The Complex (film)

**The Complex (クロユリ団地, Kuroyuri danchi)** is a 2013 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata. It first screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival on January 27, 2013, and hit theaters in Japan on May 18, 2013. A 12-episode drama series, *Kuroyuri Danchi ~Josho~*, which covers events before the film, began airing in Japan on April 9, 2013, and was released in the United States on Toku in May 2018.

**Plot** Nursing student Asuka Ninomiya (Atsuko Maeda) moves into a rundown apartment complex with her father Isao, mother Sachiko (Naomi Nishida), and younger brother Satoshi. She attempts to greet her elderly neighbor Shinozaki without much luck and becomes friends with his ward, Minoru Kinoshita. Strange occurrences soon follow: scratching noises and an alarm clock sound from Shinozaki’s apartment, and her own family repeating the same actions and conversations daily. Asuka later learns Shinozaki died while scratching the wall—the sound she heard—and a detective says he had been dead for three days unnoticed. Asuka feels Shinozaki resents her for not finding him sooner.

When a cleanup crew arrives, Asuka meets Shinobu Sasahara (Hiroki Narimiya), a cleaner with supernatural experience. He explains that the living move forward in time while the dead are stuck at their moment of death. He suggests Shinozaki can contact a psychic friend. Returning home, Asuka finds her apartment completely empty and her family gone, becoming hysterical. Shinobu learns from her foster parents that her whole family died years ago, and Asuka has been blaming herself. His psychic friend Sanae Nonomura reveals Shinozaki’s spirit is not hostile—he only wants to thank Asuka for finding him and warn her she is in danger. The real threat is Minoru, a boy who died 13 years ago after hiding in a garbage incinerator during a game of hide-and-seek and being burned alive.

Asuka grows withdrawn and depressed, refusing to leave, and continues playing with Minoru as a substitute for her dead brother. Shinobu and Nonomura force an exorcism to expel Minoru’s spirit from her damaged mind. Shinobu stops Asuka from letting Minoru inside, even when Minoru projects her family’s final memories. But he is tricked by a projection of his vegetative girlfriend, Hitomi Makimura (Megumi Sato), and lets Minoru in, who kills Nonomura. Asuka agrees to become Minoru’s playmate in exchange for Shinobu’s life.