The Rundown: The One With Fantastic Japanese Horror (5/11/21)

Welcome back to the latest edition of The Rundown — where the NoPro Review Crew shares our latest adventures.

This week we’ve got a wonderfully weird cross section: from online Japanese Horror to art installations in LA to a documentary film about immersive poems. Don’t say we don’t turn up every stone we can find for you!

Need more? Check out LAST WEEK’S EDITION.

if MUSEBIYA: Hiding In The Dark, Escaping From The Killer — Obaken
Online; $25; through May 30th

if MUSEBIYA, the latest offering by Japanese horror outfit Obaken, delivers exactly what it promises; two happy go lucky Japanese girls are giving you a webcam tour of one of their childhood homes, then get chased around by an axe murderer. While the setup may sound prosaic, as far as horror media goes, the execution is anything but. Expect oozing blood, grainy snuff films, and a shockingly elaborate set carved out of a real home in a Tokyo residential neighborhood. While the escape room elements of guiding these sobbing girls through the house occasionally feel the slightest bit unfair, easy puzzles eating way too much time on the clock due to the setup, that’s far beyond the point. You’re going to if MUSEBIYA to shoot pure Camp Crystal Lake adrenaline into your veins. Despite the NoPro team barely earning the bad end (we were so close!), the show managed to turn that into a satisfying enough conclusion to the story that we all left giddy. Now that Obaken has executed a ghost story with their seminal Japanese Ghost Painting and a slasher flick in if MUSEBIYA, I’m looking forward to seeing what genres they dabble in next. No matter the flavor of horror, I’m confident they’ll handle it with aplomb.
— Blake Weil

OMFG, this is so good.
— Noah Nelson

Lygia Pape Tupinambá — Hauser & Wirth
DTLA; Free, no reservation required

In DTLA’s Arts District, Hauser & Wirth is hosting Los Angeles’ first solo exhibition of Brazilian artist Lygia Pape. In the 1950s, Pape was a founding member of Brazil’s Neo-Concrete Movement, which rebelled against that period’s climate of “rational” art. Instead, Pape and her fellow members strove for art imbued with sensuality; art that engaged the senses and could only be understood through truly experiencing it.

Tupinambá encompasses two galleries, from two different decades of Pape’s career. The first is a multimedia presentation from the end of Pape’s life and includes video, drawings, small sculptures peppered throughout, and a central, massive sculpture. The installation is anchored by an underlying narrative about the Tupinambá people’s tradition of cannibalism. And so, the sculptural works in this gallery have a disembodied sensibility, which didn’t fully resonate for me, the exception being the evocative apex sculpture Manto Tupinambá.

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The second gallery is a world unto itself. In a cavernous room, a single sculpture somehow radiates through the entire space. Made of silver and gold thread which seems more like fine steel, the sculpture plays an “elusive game of light and shadow” with viewers and, at times, completely disappears. The sculpture is part of Pape’s Ttéia series, a term Pape coined by combining the Portuguese word for ‘web’ and ‘teteia,’ “a colloquial term for something graceful and delicate.” This work delivers on the Neo-Concrete Movement’s dedication to create works activated by viewers. It’s a mesmerizing experience and not to be missed.

— Laura Hess

Natatorium — American Berserk Theatre
Online; $10; Run Completed

Much like a choose-your-own-adventure game, Natatorium follows a linear structure that branches according to player choices. The narrative unfolds live via an unlisted YouTube stream and participants are encouraged to use the chat to speak with each other and vote on the character’s actions. The actors in Natatorium improvised dialogue, often hilariously, in response to both one another and participant input.

— Cheyenne Ligon, from her Full Review

Peace Piece: The Immersive Poems Of Mandy Khan — Director Courtney Sell
Documentary Film; $24.95

If the aim of this documentary is to introduce viewers to the work of poet Mandy Khan — who creates immersive experiences and installations out of her poems — then it succeeds. Mostly. As a film it doesn’t work at all. Footage is haphazard and at times out of focus, and not in a “this is a choice” way.

It’s unfortunate, because now that I know about Khan’s work — she’s been an artist in residence at the Society for Philosophical Research in Los Feliz, had her piece “Gateways to Peace” performed at the Getty, and was a librettist for the incredible opera Hopscotch all here in LA — I want to know more. I want to see more. This film, however, isn’t it.
— Noah Nelson

Someone Else’s House — Jared Mezzocchi, Geffen Stayhouse
Online, $75, through July 3

Someone Else’s House is an interesting experiment of adapting the horror genre to the virtual theatre. Perhaps most importantly, Jared Mezzocchi, directed by Margot Bordelon, is an engaging storyteller. The faces of the audience members leaning forward, brightened by the glow of their computer screens, feels as if I am listening to a ghost story by a “fire.”
— Asya Gorovits from her Full Review

Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, new home of NoPro’s show listings.

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