Synesthesia (2005) Gimî hebun (original title)

Director:

Toru Matsuura

Writers:

Yûji Sakamoto
Scott Gensch (additional material)

Release Date:

March 2005 (Japan)

Genre:

Thriller

Cast

Yôsuke Eguchi	...	Shinsuke Hayama
Masanobu Andô	...	Takashi Nohara
Aoi Miyazaki	...	Mari Michiki
Hijiri Kojima	...	Fuyuko Karaki
Minoru Torihada	...	Soichiro Konno
Shigemitsu Ogi	...	Koichi Namegawa
Toshiyuki Kitami	...	Takuro Tsuge
Yuriko Ishida	...	Aki Shibata
Ryûhei Matsuda	...	Kaoru Homura
Mayuko Fukuda	...	Mari Michiki - Young
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Christine M. Auten	...	Psychiatrist / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Chris Ayres	...	Dr. Namekawa (voice: English version)
Clint Bickham	...	Kaoru (voice: English version)
Jessica Boone	...	Mari (voice: English version)
April Brem	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Shelley Calene-Black	...	Lieutenant Aki (voice: English version)
Charles Campbell	...	News Anchor (voice: English version)
Luci Christian	...	Fuyuko / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Jay Hickman	...	Shinsuke (voice: English version)
K.C. Jones	...	CSI Guy / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Eri Kitagawa
Kelly Manison	...	Mari's Mother / Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Vic Mignogna	...	Konno (voice: English version)
Kaoru Nishida
Chris Patton	...	Takashi (voice: English version)
Dana Perez	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
John Swasey	...	Detective Tsuge (voice: English version)

Directed by
Toru Matsuura

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Scott Gensch		additional material
Yûji Sakamoto

Produced by
Kenzô Horikoshi	....	producer
Atsuko Ohno	....	producer

Original Music by
Jun Abe
Nido

Cinematography by
Kenji Takama

Film Editing by
Naoki Kaneko

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ken'ichi Sakita	....	assistant director

Production Companies

• Euro Space

Distributors

• Euro Space (2005) (Japan) (theatrical)
• ADV Films (2007) (USA) (all media)

Other Companies

• Filmcraft  post-production facilities

Also Known As:

"Gimî hebun" - Japan (original title)
"Gimme Heaven" - Japan (English title)

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16

Company:

Euro Space

Movie Connections:

References Ben-Hur (1959)

nice premise, poorly executed

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Police hunt for a killer who orphans a teenage girl suffering from a rare sensory disorder; she experiences one thing as another - clouds smell like daffodils, straw tastes like tomato sauce, that kind of thing. The potential of this idea, both in terms of plot and visuals, is immense, but unfortunately it is never realised due to a script that relies heavily on exposition and some ham-fisted direction by Matsuura. Eguchi gives his best performance since Swallowtail Butterfly, but his sidekick (Ando?) mugs it up in every scene he has. The guy playing Picasso thinks good acting is no acting, or no reacting. I mean, I don't think he even blinks. He's obviously trying to be Kitano, but fumbles it badly. The talented Ishida is under-used as one of a male-female detective duo whose only function seems to be to narrate the plot holes. Oh, and to smoke, and even the product placement on behalf of Japan Tobacco is ham-fisted. The camera is constantly slowly tracking right-to-left, but this seems less an aesthetic choice and more like a grip left the dolly on an incline and forgot to lock the wheels. I came to Gimmy Heaven after reading a favourable review in a usually reliable publication, so someone out there likes it. The one good thing was how the point-of-view of the girl is handled once we get to see things (specifically, rain) through her condition. Unfortunately, it is too little, too late.