Maimi Yajima: "Fuyu no Kaidan ~Boku to Watashi to Obaachan no Monogatari" movie review

 Release Date: July 25, 2009    Length: 77 minutes    Director: Kooichi Ueno

Main Cast:

Maimi Yajima as Saya Saeki

Kanon Fukuda as Haruna Kazama

Nobuo Kimura as Ryo Kazama

Misao Fukaya as Grandmother Sayuri

Mari Nakajima as the mother

Daijiro Harada as the father

 The title doesn't mention it but this is the final post for Maimi's mini marathon, actually it ended up being anything but mini. The title translates over to 'Winter Ghost Stories- I and Me and Grandma's story'. Wasn't a true Hello Project film as it just starred Maimi and Kanon Fukuda from S/Mileage. It was part of a trilogy of horror films that came out in the Summer of 2009, all of them were definitely low budget films and this one probably had the lowest of all three.

 Will try to keep this brief, a normal person could probably review it in two paragraphs but knowing me it'll end up being twenty or more. As you can see above Maimi plays the character of Saya Saeki and this I would imagine was her first film role or at least her first major one. Saya was summoned to the Kazama household by the family's grandmother who is quite ill. So ill that the the Kazama parents have gone to visit her as grandma Sayuri may not have long to live, behind they left their son Ryo who is sick with a cold and their daughter Haruna who needed to attend school.
 The top two screenshots were from a short scene which opened the movie, there were three teens who were hiking in the woods when they discovered a new Torii which is a shrine entrance. They found three young mysterious kids just beyond it, we never did find out their true story but these kids are pure evil and they pop up now and again through the film. What doesn't pop up again are the three teens as the little trio of kids send the teens to their deaths via some sort of invisible power.
 Saya wanted to meet the whole Kazama family but mainly Haruna who had already left for school. She wouldn't tell her brother Ryo what the problem was as the details were just for Haruna, Saya quickly left to find her. No town names were mentioned but this must be a remote location as Haruna had been walking for so many miles yet still hadn't arrived at school.

 That trio of young kids were quite evil and wish who they were was explained a bit better but it was only a 74 minute film before the credits. She's not Ryo's official girlfriend but a classmate of his who was Nanami heard about his being sick. She decides to ditch school and to visit Ryo, two of his friends that we'll be hearing more from are Hiroshi and Tadashi who told her about his illness and wondering if the two have something going on that no one is aware of.
 It wasn't a quiet journey to Ryo's residence as on the way Nanami was attacked by a.... zombie!!!! Yes, there are quit a few in the film though they're not referred to as zombies. Nanami is still in the real world but her attack took place through her mind in the same forest the little kids had their shrine. There Nanami was bitten on the neck, she didn't transform into a vampire but became a part of the living dead and guess a vampire is also part of the undead family of monsters.
 Nanami eventually arrives at Ryo's house but she's not all there mentally nor physically. Ryo was a bit leery about seeing her but Nanami pushed her way in and said she was going to prepare a meal for them. Human food wasn't what Nanami had in mind, as Ryo was lying in bed Nanami jumped on him and you know what he was thinking. Ryo was wrong with his thoughts as the only thing Nanami wanted was to feast on him.... literally! And she did but though she didn't eat him as planned Nanami was able to take a huge bite of of Ryo's neck which now makes him a part of the undead clan.

 Saya finally catches up with Haruna telling her the grandmother on her death bed has sent her. But the streets of this remote town are just teeming with zombies as out of nowhere jumped one and tried to attack Haruna. But luckily for her Saya was there who was a medium and she ended up defeating the zombie with her religious cross.
 Thought that was the process for disposing of a vampire but it worked on the zombie which then disintegrated before their eyes. Before the pair were able to leave the scene another zombie attacked which was thwarted by Saya, the two needed to hurry for safety back to Haruna's place which is what they did. Arriving at the Kazama house they found Ryo still lying in his bed. Saya knew the signs of one turning into a zombie and tied him down which for now worked. Nanami had still been at the house with ideas of making Haruna and Saya her next meal or victims, Saya quickly made that Nanami's last idea.

 Saya explained her reasons to Haruna for protecting her and why the grandmother had sent her. Grandma Sayuri is also a medium and a very powerful one, with her about to die the power she possessed would be transferred to Haruna. Sayuri for decades had kept the balance in the world between good and evil, during this whole explanation Haruna was at a total loss on what Saya was trying to tell her. Haruna's age wasn't revealed but in real life she had been fourteen at the time.
 In the future it's going to be up to the clueless Haruna to keep the balance in the world, if she can't do a perfect job humanity will suffer greatly. But with the power also comes knowledge, Haruna may not understand anything now but she soon will. That is if Saya can keep her alive until the power is transferred over which will happen the next morning, the army of zombies led by the trio of little of kids know about the transfer and are planning to stop it.

 The army of zombies are now outside of the Kazama residence and it's just a matter of time until their attack. The smallish group is led by Tadashi who was mentioned before and was a close friend of Ryo's, also a friend of his that was turned into a zombie was Hiroshi who was first to attempt an attack. For such a special power can't believe the three kids or whoever their master is would trust brainless zombies to stop Haruna from receiving it.
 When he was a human Hiroshi was what you may call a bit of a wimp and turning into a zombie didn't change that. Saya was able to defeat him rather easily and he was unable to get close to Haruna who is staying in a 'barrier' that Saya had created to ward off the evil spirits. Though Hiroshi lost badly he did end up hitting the light on the room's ceiling which sent it spinning endlessly around and that was so annoying seeing everyone in light and then darkness for the rest of the film.
 As his friend couldn't take out the pair Tadashi rushed to Haruna's bedroom and did what I've never seen a zombie do before which was to take out a gun! Saya's had tried to use her religious cross but couldn't get to it quick enough so Tadashi ended up shooting her in the shoulder before Saya could find it. Haruna jumped out from her barrier and confronted Tadashi who said with her upcoming power the two should wed(!) as he wants her to use it to spread his and the children's evil throughout the world.

 The scene once again shifts to the forest or at least in everyone's mind as their physical bodies are still in the real world. Haruna hasn't inherited her grandmother's power yet and doesn't know what to do, Tadashi says if she refuses his proposal he'll shoot Saya in the head. Just as she was about to say yes to Tadashi out of nowhere her brother Ryo appeared and he too is now a zombie. But not an evil one if that's possible as Ryo had been observing the events and with Haruna pleading for him to help her his mind reverted back to being a loving brother.
 Ryo started grappling with Tadashi who was much stronger and it didn't appear as though he had a chance. Even though Saya had been shot she wasn't hurt too badly, she was able to toss her cross to Ryo who pinned it against Tadashi's body which quickly went up in flames. What happened to the other zombies is unknown as they never attacked after Tadashi was killed and with that the Earth for now has been spared by evil.
 But not completely as Haruna is now the world's most powerful medium to prevent evil from spreading plus the devilish trio of children are still out there. The film ends with Saya making her departure and would have thought she would have stuck around to train Haruna who may need it as her mother has just returned back home.... she too is now a zombie!

 Not going to call this a good film nor will I call it a bad one, either way it was definitely cheesy to the max. Nor will I give it a number rating like other films get here, let's just say it was kind of a fun watch though not scary in the least. Wish there were more Hello Project members in the film but having a young Maimi was good enough.
 This is the final of the seven posts for her being my #1 fave of the year, though it's the last post it was the first one written up. Kind of a hard to find the film but if you can locate a version it's worth a watch but not deserving of many views. Subs were done by the team from Hello-Fansubs who I don't think are still active. Most of the movie's details were covered but sure a few minor ones were left out so as usual here's a slow of screenshots to help you follow the story better.