A culinary arts teacher’s life is disrupted by the mysterious chime. A film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (黒沢清), staring Mutsuo Yoshioka (吉岡睦雄), Seiichi Kohinata (小日向星一), Hana Amano (天野はな), Junpei Yasui (安井順平), Koji Seki (関幸治), Giiko (ぎぃ子), Noa Kawazoe (川添野愛), Koki Ishige (石毛宏樹), Tomoko Tabata (田畑智子), and Ikkei Watanabe (渡辺いっけい).

While teaching a cooking class at a culinary school, Takuji Matsuoka / 松岡卓司 (Mutsuo Yoshioka) notices that one of his students, Ichiro Tashiro / 田代一郎 (Seiichi Kohinata), is acting strangely. Tashiro rarely interacts with the other students and often ignores instructions. Sometimes, it seems his mind is drifting off somewhere else.

Later in the class, Tashiro asks Matsuoka if he can hear a chime, which sounds almost like a scream but isn’t human. It seems that Tashiro has been troubled by this particular chime for quite some time, believing it carries a message for him, though he can’t figure out what it means. Matsuoka doesn’t hear anything and thinks Tashiro is imagining things, so he advises him to focus on cooking. Tashiro becomes infuriated and confronts Matsuoka, reminding him that he isn’t there just to learn how to cook; he needs a distraction from the chime, asserting that he clearly stated his reason for attending in his application.

After class, as Matsuoka is cleaning the cooking station, he suddenly stops, as if he hears something. He slowly turns around, but the scene cuts off before we see what he might have seen — or if he saw anything at all. As Matsuoka is about to leave for the day, he is approached by the school administrators, Fumie Miyashita (Noa Kawazoe) and Hiroko Tachibana (Giiko). They inform him that Tashiro had asked for Matsuoka’s home address, but they refused to give it to him. Concerned about Tashiro’s unusual behavior, they express their worries. However, Matsuoka brushes them off, insisting that although Tashiro may take things too far at times, he seems to be okay.

At a local café, Matsuoka meets Yoshizawa for a job interview. Yoshizawa is looking for a new chef to run Bistro en Ville is intrigued by Matsuoka’s expertise in French cuisine. Matsuoka brags about developing a sharp palate from a young age and preparing his own meals since elementary school. Impressed by his confidence, Yoshizawa assures Matsuoka that he will convey his words to the restaurant’s owner. Matsuoka discloses that he will give up teaching at the culinary school if he gets the chef position.

The next day, Matsuoka becomes disturbed when he spots Tashiro repeatedly stabs a bread dough instead of cutting. Tashiro throws the knife away after Matsuoka interrupts him. He then tells Matsuoka that half of his brain has been replaced with a machine that tries to control him as it responds to the chime. Matsuoka seems unbothered by Tashiro’s nonsensical talk and decides to walk away. Realizing that Matsuoka doesn’t believe him, Tashiro resolves to prove he is telling the truth by cutting the machine out, shocking everyone in the class.

During a private cooking class, Matsuoka’s student Akemi Hishida (Hana Amano) acts awkwardly and uncomfortable while watching Matsuoka demonstrate how to cut a chicken. When it’s her turn to do the same, she asks Matsuoka if it’s necessary for her to perform the task, and Matsuoka insists that she must. As she begins to cut the chicken, she suddenly stops and turns to Matsuoka, complaining that she can’t do it because the chicken is squishy. She then asks Matsuoka if she really has to do it. Sensing her frustration, Matsuoka allows her to skip the process. However, Akemi is startled and accuses Matsuoka of toying with her. She demands that he explains everything to her logically so she can understand.

Written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Chime is a low-key psychological thriller that works brilliantly in building up an unsettling atmosphere. The screenplay is masterfully written with unexpected twists and turns.

I love how the narrative leaves the origin of the chime unexplained and plays on ambiguity, with so many little things that feel off, yet I can’t pinpoint exactly if they were all real or just figments of delusion. For example, there are scenes where Matsuoka’s wife takes hundreds of aluminum cans outside, but we’ve never seen them drinking from those cans — except for one beer can at the dinner table.

One of my favorite scenes is when the school administrators and Matsuoka witness something so frightening and horrifying, but the film never reveals what they actually see. Instead, the camera captures their stunned expressions and the eerie sound of a chair moving on its own, as they both scream and flee the room.

Chime premiered at Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin on 19 February 2024. The film was released exclusively on the digital platform Roadstead on 2 August.