Keizoku/eiga (2000)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Release Date:

4 March 2000 (Japan)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery

Cast

Miki Nakatani	...	Jun Shibata
Atsuro Watabe	...	Tôru Mayama
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eisei Amamoto
Inuko Inuyama
David Itô
Pinko Izumi
Shigeru Izumiya	...	Kunio Tsubosaka
Hairi Katagiri
Kera
Koyuki
Katsuyuki Murai
Katsuhisa Namase
Nanako Ôkôchi		(as Nanako Ookôchi)
Raita Ryu	...	Kôtarô Nonomura
Toshiya Sakai
Sarina Suzuki	...	Aya Kido
Tomorowo Taguchi
Masahiro Takagi
Yu Tokui	...	Akio Kondô
Kenichi Yajima

Also Known As:

Keizoku: The Movie (International: English title)

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Movie Connections:

Follows "Keizoku" (1999)

Strange Mystery With Some Great Elements

"Keizoku/eiga" aka. "Keizoku - The Movie" is a difficult film to rate. I haven't seen any episode of the Keizoku TV-series yet, so I cannot judge whether or not the film catches up with the show. The movie is definitely very strange, but neither in a bad nor in a really good way. It is even not quite easy to determine the genre of this film. It is a murder mystery thriller, of course, but then again, the movie features elements of different genres such as some supernatural and surreal elements, and a wide range of comedy elements. There is a somehow tragically hilarious subplot of a retiring police chief who is in love with a teenage schoolgirl Lolita for example. I liked the surrealism and the humorous parts. In-between the plot the film often has some quick video-clip style sequences which I found more annoying than cool. The film also has too many plot-twists, in my opinion, and the whole thing sometimes becomes a bit confusing. The atmosphere is intense, however, and sometimes quite creepy, and I also liked the development of the characters. The main character, female police detective Jun Shibata (beautiful Miki Nakatani) is very likable, almost too cute for a policewoman.

The film takes place on an island with a very peculiar looking castle on it, a setting that makes the film quite atmospheric. The performances are good, I especially liked Miki Naktani. Still, it is quite hard to rate this film. The film has some great aspects, but the video-clip style interludes were a bit out of place and the many twists were often very far-fetched. I personally liked the film, but I can't really explain why. My fellow fans of Japanese cinema can give it a try, but I can't guarantee that anybody else is gonna like it. A matter of personal taste, but definitely not your average murder mystery.