Missing

The latest film, Missing, directed by Yoshida Keisuke, features Ishihara Satomi in the role of Saori, a mother on a frantic quest to find her abducted daughter. As she navigates a landscape filled with online accusations and a media eager to sensationalize her plight for ratings, her struggle becomes increasingly intense.

Set three months after the abduction of six-year-old Miu, the film portrays Saori (Ishihara Satomi) and her husband Yutaka (Aoki Munetaka) as they grapple with despair while continuing their search. With the police investigation yielding no results, they turn to television reporter Sunada (Nakamura Tomoya), whose attempts to engage the public also fall short.

Yoshida skillfully reveals the deep anguish of a family pushed to their limits, juxtaposing their pain with Sunada's ethical dilemmas in a society hungry for sensational stories. The film is infused with raw emotion, often resembling a docudrama.

In this directorial effort, Yoshida steers clear of clichéd melodrama, instead offering a nuanced portrayal of the aftermath of the kidnapping. While it's easy to empathize with Saori, her aggressive demeanor raises questions about whether her confrontational behavior is a reflection of her mental strain or a more common response in such dire situations.

At its heart, the film explores the missing person case amid the chaotic media coverage and social media frenzy, gradually painting a picture of today's complex societal fabric. While it showcases individuals who relentlessly push negative narratives, it also hints at moments of inherent goodness. Yet, within this chaos, Saori and those around her are slowly worn down.

Rather than seeking to evoke sympathy for its characters, Missing presents a stark reality. Despite Yoshida's unflinching approach, the film carries an underlying sense of gentleness, making it a compelling piece of cinematic art.

It follows the mother and father of a missing child. The child is missing after going with her uncle. The main way of searching the child is through flyers that they hand out themselves and putting them on walls.

A sympathetic reporter, despite having a job agenda, is also hoping to find the missing girl. With the demand of the reporter's boss, the reporter has to interview the uncle, who is not keen to agree to having the interview. The uncle looked quite suspicious because of the way he brusquely answers the questions despite being the one who's been seen with the child the last time.

"Missing" mostly filming how the event affects the parents and their activities aftermath in docudrama-like.

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To say I enjoyed Missing would not be very true. I acknowledge that I want to know how Missing would go from each scene to the next.

The 5 rating (that I rate for my archive only) itself is not advisable to audiences because it really depends on you. It can be quite as high as 9 or 10, or as low as you want to be.

Maybe I just have the feeling that something is missing from Missing. But I'm sure almost all of you will be emotionally affected.

I'd rather not know that this movie exists, but because I stumbled over it, I have to watch-have to know.

Sometimes the complex interpersonal dynamic of the husband and wife or the wife and the reporter feels cringingly amusing to watch. Such as with the husband's discomfort with the way her wife acts in a particular situation and how we see the husband should instead let this pass but doesn't, making it seem he doesn't care enough about his child. But is he?

"Missing" is a profoundly moving film, with standout performances from the cast, especially Satomi Ishihara and Tomoya Nakamura. Their exceptional acting truly impressed me. Once again, WOWOW TV excels in addressing social issues, delivering a solid and impactful piece.

The film masterfully portrays the complex relationships between the police, journalists, and public opinion, vividly capturing the victim's anguish and helplessness caught in between. This realism creates a palpable sense of suffocation as you watch.

Furthermore, the film's use of light and shadow, composition, and camera work highlights the unique beauty and subtlety of Japanese cinema. It's a movie that deserves to be savored in the theater for its visual artistry.

Falling from the first images of the film into an exaggerated sentimentalism and supported by caricatured music (while showing images of family happiness before the kidnapping), the director prides himself on denouncing the sensationalism of the mass media. But for this, he does not hesitate to make us voyeurs of the misfortune which befalls this couple just as bad journalists do: mother in tears, screaming her unhappiness (the actress's acting is also singularly lacking of subtlety, to say the least...). In the end we learn nothing, as the director is continuously pushing open doors: social networks are full of cruel imbeciles, people are quick to judge and accuse without proof, the medias seek sensationalism... No originality is the way to treat those subjects, everything is absolutely obvious. The director seems to be 10 years behind on all these subjects.