Kaibutsu no kikori

I recently watched the new Japanese film Lumberjack the Monster (2023) on Netflix. The storyline follows an arrogant lawyer with a checkered past who is attacked by a serial killer and barely survives. The lawyer's arrogance won't let him be just another victim, so he decides to go from the hunted to the hunter.

The film is directed by the iconic Takashi Miike (Audition) and stars Kazuya Kamenashi (Joker Game), Nanao (Miss Devil), Keisuke Horibe (Tokyo Gore Police), and Shidô Nakamura (Fearless).

This movie wasn't what I was expecting at all. The main character feels like the actual villain as the story unfolds. The backstories are very well told, and the horror elements are elite. The costumes and kill scenes are top-notch, with great stab scenes and throat slashes. The ending is actually quite rewarding and serves as a perfect conclusion. However, the killer reveal is disappointing and this picture was not what I was hoping for from Miike.

In conclusion, Lumberjack the Monster didn't live up to my expectations of Miike, but it had enough worthwhile elements to watch once. I would score this a 5.5-6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

I saw this movie with no idea of the plot. I just read some people online telling that it was a good movie by well loved director Takashi MIke. I like many movies that he did. And I had expectation. And well the movie is not a horror, it is not scary. Does it have blood? Yes. Crazy people? Yes. Is it funny and entertaining? Well not that much. Here is where the issue is for me. When the movie finish I thought "is this all?" that Meh feeling. No real drama or tension or big surprise. Everything move in a smooth way, And as somebody else already wrote, yes very good opening scene, and then you think, ok ok something good will come.

I have no idea of the book or comic this is based on. So maybe the story was all already there with not so much room to change things.

This dropped on Netflix with little fanfare,word of mouth or press releases which is surprising as its directed by cult filmmaker Takashi Miike.

It's an interesting,stylish and extremely well made thriller with solid production values with the cinematography and sound design top notch.

It's a mash up of Jagged Edge,Seven and Memories of Murder but like them outstanding films it's talky and ponderous with some thrilling moments and come few and far between. Although the attack by 'Lumberjack' in the high rise storey building was jumpy.

The problem lies in a overloaded script with too many characters to follow, a sub plot about' neuro chips' that add to very little and little character development.

I wonder if this would have been a better three part Netflix series instead?

Nonetheless, an interesting take on the thriller genre by a world class visionary.

And it is meandering. It starts about one thing. Then it's another thing. And another thing. And another thing. And another thing. And before it winds back to being how all this things are connected, it just becomes exhausting and a big so-what.

It's not Seven. It's not Silence of the Lambs. It's not Zodiac. And it's not good.

If it was just about the Lumberjack figure and the lore, it probably would have been much better. But, instead, it has to be twenty-five different genres with a hundred unlikable characters and seventy-three thousand plot threads.

By the end, I just didn't care anymore.

While this did have a few of Takashi Miike's signature moves (blood spurting like it was being shot out of a gun), it was probably the slowest, most excruciatingly painful dalliance ever put on film. It was a short-short that Miike dragged out to almost 2 hours with.insanely mundane shots and dialogue that added nothing to the story whatsoever. I honestly don't know what kept me watching it until the end. Maybe I was hoping something might actually happen--but it didn't. It's not a thriller, it's definitely not horror, it's barely drama, and I guess "crime" is the only genre it fits since it did involve a crime. Really bad. I gave it a 2 out of nostalgia for Takashi Miike's earlier work but it doesn't even deserve that.