Certain persons voiced the opinion, that a manga movie was needed at the Berlinale. They just got served (I mean, look at him: That character alone is pure manga!)
Byakuyakou (Into the White Night, ???)
Japan 2010, Fukagawa Yoshihiro, 149?
Japan, 1980. The owner of a pawnshop is found in an abandoned building on the poor side of the river. The widow and her lover (an employee) become the prime suspects but Ryouji, the eerily sad and adult son, provides them with an alibi. The police find the owner’s mistress in the same poor district and while they interview her, again an eerily adult kid, her daughter Yukiho, tells her to stop lying and contradicts her. Shortly after, one of the mistress’ other lovers dies with seemingly compromising evidence on him and then the mistress herself is found dead. Her death is declared a suicide, the case closed and everyone but detective Sasagaki, who was fascinated by the intelligent and sad Ryouji and Yukiho, moves on.
Nineteen years later, Yukiho has climbed to the top of the social ladder and even Ryouji seems to lead a relatively normal life. Sasagaki however can not forget about the case and as he stumbles upon a clue, that could bring light into the case he finds himself in great danger…
Where do we start? First, let me get off my chest that kid-Yukiho was the single cutest, most awesome loli in the history of Japanese cinema. Adult Yukiho (Horikita Maki) was also absolutely perfect(ly round face is round! <3 <3 <3) and actually much less of a horrible actress, than I expected. She pulled the character off quite well. I am thoroughly crushed that I did not go to the premiere where I could have seen her gorgeous awesomeness in real life…
I was not at all surprised to see “based on a novel […]” in the credits, because the minimal soundtrack, the gorgeous framing and the perfectly timed cuts together with the obscure/complex(?) story just screamed “Manga! Novel!” to me. Something about these aesthetics and style of story just pushes all the right buttons for me. Unfortunately, right at the end Sasagaki had a monologue that made me cringe a bit, because it delivered a very strong sentiment that was not really developed earlier on screen, even though there was enough time to do so. This however, was a minor gripe and all in all this was an extremely fun ride full of suspense. I am being vague on purpose because although the story is not that unpredictable it does have some twists I do not want to spoil for anyone. I guess you know what to expect when you have a sad little boy and a sad loli, but spelling it out would take some of the fun away.
Of course it’s sort of obvious what happened to them… But hey, it’s a staple and as long as the movie is good – why not? XD
However, I do find that Japanese and Korean movies at the Berlinale seem to have an incredibly awkward East-Asianness to them…
Very nice that certain voices get answers from the Berlinale!
Somehow the guy in the screenshot resembles the actor who acted in the Mushishi live-action movie, hm.