The Forbidden Play, horror directed by Nakata, takes up some aspects and themes dear to the director and in fact the basic staging is good, there are good moments and the direction also veers towards camp tones which in fact destroy a little 'the atmosphere, the effects don't have the right rendering and the film seems to aim more than entertaining and entertaining rather than disturbing, especially in the third act, with results that are not always successful.

Nakata tries to come back to the glorious glories of the past by staging a ghost film where there are references to his Ringu but also to Dark Water.
The film in fact tells the story of Hiroko, a girl who must assert herself in the workplace, even with harassment in the office and here Nakata once again places the emphasis on a society and on a still unequal treatment towards the female gender where chauvinism is still dominant in certain areas of society.

Hiroko is in love with the connected, with highest rank, Naoto who in turn is married and also has a son.

Nakata shows how Naoto also cheated on his wife, then tells of a family where it's not all roses and flowers, as always in cinema by Nakata.

Miyuki, Naoto's wife, will be the ghost of the film as she will channel hatred, resentment for the betrayal, the fear of losing her husband by lashing out at Hiroko.
All of this , obviously, will also have consequences on Haruto, Miyuki and Naoto's son, who will do anything to avoid losing his mother. Family ties, broken families, abandonment, being alone are everything for Nakata.

Sadako in her Ringu was an abandoned child, thrown into a well and from there her revenge; Miyuki is also an orphan, in the film we will discover the tragic origins of her mother, therefore the film gives her powers which in turn will also go to her son Haruto.

In Dark Water the villain, the ghost, is not he wanted nothing more than a mother, even the little girl had been abandoned and here the same applies to Haruto, he wants nothing more than his mother.
The film works when Nakata's direction shows the ghost behind Hiroko at various moments, the direction has beautiful fluid camera movements which at times also punctuate the tension and the staging is careful and with visual moments that are beautiful to see, the greenery in the exteriors among the branches of the trees, the interiors in grey-black tones of the family's house aesthetically medium has a great rendering but also the ghostly bluish tones present especially in Naoto's house in the third act are good and give atmosphere.
The lizard gimmick is nice, Naoto buries the tail of a lizard and later we will see reborn from the ground a whole live lizard, anticipating what will happen.

The detail of Miyuki's finger with the orange nail polish that we will see again in her cadaverous hand has its own beautiful effect.

The film, as it was for Ringu, focuses a lot on research, Hiroko will want to understand what is happening, if she is the victim of a curse and when she analyzes the video on the PC where she sees paranormal details she really remembers Ringu.

It must be written that the atmosphere is not comparable, Ringu played on a totally different level, here there is not that constant feeling of uneasiness.

Also in terms of how the horror is shown, Nakata in this film focuses almost more on a playful aspect, there is not a very strong effort to expand the time, some moments are direct and above all the ghost is rather overexposed especially in the third act.

In fact in the finale the creature will be seen a lot, it will attack, will run and when you go a bit on the action side the atmosphere inevitably disappears, I presume that the camp effect is also desired, but seeing a ghost creature holding an ax shifts everything towards the side of fun rather than the worry. Ok it may be desired but why not opt ​​more for the atmosphere? Probably the film didn't have the right rendering and expressive strength to sustain disturbing levels to the end.
When the special effects are shown, such as the eyes that roll over, the rendering is still not good, even Miyuki's transformation can almost of anime rather than film, even later the aura around Naoto and Myuki herself has rather poor CGI.

In Nakata's best films there is never a true happy ending and the "clash ” the ending is determined more by the choices than on the physical side, in this case the physical fight is too overexposed but in any case conceptually Haruto's power up makes sense, he wants his mother at any cost and in any version, too bad for the visual rendering.

Even after the whole battle Nakata will leave a feeling of uneasiness with Naoto on his knees, in the same pose as Haruto, releasing sinister powers, once again powers with evil derivations emerge from a loss.

I love Nakata for what he has given to cinema and horror, but he hasn't made a really good film for several years now. The forbidden play has obvious defects in visual rendering and if it is It's true that it can still be entertaining. I didn't really like the camp and almost action-like management of the ending.

Also because, at this point, it would have been better to opt for much more brutality and blood and from this point of view there are some scenes also good, like the nun thrown down the stairs taken from behind but in several moments, as written, it almost seems like an anime for how it is managed with a visual rendering in those situations that is not good.

I give it six stars because  it doesn't there are half votes and in the end it still has its themes, its visual moments and why I hope that Nakata can return to directing in a fully completed film that satisfies to the core.