34low
Joined Aug 2000
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34low's rating
Unlike the Evil Dead Trap 1 and 2, this movie doesn't feature much blood and gore, and is more of a mystery/thriller than a horror movie.
Rookie detective (was she a rookie? Anyway she looked and acted like a rookie, fresh and enthusiastic) Nami investigates mysterious serial murder and chases the murderer across Japan.
To me, a major innovation of the film is the character of the main suspect, a high school teacher, who is deeply into Japanese tradition, in two ways. One, he is a Kendo instructor at the school. Kendo is the Japanese version of fencing, based of course on samurai art of fighting. The kendo scenes are cool and look very real, like the bout between the guy and Nami. Two, he is a practitioner of the ancient Japanese religion of Shinto. He is from Izumo, which is an important place in Japanese mythology: when the gods first descended from heaven to build the nation of Japan, they are supposed to have landed there.
Because of this intriguing character, and the freshness of the female protagonist, the movie holds our attention even though the plot isn't particularly strong.
By the way, the appearance of great Yamada Tatsuo (of "Crazy Thunder Road") as Nami's fellow detective and partner is also welcome.
All in all, a decent thriller movie. Also, it gives a nice view of Japan as it follows Nami chasing the murderer across the country.
Rookie detective (was she a rookie? Anyway she looked and acted like a rookie, fresh and enthusiastic) Nami investigates mysterious serial murder and chases the murderer across Japan.
To me, a major innovation of the film is the character of the main suspect, a high school teacher, who is deeply into Japanese tradition, in two ways. One, he is a Kendo instructor at the school. Kendo is the Japanese version of fencing, based of course on samurai art of fighting. The kendo scenes are cool and look very real, like the bout between the guy and Nami. Two, he is a practitioner of the ancient Japanese religion of Shinto. He is from Izumo, which is an important place in Japanese mythology: when the gods first descended from heaven to build the nation of Japan, they are supposed to have landed there.
Because of this intriguing character, and the freshness of the female protagonist, the movie holds our attention even though the plot isn't particularly strong.
By the way, the appearance of great Yamada Tatsuo (of "Crazy Thunder Road") as Nami's fellow detective and partner is also welcome.
All in all, a decent thriller movie. Also, it gives a nice view of Japan as it follows Nami chasing the murderer across the country.
I love the heroine of this movie. She, a beautiful teen-age sister of a cop, is in fact a fiery, sadistic psychopath who dominates hapless (and spineless) threesome of students and forces them to participate in her reckless criminal scheme.
Even though the heroine is totally amoral, and sadistic etc., we can't but root for her because she is fearless and puts up a lone fight against..., against everything. She is motivated by dark and formless anger, and she controls (or tries to control) three students through fear and greed. This relationship between the girl and the threesome is the most interesting aspect of the film.
Their dangerous game leads to the involvement with organized crime (the triad?) and to the dire conclusion. The last twenty or so minutes of the film is truly gruesome.
The other characters in film are pretty two-dimensional --- the villains are mere killing machines, and the cop, the brother of the heroine, is also rather stereotypical loner cop. But the dangerous and out-of-control spiral of the four main characters is riveting to watch.
Even though the heroine is totally amoral, and sadistic etc., we can't but root for her because she is fearless and puts up a lone fight against..., against everything. She is motivated by dark and formless anger, and she controls (or tries to control) three students through fear and greed. This relationship between the girl and the threesome is the most interesting aspect of the film.
Their dangerous game leads to the involvement with organized crime (the triad?) and to the dire conclusion. The last twenty or so minutes of the film is truly gruesome.
The other characters in film are pretty two-dimensional --- the villains are mere killing machines, and the cop, the brother of the heroine, is also rather stereotypical loner cop. But the dangerous and out-of-control spiral of the four main characters is riveting to watch.