The Dark Maidens

With a title like that and the setting at a girl's school, The Dark Maidens does raise expectations of a certain type of Asian horror film, but while director Saiji Yakumo's feature certainly delves into the dark side of an elite Catholic girls school, it doesn't rely solely on the supernatural for the shocks and revelations that occur. With a script from noted anime writer Mari Okada (The Anthem of The Heart, Anohana), The Dark Maidens is a clever and self-referential murder-mystery that effortlessly trips through a number of genres without compromising on any of the thrills associated with each of them.

Rumours circulate around the Virgin Mary Christian Academy that the school's top student Itsumi Shiraishi has been murdered and that the murderer is one of the six members of the very select Literary Club that she established. The group have gathered for one last session where, as a literary exercise, the acting chairperson Sayori Sumikawa has invited the remaining members to present their own account of what they believe led to Itsumi's death. Perhaps somewhere amidst the conflicting accounts they can find out the truth about why the girl who was regarded as the 'sun' of the academy was found dead in a flower bed holding with a lily of the valley in her hands.

The opening scene of the film, the literary group meeting in a western-styled drawing room, gathered around a 'cauldron' while a storm rages outside, is only the first of a number of self-conscious references and plays on genre. Each of the "dark maidens" of the literary club - who are evidently fond of Agatha Christie - gives their own account of the events that led to the death of Itsumi, the personal perspective of the stories genre-hopping between murder-mystery, erotic, supernatural horror and romance. There's even a surprise extra account that presents a Rashomon-like spin on events, but twists and revelations are very much the order of the day.

Putting aside the artificiality of the set-up, The Dark Maidens has a delightfully intricate, cleverly plotted and almost airtight script where, despite the conflicting views, any one of the stories could be true. In fact, all of the stories do actually carry a measure of truth, if not in relation to the objective nature of what has occurred, at least in what they tell us about female rivalry, social hierarchy and the secrets and hidden facets that often determine the balance of power in Japanese society.

This is an unusual murder mystery that properly leaves the viewer hanging until the last segments... when it becomes a convoluted tale in which it becomes difficult to determine if the story was masterfully told or jumped the shark.

Members of a literature club in an all-girl Catholic school attend a dinner and story-reading session, during which the details of the story slowly unfold as each girl reads a story she has written. Each story has to do with the recent death of a fellow-student and as the stories are read, the plot reveals. Or does it? As would be expected, there are plot twists aplenty with the typical "all things revealed" at the end.

However the reveal is so mixed up and detailed, one can easily get lost in the telling of the story during the last twenty minutes. The story is told (especially if we can pause and rewind to review parts difficult to understand), but the plot unfolds like an intricate origami that is suddenly pulled apart at the corners... in slow motion. In the end I was left with the feeling that they reached the destination but the ride was pretty bumpy.

I was going to give it 6 stars for unique concept and pretty decent directing and acting, but decided to drop it to 4 stars for a gratuitous sex act partway through that although revealing no nudity, is incongruous with the rest of the show and interferes with the flow and atmosphere of the story. Such could have been presented in a less-graphic format and in continuity with the rest of the film. As presented it felt severely out-of-place and (in my opinion) disjointed the film... enough to cost it 2 stars in my rating.

I don't give it more because the movie in general seemed to be a bit contrived in the resolution. in short, the last 30 minutes or so of the film were not as good as what came before and was somewhat of an anti-climax. It was an interesting film, but I can't really say it was a good one. Worth watching? That will depend on the viewer and how much you can tolerate of such fare. Some may enjoy this, but personally I found the end wanting.

The Dark Maidens is a film that I did not have the intention of watching at all. I hadn't seen a trailer for it, I had not come across its page on MDL or IMDB, nothing of the sort. I was clearing out my "watch later" list on my YouTube when I came across "Mystery 2017 School Japan Detective Eng Sub" and I decided since I had some time to kill I'd watch it and see why I had it saved in my to watch later.

I think I can safely say that is one of the best decisions I have done when it comes down to watching something because of random chance.

When I first began this, due to the name the uploader had set it as (The Dark Maidens), I believed this was going to be another high school set suicide blood fest horror film living up to many of Japan's horror tropes in their films. After the first twenty minutes or so, I had to pause to come and read the synopsis because I was confused. After reading it, I did think twice about watching it as I don't really go for the whole murder mystery genre; I find quite often Japan doesn't do it as well as they do their high school based horror. Shrugging it off, I decided why not because I'd already started it: and wow.

The Dark Maidens took me on a long, twisting, amazing journey of friendship and betrayal, of life and death. The first thing I picked up from this film was the utterly beautiful connections from well-known murder mysteries - such as Miss Marple and Agatha Christie, of whom are referenced in the film's prominent literature club. Although reminiscent, it still had its own originality that left me glued to my screen - something that is pretty rare for me. Usually, I have to pause quite a bit and rest my eyes due to poor eyesight and having to read subtitles, but I watched this almost entirely in its completeness. As the twists begin to unfold, the story becomes more and more convoluted with such a shocking twist and turn at the end that was nothing short of smart. I was confused for a short while in this film but the script writing sets it up utterly perfectly for its ending. The writing in this is absolutely nothing sort of genius and I haven't been left this gobsmacked by a twist in a film for a long, long time.

The cast in this was perfectly selected. Every single cast member played their roles perfectly, whilst also giving off such a feeling of ethereal beauty (along with a little help from the gorgeous editing), that made me feel like I was watching a twisted fairy tale rather than a murder mystery. Their acting in this was spot on and they took what they were given with the script and made it, simply, their own.

Every single thing about this film adds up to create something that I would say is nothing short of a masterpiece. There was nothing in this film I can even recall as a fault, nor can I think of anything I would have liked to see more or done better. This is one of those films I recommend everyone try if they can find the time to try it out and I am utterly grateful for whatever choices I made to sit and watch it when I did. This has definitely opened me up to the murder mystery genre; that's something I never thought would happen with how obvious and guessable many are in the genre.

I have seen comments and remarks that this is quite rushed for the film considering this is based off a book and frankly, I' thankful I watched the film first. I didn't know this franchise existed and I will definitely be reading the book later this year after watching this. I would say, having not read the book, if you want a full experience for the film to definitely watch the film first. I don't think if I had read the book first that I would have enjoyed this as much as I had done and although it spoils some of the book, from what I have seen, there is a lot more content in the book that is free game to discover brand new even after watching the film.