- Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Written by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Stars: Masato Hagiwara, Kohi Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr0LzE4VRkQ
- Watch it: https://amzn.to/3HJ1kWx
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was very atmospheric and kind of slow moving, but always fascinating. A cop on a quest to solve a murder case keeps finding it gets stranger and more complicated as the movie progresses. It’s dark, and grim, with well worn settings and peeling paint everywhere – perfect atmosphere for the story. We thought it was great.
Spoilery Synopsis
A woman reads a story about Bluebeard to her doctor.
We cut to a man who breaks off a pipe and beats a woman to death with it.
We cut to Detective Takabe, who is called to the scene. The killer seems to have left his clothes, including his ID. The woman was beaten with a pipe, but she died from having a big “X” cut into her throat which made her bleed out. They soon find the man hiding outside the room, and he seems terrified. Takabe talks to the police psychologist, Dr. Sakuma; there have been three similar cases in two months. None of the “perps” are connected in any way, and they all seem perfectly rational after the murders.
A confused-seeming man on the isolated beach asks strange questions to another man. He doesn’t know the date, where he is, or even who he is. He takes the man home and gives him coffee. “Mamiya” is written on his coat, so they assume he must be Mr. Mamiya.
Detective Takabe goes home and talks to his wife, Fumio. She’s sick, but Takabe isn’t sure how bad it is, or if she’s even really sick.
We watch a man jump out a window, and Takabe is called in to investigate. That was the man who found and helped Mr. Mamiya. He killed his own wife and then tried to kill himself, but he’d always been very stable before. What happened? Mr. Hanaoka, the man, survived his fall but has no memory of why he killed his wife. “It just seemed the natural thing to do.” “The devil made him do it,” says Sakuma.
That night, Mr. Mamiya is taken in by the police and kept at a tiny little station until morning. He seems just as confused and disoriented as before. Mamiya is very hypnotic with his lighter, and the policeman seems to fall into a trance…
At the hospital Takabe talks to Sakuma about the murders being done by hypnosis; someone is making these men kill. Sakuma thinks it’s highly unlikely that the killer is a hypnotist.
In the morning, the policeman that talked to Mamiya kills his partner. Mamiya goes to the hospital and talks to doctor Miyajima. He says he can see all the “things” inside her, but his own insides are empty. He hypnotizes her with water spilled onto the floor and then leaves. Not long after, the doctor sees a big “X” painted on her wall. She later cuts up a man in the restroom.
Takabe questions the police officer who killed his partner. Sakuma asks questions, trying to see if hypnosis was involved. All signs point to another man being involved. The policeman, Mr. Oida, tries to cut an X in another officer’s chest- with a coffee stirrer. He has no idea why.
Takabe gets another call. Mr. Oida had taken a stranger to the hospital, and he was treated by Dr. Miyajima. Takabe finally finds Mamiya hiding at the hospital and takes him in for questioning. Mamiya doesn’t know who he is, nor does he remember any of the victims. Takabe really doesn’t like this suspect. Takabe goes home and has to find his wife, who got lost going to the store.
Takabe goes to Mamiya’s house and finds bunches of psychology books there as well as books on mesmerism. Takabethen goes home to find his wife hanging from a noose which he does not take well. No– he seems to have hallucinated it; she’s fine and running the vacuum cleaner.
Mamiya tells Takabe what he saw. He knows. Mamiya tries to hypnotise Takabe, who tells the criminal more than he probably should. On the way out, Sakuma recommends that he not talk to the prisoner anymore.
Takabe puts his wife in the mental hospital, which is where we saw her earlier reading the Bluebeard book.
Sakuma finds an old police case from 1898 that involved hypnosis and a woman cutting an “X” into her son. They used to call hypnotism “Soul Conjuring” back in those days. Sakuma starts doing his own research and decides that Mamiya is some kind of “missionary.” We see that he’s got a big “X” painted on his wall, too. Mamiya escapes not long after Sakuma kills himself.
Takabe finds Mamiya at an old abandoned hospital. Mamiya says Takabe let him escape. Takabe shoots the mesmerist three times. When Mamiya tries again to hypnotise Takabe, he gets shot another five times.
We see Takabe’s wife, at the hospital, with an “X” cut in her neck. He goes out for dinner, and we see the waitress pick up a knife and go after someone. Is Takabe the “carrier” now?
Brian’s Commentary
It’s very weird, slow, and ponderous. It starts off like a regular serial-killer mystery from the detective’s point of view, but as we see more and more from Mamiya’s point of view, it gets more complicated.
Hypnosis is overused in horror films, and usually not realistically. This one uses it as a central theme, but treats it in a more serious, less magical way.
It’s good– we don’t get too much of an explanation, but enough that it mostly makes sense.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was a different take on the serial killer genre and made a different use of the hypnotism trope. The atmosphere throughout was perfect, and the cast was excellent. I give this one a big thumbs up.