X Game

A childhood friend’s suicide reunites Hideaki (Hirofumi Araki, “ Prince of Tennis ” ) and his classmates to pay their respects. Soon after, a DVD marked ‘X’ arrives, revealing a man being tortured. The shocking image triggers Hideaki’s memory of a time when he helplessly witnessed a schoolmate being humiliated with “batsu”(punishment) games. The evening after, Hideaki is kidnapped and when he awakens the next day, finds himself in a recreation of his old school-room, along with his recently reunited classmates. Trapped and held captive by mysterious hooded figures, each of them must now play a brutally violent, version of the punishment game, in order to survive. A twisty, horror/mystery ‘mash-up’ peppered with dark humor and inventive gore, director Yôhei Fukuda’s (of UK-banned “ Grotesque ”) shows how revenge is a dish best served cold and not very sweet – Japanese style .