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Hasami Otoko
The Man Behind the Scissors
Japan 2005
produced by Hideki Kama, Tetsuji Hayashi, Atsushi Watanabe, Haruo Sai (executive), Eiichi Watanabe (executive) for Toho, Tohokushinsha, Kobi Film
directed by Toshiharu Ikeda
starring Kumiko Higuchi, Etsushi Toyokawa, Hiroshi Abe, Kenjiro Ishimaru, Terumi Niki, Ayumu Saito, Mizuho Sakata, Minori Terada
screenplay by Toshiharu Ikeda, Masahito Kagawa, based on the novel by Masayuki Shuno, music by Toshiyuki Honda
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Serial killer Yasunaga (Etsushi Toyokawa) and his female sidekick
Chinatsu (Kumiko Aso) are roaming the town looking for good little
schoolgirls thjey always kill using the same M.O., they stick a pair of
scissors into their victims' throats. Then though they stumble over the
body of Yukiko (Mitsuho Sakata), their proposed next victim, who was
killed using the exact same M.O. that they also use ... thing is, they
didn't do it, but they are witnessed finding the body by Hidaka, a bit of
a weirdo, and thus Yasunaga and Chinatsu get sucked into a murder (only as
witnesses for the time being) they didn't even have anything to do with
...
Cop Isone (Kuji Higuchi) and profiler Horinouchi (Hiroshi Abe) are
working on the case, but it is not long before Isone develops a soft spot
for Chinatsu.
Eventually the whole film turns topsy turvey: It turns out that
Yasunaga is not even real but a figment of Chinatsu's imgaination - he
looks like her father who committed suicide before her very eyes -, and
it's indeed her who committed all the schoolgirl murders (except for the
last one), plus she has serious suicidal tendencies. Hidaka, who is a
prime suspect for the last murder has nothing to do with the murders, but
is indeed quite mad, to an extent that he eventually kidnaps Chinatsu, of
whom he knows she is a murderer ... but before long, Chinatsu has killed
him as well. The real killer of Yukiko turns out to be profiler Horinouchi
himself who had an affair with the girl, but couldn't accept her breaking
up with him. Of course he has long figured out that Chinatsu is indeed the
killer, and now he prepares to kill her too, not at all to her dismay, as
she has suicidal tendencies anyways ... but in the nick of time she is
saved by Isone (but ends up seriously but not fatally injured anyways. In
the end, her murders are attributed to Hidaka while Horinouchi is
identified as Yukiko's killer ... and utlimately the whole experience ahs
stopped her having delusions of her dead father ...
A quite clever and at the same time very entertaining thriller fullof
exaggerated plottwists that against all odds work just fine in the movie
anyways. Only the drawn out ending in which Chinatsu is able to exorcise
her inner demons thanks to her experiences seems a bit unnecessary and
unbelievable, but other than that a very fine film.
Recommended.
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