Stay Pretty, No Pity (2021) – Film Review
Director: Wilco C Rullens
Cast: Maria Ozawa, Saki Owada
Rating: TBC
By @Roger Crow
The short film can be a thing of beauty, getting to the point obviously far faster than most features 10 times their length.
Stay Pretty, No Pity is the familiar tale of a heroine on a literal deadline: carry out a task within a set time or die.
In this case, a ghost reveals herself to a young woman in a mirror and asks: “Do you want to stay pretty?”
Lucy (Maria Ozawa) fled an abusive relationship and took refuge with her new roommate. When the aforementioned ghost shows her seemingly random images, Lucy has three days to decipher the clues of these visions and discover the spirit’s intentions.
Stay Pretty, No Pity is inspired by the tale of a samurai who killed his wife after she became deformed; he was haunted by her spirit until he became insane and killed himself.
Hundreds of years later, Yotsuya is back to punish ugly characters by recruiting the pretty, starting with Lucy.
At a mere 10 minutes, there is little chance of Stay Pretty, No Pity outstaying its welcome. And though it looks like an overlong trailer for a feature, the running time is obviously ideal for those who don’t want to commit to watching a feature.
However, there needed to be more of a frantic reaction from Lucy, who chats online to an adviser with the concern of someone who might miss a dental appointment. And the pay-off when it comes is so-so. It doesn’t pull off many surprises, and because many of us have seen this done so many times before in offerings such as Ringu and US remake The Ring (which was great until that rubbish pay-off), this online chiller might leave many feeling a tad disappointed.
