Black Rat (film)

High school student Asuka dies by suicide by falling from the rooftop of her school while wearing a rat mask. Forty-nine days later, six of Asuka's classmates—Misato, Kengo, Takashi, Ryota, Ryota's girlfriend Saki, and Kanako—receive text messages reading "Please come to classroom 3B at midnight tonight. I'll be waiting. Asuka". That night, Takashi, Ryota, Saki and Kanako enter the school and gather in classroom 3B. At midnight, a figure wearing a schoolgirl uniform and a rat mask arrives. She writes the names of the six students on a chalkboard. Communicating through text written on notebook pages, she declares "Let's start the vengeance", and crosses Kengo's name off on the board. She brings a blood-covered Kengo into the room, and announces to the others that she will kill them.

Before Asuka's death, Asuka suggested to her six classmates that they practice and perform a modern version of a traditional rat-themed dance for their school's cultural festival that year. Though Misato is supportive, the others reluctantly agree to help, and are repelled by a rat mask that Asuka had crafted for the performance. In the present, the masked figure drags Takashi outside, and demands that he stop her from scoring a penalty kick with a soccer ball. She successfully kicks the ball into the goal, and then kills Takashi with a metal baseball bat.

Kanako attempts to escape the school, but is attacked by the masked figure with an electroshock weapon. Kanako awakens to find herself restrained to a chair. Her attacker appears and challenges her to attain a score of 100 points in a round of karaoke. It is revealed that, aside from Misato, Kanako and the other classmates skipped Asuka's dance practice to do karaoke. When Misato and Asuka found them, Kanako derided Asuka for always smiling, a view also expressed by Ryota and Saki. In the present, Kanako achieves a score of 52 points, and the masked figure electrocutes her to death. Meanwhile, Saki and Ryota arm themselves with a crowbar and a makeshift pole weapon.

Misato arrives at the school and goes up to the rooftop, where she is confronted by the masked figure. At the same time, inside the school, Ryota and Saki also encounter someone in a rat mask, this one armed with an axe. Ryota fights the individual and knocks off their mask to reveal Kengo. On the roof, the figure attacks Misato with a bladed weapon, and Misato defends herself with a metal bucket. Misato trips her assailant down a set of stairs, causing them to land fatally on their own weapon. Their mask is shed, revealing them to be Asuka's older sister Akane. Some time after Asuka's suicide, Akane met with Kengo and enlisted him to help her get revenge on the other students. In the present, Ryota dons the rat mask and chases Kengo before bludgeoning him.

Saki, who is shown to have once thrown Asuka's rat mask in a garbage can in front of Asuka and Misato, encounters Misato, who is now wearing the mask. In the past, Kengo suggested to Ryota that Ryota should "clear things up with Asuka", but Ryota expressed that he would prefer to be with Saki. In the present, Misato asks Saki why she "stole her friend's boyfriend", and Misato and Saki fight. Misato chases Saki up to the roof, where she kills Saki with an axe. Ryoka attempts to leave the grounds of the school on his motor scooter, but the vehicle explodes, killing him. Misato emerges from a nearby entrance to the school and sits down on a set of steps as emergency vehicles arrive.

• Misaki Yonemura as Misato
• Hiroya Matsumoto as Ryota
• Rina Saito as Asuka
• Makoto Sakamoto as Takashi
• Rihoko Shimomiya
• Haruka Shimizu
• Mika Shimizu

Black Rat was screened on 5 June 2010 at the Human Trust Cinema Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan.[4] The screening was accompanied by a stage greeting event, with director Kenta Fukasaku and actors Misaki Yonemura, Hiroya Matsumoto, Rina Saito, Makoto Sakamoto, and Rihoko Shimomiya present.[4]

• Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra (2019). Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces. University of Wales Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-78683-496-6.

• Black Rat at IMDb
• Black Rat at Rotten Tomatoes