I decided to watch this movie based on a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes... I should have known better based on lower viewer reviews.
Teruyuki Kagawa did an excellent job playing a very creepy character. That's really the only highlight of the film. The plot/script holes are what killed it for me.
It probably would have been easy to fix the plot/script holes. The way Takakura treats Saki during questioning is rather pathetic. He's supposed to be a professional criminal psychologist and he doesn't even know how to behave with someone with psychological scars? Or perhaps he was supposed to play an incompetent criminal psychologist as illustrated by how he was stabbed by the suspect in the earlier sequence... but then the entire police force allowed him to try to handle the hostage situation himself if he was so incompetent?
*** SPOILERS ***
But more flawed is when police chief Tanimoto and Takakura go to Nishino's house. Even knowing the likelihood Nishino is a killer, they go without requesting backup. And they separate once they get to the house with Takakura going to his house first. There's no reason for Tanimoto to go into Nishino's house by himself, but what was Takakura doing anyway? After discovering his wife was not at home, why did it take so long to get over to Nishino's house. Was he trapped in some sort of time warp? Did he have to take a dump?
These flaws could have been easily explained away which would have made the story a bit more tolerable. For example, a backup could have been on its way. It would have required a different sequence, allowing Nishino to make a getaway before the backup arriving. For example, upon arriving at the house, the wife could have screamed so both would have entered Nishino's house. They could have been separated at the house and Tanimoto could have fallen into the pit and presumably killed in similar fashion as the movie. Then the next scene, perhaps after Takakura discovers Tanimoto's body hears his wife scream from outside with Nishino, Takakura's wife, and Mio escaping in a van... Takakura follows in the police car. After they drive off, then the backup arrives only to find no car, so all that happened prior to the backup arriving would happen over two minutes (movie time)... and then upon entering the house, police find the dead Tanimoto. Eventually, Takakura catches up to Nishino where the scene takes place where Takakura seems to get the wife to abandon Nishino... The wife screaming at the house and then leading Takakura on a chase would have shown more of Nishino's brilliance. Of course, this would be a much faster pace than in the movie to allow for the backup to arrive at the scene in a reasonable timeframe and not affect the plot and this is not necessarily Kurosawa's methodic style, but while people doing stupid things in movies might be explained by the characters being stupid, for a police chief not to even consider calling for backup is beyond stupidity, so it's more of he deserve what he got... and when you no longer care about the characters in the movie, it's no longer entertainment to me.
Teruyuki Kagawa did an excellent job playing a very creepy character. That's really the only highlight of the film. The plot/script holes are what killed it for me.
It probably would have been easy to fix the plot/script holes. The way Takakura treats Saki during questioning is rather pathetic. He's supposed to be a professional criminal psychologist and he doesn't even know how to behave with someone with psychological scars? Or perhaps he was supposed to play an incompetent criminal psychologist as illustrated by how he was stabbed by the suspect in the earlier sequence... but then the entire police force allowed him to try to handle the hostage situation himself if he was so incompetent?
*** SPOILERS ***
But more flawed is when police chief Tanimoto and Takakura go to Nishino's house. Even knowing the likelihood Nishino is a killer, they go without requesting backup. And they separate once they get to the house with Takakura going to his house first. There's no reason for Tanimoto to go into Nishino's house by himself, but what was Takakura doing anyway? After discovering his wife was not at home, why did it take so long to get over to Nishino's house. Was he trapped in some sort of time warp? Did he have to take a dump?
These flaws could have been easily explained away which would have made the story a bit more tolerable. For example, a backup could have been on its way. It would have required a different sequence, allowing Nishino to make a getaway before the backup arriving. For example, upon arriving at the house, the wife could have screamed so both would have entered Nishino's house. They could have been separated at the house and Tanimoto could have fallen into the pit and presumably killed in similar fashion as the movie. Then the next scene, perhaps after Takakura discovers Tanimoto's body hears his wife scream from outside with Nishino, Takakura's wife, and Mio escaping in a van... Takakura follows in the police car. After they drive off, then the backup arrives only to find no car, so all that happened prior to the backup arriving would happen over two minutes (movie time)... and then upon entering the house, police find the dead Tanimoto. Eventually, Takakura catches up to Nishino where the scene takes place where Takakura seems to get the wife to abandon Nishino... The wife screaming at the house and then leading Takakura on a chase would have shown more of Nishino's brilliance. Of course, this would be a much faster pace than in the movie to allow for the backup to arrive at the scene in a reasonable timeframe and not affect the plot and this is not necessarily Kurosawa's methodic style, but while people doing stupid things in movies might be explained by the characters being stupid, for a police chief not to even consider calling for backup is beyond stupidity, so it's more of he deserve what he got... and when you no longer care about the characters in the movie, it's no longer entertainment to me.