User reviews

"Akame shijuya taki shinju misui", or "attempted love suicide at the 47 falls of akame" is a very basic story in a very complex and mysterious universe. The main character is a who tries to flee from his past, and he ends up in an underworld filled with strange characters. He finds a job skewering meat in a dirty old room in a shabby old house filled with prostitutes, gangsters and a weird old tattoo master. He clearly doesn't fit in to this new world, and the inhabitants of it immediately despises him. In this way, the movie is very comic and entertaining. But when he meets a beautiful young girl with a tattoo out if this world, the story takes a turn. The girl wants to flee this dark and dirty world, and she needs his help. Eventually the writer has to come to terms with who he is, and where he belongs. The girl is astonishingly played by Terajima Shinobu who won a Japanese Academy Award in 2003 because of this movie. Another good thing about this movie is the beautiful scenery during the last scenes at the waterfalls. That said, the movie is too long and not all of the scenes work or make sense. Nonetheless a very beautiful and interesting piece, and Terajima Shinobu shines on the silver screen.