Enjeru dasuto

Starts off feeling a little bit like a cross between Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs in terms of it being a crime/police procedural mixed with a psychological thriller, but it becomes something different and far harder to describe or compare to anything as it goes along.

It never entirely lost me, thankfully, and it was consistently interesting to see where it would go next. You get the sense wherever it's going it bound to be dark and twisted, but it's never easy to work out how it's going to shock or surprise you as a viewer next.

If there's any complaints I had, I guess I wish it had been a little tighter/shorter, but still pretty good either way.

Angel Dust is engagingly stylish and has some really cool concepts even though it tends toward tedium in some places.

This film is worthwhile. Encompassing a Scientology-like brainwashing/deprogramming treadmill, some haunting urban portraiture, a really hot Scully-like criminal psychologist and details of her personal life with an androgyne husband, Angel Dust covers a lot of interesting ground, though it bogs down now and again. The cinematography is mostly gorgeous, but tends to detour into annoying visual noodling (an extended sequence of images flashing from a slide projector in particular put me off.)

A question for Japanese freak cinema enthusiasts: I know that cult actor Tomoro Toguchi does a small, subtle, slapstick cameo in Angel Dust (the guy in a uniform carrying a heavy potted plant up a flight of stairs,) but who plays the smugly pious cult leader? He's only on screen for about two seconds, but I thought I saw a very familiar face. (I saw it at a theater so I couldn't rewind, and only some of the credits were in English.)

I first thought this movie borrowed heavily in terms of cinematography from David Lynch "Lost Highway", i.e. the viewer watching the action from a TV thats recording the subject, i.e. the psychological nuttiness between male/female relationships, etc.. But i just discovered that Lost Highway was made 3 years AFTER Angel Dust, and so that makes Angel Dust that much more innovative, IMO. I agree with all the other comments below, its somewhat "muddled" but overall very intense and worth watching.

The main female detective is not that interesting compared to the doctor of the "re-brainwashing" clinic. He is the centerpiece of the movie, and his ideas are something to always think about.

Innovative, tense and unnerving tale that is also very stylish, with inspired visuals, imaginative use of sound and spectacular editing. It is also a little confusing upon first viewing but it is clear by the end that everything did make sense. An intelligent work that deals with gender/work issues, psychological make up and it's consequences plus the question of dealing with cult 'victims'. In short a lot of ground is covered and it should not be forgotten that this is still a rattling good yarn involving a serial killer who acts each Monday on a Tokyo underground line at 6.00 pm. Setsuko is called in to help police with the case, she having had experience in the field and,, it turns out, worked rather closely with another certain gentleman who we meet a little later. The b/w security camera sequences shot in his clinic are possibly a little long but it is fearsome stuff

Very reminiscent of Dario Argento's films without being anywhere near as violent. The story is somewhat muddled but the cinematography is amazing. The film's many weak points are overcome by an incredible look and feel and atmosphere. Like the recent anime Perfect Blue the problems with the story only bother you when it's over, while you're watching it the atmosphere carries you along.