Anaza hevun (2000)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Jôji Iida

Writer:

Jôji Iida (writer)

Release Date:

29 April 2000 (Japan)

Genre:

Crime | Horror

Plot:

A pair of hard-boiled Tokyo cops are investigating a gruesome murder: after killing the victim, the...

Plot Keywords:

Brain | Murder | Head Ripped Off | Statue | Supernatural

Cast

Yôsuke Eguchi	...	Manabu Hayase
Miwako Ichikawa	...	Asako
Takashi Kashiwabara	...	Atsushi Kimura
Yukiko Okamoto	...	Chizuru Kashiwagi
Haruhiko Katô	...	Yuuji Makuta
Naomasa Musaka	...	Sakamoto-keibu
Kunihiro Ida	...	Ryoukado-keibu
Yosinori Kô	...	Kumakura-keiji
Toshi Shioya	...	Ikegami kenshi-i
Kai Ato	...	Shinji Ohno
Yôko Ôshima	...	Kazuko Ohno
Taro Suwa	...	Taguchi-kanshiki
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Akira Emoto
Yoshio Harada	...	Detective Tobitaka
Manami Honjou
Kimiko Inui	...	Newscaster
Takamasa Kidachi
Natsuhiko Kyôgoku	...	Commentator
Yasuko Matsuyuki
Tomohiro Okada	...	Volanteer no otoko

Also Known As:

Another Heaven (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and some sexuality.

Runtime:

USA:132 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:MA | Germany:16 | Japan:R-15 | Singapore:PG (cut) | USA:R

Company:

Another Heaven Film Partners

Heaven for Japanese horror fans!

Two cops investigate a series of gruesome murders involving gourmet cooking with human brains as the main ingredient! After capturing the serial killer who also happens to be brainless (quite literally!) they close the bizarre case as solved. However, when sporadic copycat murders follow, the cops are drawn back deeper into the case and begin to discover some unsettling truths about who, or more precisely what they're dealing with. Even though the film doesn't score high for originality, director and writer Jôji Iida does a fantastic job maintaining the suspense factor, keeping the audience guessing right to the end. As a result, the occasional slower moments in the movie don't really slow the overall pace, if anything, it helps with the character development. All the acting is on a superior level, more notably the two cops displaying awesome on-screen chemistry. Yosuke Eguchi plays the younger, 'good cop' with Yoshio Harada as his older, slightly more ruthless counterpart. Overall, this genre merging sci-fi / horror movie manages to deliver, captivating the viewer with suspenseful twists and at the same time not over-doing the gore to unbelievable levels. The shocks are kept moderately frequent and the intelligent, well thought out ending followed by the excellent Japanese theme song at the credits make this a movie guaranteed to satisfy fans of the genre(s).