Nightmare Detective
2006 ‘Akumu Tantei’ Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto
Synopsis
Three people in Tokyo take a surreal voyage of self-discovery through memory and nightmares. "O" intends suicide while talking on a cell-phone with a stranger he meets on line who plans a simultaneous suicide. Events take a horrifying turn. Keiko Kirishima is a cool, seemingly emotionless police detective, brilliant but off-putting. She's faced with two mutilated corpses who appear to have killed themselves, but she's not sure. A cell-phone number links the deaths. She calls on Akumu Tantei, a poor and suicidal young man who has the ability to enter people's dreams. He's reluctant to help. His past haunts him. A subconscious duel of terror and blood awaits the three.
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creepy and atmospheric japanese horror, it had its moments but those moments were rare. I wanted to like this more but I just found the acting to be not to my liking, some of these films are hit and miss and this one was definitely miss.
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An interesting premise that is ultimately very poorly executed. The process in which the antagonist is able to kill is overly complex and doesn't make a bit of sense. Some of the dream segments, however, had a fair share of creepy.
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A mixed experience in a lot of ways - from the mind that brought us Tetsuo the Iron Man, this is a much more commercial approach to films than any of his previous features. That being said, it has all of the visual poetry, disturbing imagery and thoughtfulness that goes into almost everything he makes.
Mixing detective drama with supernatural horror film with slasher, there are a lot of good things from each of the genres, but also results in something that is pretty incomprensible at times. The general plot is that someone is using suicidal people's dreams to kill them, but to the outside world the sleeping people are simply committing violent suicides.
Tapping into what actually seems a…
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There are things I loved about this movie, but for the most part it irritated me. Stilted performances, and visual fuckery made for a less-than-stellar viewing experience.