Homunculus

Well starting from the Manga, it is way a hard piece to adapt, mostly because of his complexity and exploration of the human psyque, in this movie all the interesting charts between the charachters are just empty and as I said before that complexity is lost with this movie. It is not as deep as it should, but good try.

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.

This Japanese film, based on a manga of the same name, is centred on Susumu Nakoshi. He is a thirty four year old amnesiac for appears to have plenty of money despite living in his small car near a homeless community. One day he is approached by a strange man with an even stranger proposal. He says that he will give Nakoshi ¥700,000 to take part in a medical experiment. He believes that by drilling a small home in his skull he will be able to unleash the brain's true power. He is initially rejected but eventually Nakoshi accepts. Soon afterwards he starts having disturbing visions. He sees homunculi, alternate versions of the person he is looking at that give him an insight into the events in their life that have been traumatic and repressed. Some of these insights prove disturbing for all involved.

It isn't surprising that this film is quite disturbing and more than a little twisted at times; the original manga was created by the man who created 'Ichi the Killer'. That said this is nowhere near as disturbing or violent as that film. The story is interesting and provides a few good twists. It is shot in a fairly matter of fact way that gives it a suitably drab feel that matches Nakoshi's lack of emotion. The acting is solid and the special effects, which aren't over-used, are really good. Some of the material means it won't be for everybody but if you enjoy subtitled horror, or understand Japanese, I'd recommend giving it a go.

These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.

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.

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.