to talk who admits to participating in the game but can't even remember his friends anymore.
Asuka is saddened to hear that the friends she finally made to share croquettes with, will forget her. Eventually, she will have to tell her mother to pack less food.
She goes up on the roof to think depressing thoughts when Takahiro comes to find her. He hugs and kisses her but Asuka doesn't look like she's into it.
He promises he won't forget her, but she isn't so sure. He gives her a tie pin but she's still not convinced.
It is time for the creature to attack but the traps laid out for him are not as effective. The others are killed quickly. Takahiro once again makes a sacrifice so that Asuka can escape but she manages to get the creature right where a large cross is dangling. It breaks loose and falls onto the creature.
Asuka manages to place the last piece, the head, into the coffin.
The next morning, Asuka finds her mother has packed her a different tiffin. Again, her mother tells her to share her food. Asuka is sad because she probably remembers she doesn't have friends anymore.
At school, Rie is back, and the six are selected to be on a committee that meets up at the Chapel.
As they walk towards it, Asuka is mourning the loss of her friendships. The tie pin falls from her pocket and Takahiro picks it up. Realization hits and he calls to her. He tells her that he didn't forget her after all.
The others have forgotten her and are shocked that a popular boy is talking to a girl like Asuka.
The movie ends but during the credits, we see that the photo of the dead girl in the newspaper clipping changes to Asuka's childhood picture.
Does that mean that the game doesn't ever end and is passed on to one of the participants of the game?
That means that the game resets in such a way that it changes past events. Asuka is dead and the next batch of players must find her body.
In that case, Takahiro has no choice but to forget she ever existed-- an unfortunate turn of events for Asuka.
RE/MEMBER is an engaging horror movie but it falters because of the not-so-interesting love track. The time spent on setting up the romantic track could have instead been used to explain the game or on more chase sequences.
Nevertheless, RE/MEMBER is worth a watch for all horror fans.
Scare Scale: 3.5/5
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