Homunkurusu

Warning: this is not the cortical homunculus with big hand and lip.

A new Japanese movie on Netflix that adapted from the manga with the same name. A homeless amnesiac got his forehead drilled, which allowed him to use his brain more and see into people's inner trauma.

I didn't know about the manga, so the review is based solely on what I saw. The first half was very interesting, as the main character explored his newly discovered ability. That one scene with the high school girl was so weird and mind-boggling. This first half got me invested to see how far the main character would take his ability.

The second half made a sudden change in tone, and became mystery and drama. I had major issue with this story because things did not have explanations, the buildup did not address the character's background, and the story itself didn't even make that much sense. This second half might improve a little bit of there was more impactful background music. Honestly the second half story wasn't that intriguing.

Also, the premise that if one drills a hole into the brain, and somehow this makes more space for the brain to be used more, was just stupid. This reminded my of Lucy, a movie with Scarlett Johansson where the main character got injected some weird blue stuff and was able to use more than 10% of her brain. At least that makes more sense than the premise of this movie. And the 10% brain usage is a stupid myth.

Overall, an interesting story about guilt and trauma, but the second half became convoluted and messy. 5/10.

Definitely not a movie for everyone unless you are interested in psychology and the outcome of a personal trauma.

The movie is well acted as much very complicated, the characters reveal themselves along as you are able to understand them.

It takes a lot of attention, and every detail count; my advice is.. Watch it.. Only if you are ready for a puzzled full mind fantasy movie.

I enjoyed this movie, it was definitely different to say the least. I never got why everyone kept drilling into each others brain. But I did enjoy the story. It felt a bit drawn out at times I wish it could have been faster. I recommend seeing it and passing your own judgement. Cannot wait to see Ito in another movie, I loved his character the most. Even crazy he was still very much on the attractive side.

I saw this in the Commin soon section on Netflix and the synopsis was interresting enough so I went and read the manga first. I came back to this movie today and not gonna lie - I am dissapointed. Im not that kind of person who always says manga is better but in this case its like two completely different stories. Unfortunatelly this movie doesnt do the manga justice at all and even if Im judging it as a movie of its own, its just OK in my opinion.

First, this story would be better told in a series - I feel we needed more time to spend with the characters to learn about their inner motivation. The movie is almost 2 hours long and still it feels like its rushed. At the same time, some scenes are really dragging. I like slow-paced movies but in this case the long scenes didnt add anything to the movie itself.

I like the atmosphere, the visual effects (I was really sceptical about the CGI but it was Ok - still I think it would be better translated in animated medium) and the actors for the most part. The music was just not captivating enough, some scenes would benefit from more suspenseful, more haunting score.

Now lets talk about the changes in the story and characters. I understand that making creative changes in the story is neccesary and many times its for the better. I always welcome this creative aproach from directors and even if I sometimes prefer the original, I can still appreciate it. In the case of this movie, I cant say that. Im going to be honest, I didnt like any of it. It was all so rushed I didnt conect to any of the characters so I just ended up not carring about them. The explanations of their homonculi were rushed, shallow and the connection between them and the main character wasnt established good enough. But what was the most dissapointing for me personally was Manabu Ito. I loooved this character in manga. They were mysterious and enchanting, you werent sure what to expect of them. Were they just a curious young medic or was there something more behind their experiment? Did they perform the trepanation or did they just manipulate Nakoshi? Were they even a real person or just Nakoshi´s imagination? And when you learn why was their homonculus the way it was, you felt heartbroken. It all made sense. You get nothing like that in this movie. Here, he´s just a weirdo with too much free time on his hands. The ending of his arc in the movie is unsatisfying and tbh it didnt really make sense to me (maybe I missed something?).

The ending as whole is just a mess. Even if I dont compare it with the manga, its still just....meh?

I have so much more to say but its a bit hard for me to explain myself in english so Im just going to end it here. I dont regret watching it but I probably wouldnt recomend it to my friends.

Please, read the manga, its so good.

As others have mentioned, this new effort from JU-ON director Takashi Shimizu starts off on a very strong and original footing that reminded me more than a little of the cult classic R100. I do love the way that fantastical elements are brought into play to depict abstract concepts and the psychological background of trauma and the like is absolutely fascinating. Love the creative scenes too, like the Yakuza set-piece. Sadly this loses its way in the second half and becomes smaller scaled and long-winded; half an hour off would have helped that. But the ending is pretty decent and the acting great.