Japanese Circuit
Posted: November 29, 2009
(L) Newlywed Ryoko Hirosue bids farewell to her husband Hidetoshi Nishijima at the train station then a few days later (R) comes looking for him after his unexplained disappearance
Zero Focus (Zero no Shuten, ゼãƒã®ç„¦ç‚¹)
Director: Isshin Inudou
Screenwriters: Kenji Nakazono, Isshin Inudou
Stars:
Ryoko Hirosue … Sadako
Miki Nakatani … Sachiko
Takashi Kaga … Gisaku
Tae Kimura … Hisako
Tri-genre: crime mystery suspense
Story Situation: riddle
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 0+
Plotline: About 1957. One week into Ryoko Hiroshue’s arranged marriage, her husband Hidetoshi Nishijima fails to return from a brief business trip. When his employer calls to inquire about his whereabouts, she decides to follow him to Kanazawa. There she triggers a sequence of murders when she questions two women, Miki Nakatani and Tae Kimura, from her husband’s client company. As events progress, she realizes her husband led a double life and that she is tracking a serial killer from inside the world of prostitution.
Comment: Until his death in 1992, mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto was Japan’s Raymond Chandler, providing a literary wellspring for multitudes of films and television shows. This prestige remake of a 1961 film offers a more faithful version of Matsumoto’s popular novel of the same name. Visualized in the style of a Hitchcock thriller, Zero Focus also includes a protracted Ellory Queen wrap-up explanation upon revelation of the killer that, although commonplace in Japanese cinema, tends not to play well in other markets.
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World's Favorite Films 2010
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World Favorite Foreign Language Films 2010
Yip Man 2 (Chinese)
My Name Is Khan (Bollywood)
Nodame Cantabile 2 (Japanese)
Blood Brothers: Secret Reunion (Korean)
L'arnacoeur (French)
Doraemon: Mermaid Adventure (Japanese)
Little Big Soldier (Chinese)
La rafle (French)
Io, loro e Lara (Italian)
Liar Game (Japanese)
Our Rossiya (Russian)
Younger Brother (Japanese)
Housefull (Bollywood)
Harmony (Korean)
Go Lala Go (Chinese)
Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf 2 (Chinese)
Chico Xavier (Portuguese)
Kandahar (Russian)
