Hasami otoko

Man Behind the Scissors is an interesting and somewhat bizarre psychological film about a killer, a copycat killer, and the police trying to find both killers. Though starting out fairly straightforward, the film has many twists and turns and it keeps viewers on their toes. The story is quite good throughout, and the music is surprisingly unnerving and minimal. The atmosphere is pretty great. Also, you gotta love the fact that a film from 3 years ago looks like it was filmed in the 80's. Performances are good for most of the characters...

The biggest problem with the film is definitely its inconsistency in tone. At times, it tries hard to be as serious as possible and it usually works. However, whatever bleakness the films conveys is immediately broken by a bit too much campy humor from the stupid, bumbling police officers; specifically to blame is the lead police officer who just acts completely ridiculous throughout the whole thing.

The film could have used some editing to make the pace better as the film is a big too long and cluttered, especially at the end. Also, some more bloodshed would have been nice, though the film is definitely not really even about the murders but the psychology involved behind them.

This film really could have been something special and I definitely recommend one viewing of it, as it does seem genuine in trying to do something different. I have to agree with another review; this film is definitely a bit too in love with its own ideas and it doesn't really let the characters develop enough. A good effort but it was just missing... something.

To start off, i never heard anything about this movie or knew anything about it before i bought it, but boy am i happy i bought it. This movie despite being very unknown is really fantastic. It really gets a new twist and turn every second. One second you think you might know the ending and all of a sudden it twists again. This movie keeps you on edge all the time and keep you glued to the screen, it was really awesome. There is actually no way to better explain this movie because even if i try to explain it, i will give away one of the MANY twists of the movie. Personally i really recommend this movie because it was really fantastic and very psychological.

This is an interesting psychological suspense film which is very much in the tradition of other Japanese films like Cure (Kyua, 1997) and Angel Dust (Enjeru Dasuto, 1994).

*** Minor, first-act SPOILERS follow ***

The movie proceeds along two main narrative lines. In one, the police hunt for the "man behind the scissors," a serial killer who kills his victim with scissors and has apparently killed three victims. In the other, we follow this killer and his female companion as they also try to solve a murder. This sort of dual cat-and-mouse game makes for an interesting variation on the usual police procedural.

*** End spoilers ***

Overall, The Man Behind the Scissors (that's the English title on the DVD I rented) is a good effort and offers a good deal more depth than the average slasher film. It's hampered by a somewhat disappointing last act, though.

Unfortunately, the film has a few too many subplots, and by the end of the movie things begin to drag and the film loses a lot of its focus. There are a lot of twists in the movie, and it could have done with a lot fewer. In addition to this, not all of the narrative threads are equally compelling (in particular, the part of the story concerning the police doesn't have nearly the same level of psychological zing as the other part).

Despite the lackluster ending, though, it's smarter than average, and worth a watch if you enjoy thrillers of this type.