With my birthday coming up in a few weeks, I decided to go for an early birthday present, and buy one of the upcoming brand new releases from Radiance. Finding that this title had just one review on IMDb, I got set to uncover this executioner.
View on the film:
Backed by a detailed video essay on Japanese serial killer movies by Tom Mes and a wonderful interview with Kenta Fukasaku that goes behind the scenes, Radiance present an immaculate transfer, which retains the grubby appearance of the film, whilst giving the print a real sharpness by removing all spots of dirt, along with the layered soundtrack ringing out clearly.
Putting together the strips of clue revealing Shima hiding under an alias, Chieko Baisho gives an alluring performance as Haruko, thanks to Baisho expressing in her vocal delivery the desire Haruko has to chip away at the barriers Shima has placed round his personal space.
Working at a greasy spoon, Baisho contrasts Haruko's open interest to learn more about Shima, with withdrawn facial expressions, whenever someone enquires what her life was like before working at the cafe.
Not even trying to hide the blood on his hands, Makoto Sato gives the murder set-pieces a brutality in his dead behind the eyes gaze, as Shima commits another murder without a hint of doubt. Cooking up a romance with Haruko, Sato subtly hardens Shima's facial expressions, reflecting Shima determination, to refuse entry into his personal space, from every attempt Haruko makes.
Sliced open from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto, (which has a woman as the killer) the screenplay by co-writer ( with Tadashi Hiromi, Haruhiko Mimura and Yoji Yamada ) / director Tai Kato superbly unties a stark, alienated portrait of post-war Japan, splashed with a Film Noir pessimism, fueled by Shima's avenging killing spree, being drawn round the five murder victims, laughing at the cruelty they themselves have inflicted.
Blowing the police away as a joke, the writers brilliantly dovetail extended flashbacks, which claw into disintegrating morals, captured in Haruko's folding her past from view, while Shima leaves his bleeding open.
Coldly shoving the audience into Shima's world with an astonishingly bleak, cold Giallo-style opening killing, director Kato & cinematographer Keiji Maruyama incredibly give the viewer no breathing room, by lining a Neo-Noir atmosphere with mesmerising, experimental superimpositions, razor-sharp jump-cuts and abrasive montages, all filling the screen with Shima's mind-set.
Backed by a refine Jazzy,angelic score from composer Hajime Kaburagi, Kato beautifully frames the murderous wasteland with ultra-stylised wide-shots shimmering on reflections of the moral vacuum, which covers the screen in gallons of blood, as the executioner is executed.
View on the film:
Backed by a detailed video essay on Japanese serial killer movies by Tom Mes and a wonderful interview with Kenta Fukasaku that goes behind the scenes, Radiance present an immaculate transfer, which retains the grubby appearance of the film, whilst giving the print a real sharpness by removing all spots of dirt, along with the layered soundtrack ringing out clearly.
Putting together the strips of clue revealing Shima hiding under an alias, Chieko Baisho gives an alluring performance as Haruko, thanks to Baisho expressing in her vocal delivery the desire Haruko has to chip away at the barriers Shima has placed round his personal space.
Working at a greasy spoon, Baisho contrasts Haruko's open interest to learn more about Shima, with withdrawn facial expressions, whenever someone enquires what her life was like before working at the cafe.
Not even trying to hide the blood on his hands, Makoto Sato gives the murder set-pieces a brutality in his dead behind the eyes gaze, as Shima commits another murder without a hint of doubt. Cooking up a romance with Haruko, Sato subtly hardens Shima's facial expressions, reflecting Shima determination, to refuse entry into his personal space, from every attempt Haruko makes.
Sliced open from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto, (which has a woman as the killer) the screenplay by co-writer ( with Tadashi Hiromi, Haruhiko Mimura and Yoji Yamada ) / director Tai Kato superbly unties a stark, alienated portrait of post-war Japan, splashed with a Film Noir pessimism, fueled by Shima's avenging killing spree, being drawn round the five murder victims, laughing at the cruelty they themselves have inflicted.
Blowing the police away as a joke, the writers brilliantly dovetail extended flashbacks, which claw into disintegrating morals, captured in Haruko's folding her past from view, while Shima leaves his bleeding open.
Coldly shoving the audience into Shima's world with an astonishingly bleak, cold Giallo-style opening killing, director Kato & cinematographer Keiji Maruyama incredibly give the viewer no breathing room, by lining a Neo-Noir atmosphere with mesmerising, experimental superimpositions, razor-sharp jump-cuts and abrasive montages, all filling the screen with Shima's mind-set.
Backed by a refine Jazzy,angelic score from composer Hajime Kaburagi, Kato beautifully frames the murderous wasteland with ultra-stylised wide-shots shimmering on reflections of the moral vacuum, which covers the screen in gallons of blood, as the executioner is executed.