In Tokyo Psycho, a lovely young woman is stalked by a young man who has been obsessed with her since childhood. The young man is crazy with a capital K, and seems to want to either marry her or murder her. There's really not much more to the plot than that: it's pretty straightforward a stalker story, with little deviation from that standard line.

Tokyo Psycho is very similar to many of the recent Japanese horror films which have gained notoriety overseas. It's small-budget but stylish; it achieves its effects through mood and editing. And it's not afraid of putting the gore up front when the situation calls for it.

Personally, I'm not a fan of horror films, modern or traditional: most of them can be really contrived or predictable, and usually rely on the BOO technique of startling rather than scaring. Horror, it seems to me, is similar to comedy in that either the viewer finds the film effective in its efforts, or not; and if not, it can be unenjoyable. Tokyo Psycho certainly didn't frighten me (though I admit I kept the sound down for the inevitable BOOs I knew would come); it was interesting enough, if too slowly paced.

The lead actress was certainly beautiful and talented, but the psycho badguy just didn't strike me as being particularly dangerous. If one can imagine being threatened by a psychotic high school sophomore, that's about the threat level represented by this film's killer. One good punch, apparently, could put his lights out.

Tokyo Psycho certainly wasn't a bad film, it just doesn't happen to be my cup of tea. But there are millions of Japanese horror fans out there, and I'm sure the bulk of them would enjoy this little morsel - a nice snack if not a full meal.