Review of Mandei

Mandei (2000)
very amusing mystery with not so good acting
2 August 2001
Although it has some dumb humour, it is an appealing thriller about a man who is confused about what's going on and gets even more confused (Kafka?). Another director would have been nice for this movie, because Tanaka probably doesn't really know how to get the actors to perform authentic in this apparently not so cheap film that needs good acting to get the black humour across. Unfortunately the acting turns out to be horrible (except Shinichi Tsutsumi), but the cinematography (Kazuhiko Sato) and the structure of the story are entertaining enough to keep you interested. Monday felt like Desperado (Rodriguez, 1995) for a while and then the mystery took over with some off-beat cinematic experiments that I appreciated very much. It ultimately didn't satisfy completely though, because of the forced finale of the story and nothing really stands out. I'm not going to spoil anything further, because somehow this curio is well worth watching.
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