By Kosta Jaric
Japanese cinema has been on a decade-long surge to shock or predictably bring manga to the big screen, but with multi award-winning Akunin (Villain) an emotionally powerful film has raised expectations significantly.
Having already been picked up for Western adaptation and based on author Shuichi Yoshida’s crime noir novel, Akunin is a layered multi-character psychological thriller that follows the lives of strangers connected by a murder that stems from an online dating encounter. The victim, the two suspects – one a working class loner, the other a sociopathic playboy – and the family of each drive the story from hereon in as it weaves between the big city and coastal Japan.
Director Sang-il Lee has created an extremely well played out three-act story. As the film progresses, sympathy for certain characters shifts and a greater understanding for improbable actions by the characters takes shape. All the characters are massively flawed and each actor has done extremely well to bring every part of them onto the screen.
Young actors in Japan are feted with roles their counterparts in Hollywood would probably fail to earn, so it’s refreshing to see that the two standout performances are of two older performers – Akira Emoto as the victim’s father and Yuichi’s grandmother, Kirin Kiki. Amazingly stoic, as Kiki’s character’s life spirals out of control she brings so much to such an introverted woman. Emoto is powerful as the old school Japanese man trying to marry honour with emotion.
Eri Fukatsu, playing the naïve Mitsuyo, also does well to convey the helplessness of a girl who, despite knowing the man she is with is a murder suspect, falls in love.
The film does seem to end on many occasions, so coming in shorter than 139 minutes would’ve prevented the blunting of the confronting ending. Beyond this, there’s little to fault in a film with great cinematography besides the understandable sympathy it tries to extract for the murderer.
Complex, dark, compelling and touching – Akunin has all the hallmarks of a great film, because it is.
Kryztoff Rating – 4K.
Recent Comments