Inju, la bête dans l'ombre

The writer and college professor Alexandre Fayard (Benoit Magimel) studies and gives lectures about the gruesome literary work of the mysterious Japanese writer Shundei Oe that is considered by him the master of manipulation. In his underground detective novels, evil always prevails and Shundei Oe has never allowed anyone to see his face, and his only image available is a frightening picture on the back of his best-sellers. Alex travels to Kyoto to promote his successful detective story that follows the same style of the Shundei Oe but with a positive message instead and meets his publisher Ken Honda from the publishing house Hakubunkan. While in an interview in a TV show, Alex receives a phone call from Shundei Oe that advises him to return to Paris, and Alex believes it is a marketing strategy of Ken. Then Alex and Ken go to a tea house where he meets the Masochist geisha Tamao (Minamoto Lika), and Alex has a crush on her. Tamao discloses to Alex that she knows Shundei Oe and his real name is Hichiro Irata; further they were lovers when she rejected his proposal many years ago. From this moment on, Hichiro Irata loathed her and vanished. When she got pregnant of the wealthy and powerful business man Ryuji Mogi (Ryo Ishibashi), Shundei Oe returned and stalked her. Alex decides to help Tamao and Ryuji Mogi against the menace of the deranged writer, and his mind is blurred between fiction and reality in dreadful nightmares.

"Inju, La Bête Dans L'Ombre" is flawed, but also mysterious and intriguing. The story is supported by good screenplay with murders and twists, direction and performances and a wonderful cinematography. Unfortunately there are very few characters and based on the explanation of Alex that Shundei Oe would be the master of manipulation, I could predict the identity of the bleak writer that recalled the unforgettable conclusion of "Body Heat". Nevertheless this movie is engaging and highly recommended. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Inju, O Despertar da Besta" ("Inju, The Awakening of the Beast")

old recipes. not bad result. only problem - the story is far to be original but it has decent presented, the drops of Orient saves large parts, the cast is inspired and the ambiguity preserved in a correct form. at first sigh it seems be an easy spell. fascinating, ambiguous, far by great ambitions but beautiful. a film who preserves a special flavor who saves the mistakes or the old ways. Benoit Magimel is, not surprise, one of the good choices for the role of writer looking the truth. and his work seems be more than decent . far to be a great thriller, it is a seductive one. a challenge and a meeting. and Japanese culture's crumbs as veil to define the fight for understand the truth.

I'm not sure why this film was made, every character is bland and the actors are either talentless or badly directed, everything is by the numbers; dream sequences, an incredibly obvious twist, no social commentary and no examination of morals or motives. Don't expect anything particularly Japanese or French, this is as bland as anything out of Hollywood, it only inspires confusion and frustration. Like many movies made about writers this is full of awful writing, it should have been two intelligent complex characters matching wits, subtly probing, dropping taunting elusive clues. Instead it is one barely competent adversary foiling a totally moronic protagonist while dropping unambiguous proof and lucking into foiling the one able character who is then perfunctorily killed.

It's not about the story (or the twist therein). It's not about the technical realization of the movie (there is a standard here). But it's about the actors. Not that they are bad actors. But for a movie that has nothing much going for it (you should see where this is going from the get go), you need Actors who can carry this through. Unfortunately there is nothing to remind them by.

If you lower your standards, you might enjoy this a little bit. But since the actors and the story don't give you anything to look for in this movie, you could watch better and other movies instead. A french thriller in Japan, that is not successful.

if it not becomes boring.a French writer in Japan. in search of a ghost. a meeting. adventures. and a confuse chain of events. the story is beautiful and the cast is nice. but not Benoit Magimel or Lika Minamoto can save the film. it remains a mixture of Hollywood crumbs and Oriental atmosphere. drawing of thriller with few drops of erotic scenes. and the end can impress at first view. like a magic of clown. but it is not really credible and seems be a kind of Pulp Fiction copy. full of good intentions, its ambitions are too great. it is not really a sin. but the game with delicate ingredients for a story with beautiful air but without a real subject is not base for success. only for a sparkle.