Japanese horror is some of the most cerebral and suspenseful around. Films like Ju-On: The Grudge, and Ringu were so popular they inspired incredibly popular Western remakes. There’s just something about them, and once you watch one, you find yourself falling down a rabbit hole of interesting intensity. One such film is The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window.

Based on the popular manga of the same name, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window (さんかく窓の外側は夜) is a 2020 supernatural mystery film directed by Yukihiro Morigaki and written by Tomoko Aizawa. 

Shy bookstore clerk Kosuke Mikado (Jun Shison) is cursed. Ever since he was a child, he has been able to see ghosts. It terrifies him and he wants nothing more than to get rid of it. Dashingly handsome exorcist Rihito Hiyakawa (Masaki Okada), however, doesn’t see it as a curse. It’s a gift, one he can use. So, he offers Kosuke a job, as his assistant. Together the two solve bizarre cases, that lead them to Erika Hiura (Yurina Hirate), a high school student with an affinity for casting curses and causing the innocent to kill themselves. 

We first meet Mikado as a little boy, ostracized by his peers because as far as they’re concerned, “Ghosts don’t exist!” But then one of them is taken by one. 

When Hiyakawa discovered him in a bookshop, he was been haunted by the spirit of a man who committed suicide by falling off a building. Wrapping his arm around him, Hiyakawa enters Mikado’s spirit. Calming his fears, he uses their shared power to dissipate the power of the spirit, thus ending their existence on this pane. 

Later, when Mikado signs a contract with him, Hiyakawa claims him, thus ensuring no other spirit or evil entity will be able to harm him. This comes in handy later when Erika Hiura tries to curse him. 

Detective Hiroki Hanzawa (Kenichi Takito) has worked with Hiyakawa on many cases. he enlists his help again after several people go missing. Their killer is a madman hypnotized by the spirit of Erika Hiura. He’s been doing her bidding killing people and stitching pieces of their corpses together. 

The darker the case gets the closer Hiyakawa and Mikado become. But, when Mikado finds out his employer isn’t exactly the man he thought he was, he starts to question everything, including Hiyakawa’s feelings for him. 

Though the manga, and presumably the anime adaptation of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window is classified as a Boy’s Love series, there’s not much romance in the film. After watching the film, I can say that, while enjoyable, I probably would’ve understood much more if I had been familiar with the course material. It’s still enjoyable, but perhaps after watching the anime, I will give the film another try. 

8/10

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