Cinefreak.net - The.wrong.way.to.use.healing.ma... May 2026

Instead, Soma gives us this: Kenji works as a “cleaner” for the Yakuza.

There’s a moment in director Yuki Soma’s forgotten 1987 VHS oddity, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic , that makes even the most jaded gorehounds wince. Not because of the violence — though there’s plenty — but because of the quiet .

Then comes the basement.

The last shot: Kenji’s hand twitching toward a pool of water, trying to heal his own reflection.

The first act lulls you into a false sense of tragic heroism. Kenji patches up low-level thugs, seals bullet holes, reattaches fingers. He never carries a gun. He’s the insurance policy — the reason the gang can take risks. You think, okay, a healer caught in the underworld. Grim but familiar. CINEFREAK.NET - The.Wrong.Way.to.Use.Healing.Ma...

Our protagonist, Kenji (played with hollow-eyed desperation by underground darling Hiro Nagase), discovers he has the rare gift of Cellular Restoration . He can heal any wound, cure any disease, reverse any injury with a touch. In any normal story, this would make him a saint. A hero. A miracle worker.

He’ll slice a man’s tendon, watch him fall, then heal it — only to do it again. And again. And again. The victim’s screams become hoarse whispers. Kenji’s expression never changes. He’s not angry. He’s not sadistic in the theatrical sense. He’s studying . Instead, Soma gives us this: Kenji works as

The final act spirals into existential body horror. Kenji heals himself so efficiently that he becomes immortal — but his nerves remain raw. Every injury he’s ever inflicted on others echoes back to him psychosomatically. He spends the last ten minutes of the film convulsing on a warehouse floor, screaming in phantom pain from a thousand wounds he caused but never received.