Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on June 02, 2006 at 09:27:28

film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
After liking one of his films, I was disappointed by the next two I saw.
In this fourth one, I safely can say he is a major force in modern film.
Hypontism, serial killings, mental illness are all thrown into his blender to produce an eerie, cerebral film. How refreshing to have blood-chilling scenes devoid of Hollywood-type, pounding filmscore: Kurosawa lets the visual images carry the weight and we are all the more terrified.
A series of brutal killings are terrorizing Tokyo residents, with the victims throats ritually being slashed in an "X" pattern. Soon after each crime, different perpetrators are arrested, with no knowledge of or contact between them.
The mystery, seemingly, is solved when a quiet man is arrested, the only link between several of the killings.
However, he has total amnesia and answers each question with one of his own.
As the lead detective and his assistant, a psychiatrist, learn more and more about this man, he appears even stranger.
Though it has some similarities to Se7en, this film avoids all its clichés and rises far above it.
The amnesiac gives an Oscar worthy performance as does the detective.