Angel Dust

There are few movies as original as Angel Dust, especially in the realm of thrillers with hoary cliches, transparent plot turns, and questionable endings. Billed as both a Usual Suspects-style stumper and a Silence Of The Lambs-style thriller, Angel Dust sports a plot which climbs a tension ladder masterfully, pausing long enough between rungs to entertain a host of solution theories -- usually presented by lead police investigator Suma's partners -- and examinations of Suma's method of investigation. Complications abound in Suma's case, and, as with The Big Lebowski, we only know what the protagonist knows. (In other words: the whats, not so many of the whys.) As Suma's case progresses unevenly, waiting for the payoff might frustrate; the solution stays at arm's length throughout the movie, but the cinematography and editing are pristine (the waltzing cuts in Suma's reunion with ex-boyfriend/research partner/current suspect rule! RULE!), getting you through the first viewing as well as repeats. The plot thankfully holds up to scrutiny as well, though the details trickily come in clumps (hard on Suma as well as the viewer). My only beef with director Ishii is that while Suma is deftly depicted early on as an unconventional, instinctual investigator with a bizarre lifestyle, we still have to see her puffing away in no-smoking zones a la Martin Riggs. We get it -- she lives on her own planet. At any rate, Angel Dust is a must-see lesson in treatment of fringe characters, deliberate but graceful plot movement, economy of dialogue, use/absence of sound, and mind-mangling psychological tension (with little onscreen violence). Yay! Also check out March Comes In Like A Lion, Junk Food, Maboroshi, Audition.

"Angel Dust" is about a woman who is seeking a killer. The killer strikes every Monday night at 6:00 pm. The killer targets young women, killing them with a lethal injection in a public place. The woman seeking the killer is a brilliant psychologist who allows the killer's traits to enter her mind and as she begins to think like him, she can use this to trap him. It's a classic set-up and one that's been done before.

In "Angel Dust" it's done with a flair not felt in the cinema for a long time. With careful attention to how imagery can shape the psychological thriller, (the film looks as if it were shot in black and white in the rain and then given to a child to color vibrantly with a 64-pack of crayolas) the film has a mood that is unshakeable. The film is not merely disturbing, but eerie. It's aura is not really reminiscent of too many American films - though some of the themes, such as brain washing ("The Manchurian Candidate") and psychologist getting to close to a killer ("Manhunter") feel familiar - but are done in a deeply original fashion. Watching the film is no easy task either. It's brutally methodical, leading the viewer on an excessive mind game, trying to figure out who's lying to who and who the killer is becomes nearly painful - keep some aspirin handy. The film's real trick is that it's story is ambiguous and has a wifty editing style. The movie can move as quickly as an action picture and then stop, on a dime, to examine something for up to 15 minutes - very succinctly, very carefully and very, very cinematically.

Pulling the threads together reveals that there's a bitter purpose to everything in the film's world. It's creepy and heavy as Stoudt, but none of the negative things I've hinted at are flaws in any way. All are there for a reason. This is one of the best crime films I've ever seen. It's absolutely stunning.

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There's some interesting use of sound In "Angel Dust" and some splendid cinematography by Norimicho Kasamatu, especially of interiors and the memorable scene with many umbrellas. Kaho Minami, who plays the female lead, Setsuk Suma, a Tokyo "police psychologist," is beautiful, and her co-star Takeshi Wakamatsu, as psychologist Rei Aku, has an appealing rakishness about him. Unfortunately the plodding direction by Sogo Ishii lacks tension and rambles more than a bit. Add to that a convoluted mishmash of pop psychology, stilted dialogue, posed theatrics, and we have one long disappointment.

The dialogue is probably not as bad as it appears in the English subtitles, which were very poorly edited with bad verb numbers, wrong tenses and some strange word translations, e.g., "re-brain- washing" for reprogramming. Or, "You're a pleasure homicidal mania" the killer is told, meaning the killer enjoys his work, I imagine. Annoying, unconvincing and too long were the "re-brain- washing" sequences presented in grainy, flickering black and white (we were supposed to be seeing them as on video tape). The idea of a religious cult member committing murders on the Tokyo subway is as real as newspaper headlines, of course, but the psychology behind the killings here didn't wash. The "religion" was so generic as to be anonymous. We felt nothing for the victims because they were not made real, nor were any of the characters except the leads really animated.

More than anything though this movie suffered from the miscasting of Kaho Minami as the police shrink. She was somewhat believable in her "disintegrating" phase (although the scene at Aku's sanatorium with him on the TV screen was unintentionally silly), but entirely too wimpy and dreamy to be convincing as any kind of cop. The scenes with her and Aku were interesting as far as they went; unfortunately, the sharp chemical contrast between his macho nature and her alluring femininity was not ignited. One had the sense they were saving that for after the film was over. Too bad. The androgynous nature of her husband and the killer seemed pointless, but again possibly something was lost in the translation.

I think what happened here is Sogo Ishii got caught between a theatrical tradition and some notions of Western style realism, and ended up with succotash.

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.

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.)