CantripZ This is a brilliant example of a movie which is about murder, but which isn't a conventional crime thriller.It's the exquisitely slow-paced tale of a murder - starting at the planning stage and following the perpetrator as he stumbles through a world irrevocably changed by his deed.Beautifully written and filmed, with an eye-catching lead performance from Johnny's Entertainment idol Kazunari Ninomiya (who I'd previously only seen in a couple of comedy renzoku - I had no idea he could act like this!) and wonderfully restrained direction by Yukio Ninagawa, there's a lot to like here, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone.This isn't a thriller by any means - it's very much a character drama, in spite of the tight plotting and the slow-building tension. The murder around which the story revolves is depicted carefully and in detail, but as much weight is placed on the state of mind of the killer and on the consequences of the crime (both legal and personal).Well-written, well-made and excellently played, this is an interesting change of pace from the plethora of whodunnits and murder-mysteries and crime thrillers which tend to emphasise the action and investigation over the psychological aspects of what happens when one person kills another.(Incidentally, this film reminded me strongly in its overall approach to murder of the writings of Patricia Highsmith, a good example being Found in the Street.)

Elin Johansson One other user commented on this as being pro-murder under some circumstances. I feel it says the exact opposite, and that's what makes it so good. Our main character is very appealing, we understand his dilemma, and when he chooses to murder, we get to see as the movie goes along, that it was the wrong thing to do.SPOILERS Had he waited, for the first thing, the stepfather would have died of cancer. Secondly, we see he cannot live a normal life after the murder because of psychological effects. And third, he cannot come away with it, he thought he had thought of everything, but there were many mistakes that points to him.NO SPOILERS AGAIN The acting and direction is superb, and the slow pace is both beautiful and effective. I love this movie, it tells a lot about the human being.

Katharine H. I was really shocked when I saw the film Ao no Honou. Was it because of the plot? No. Because of the subject matter? Not really. The truth was, I was amazed at how well these two pop stars, Nino and Ayaya, could really act. I was expecting, considering the cast consisted of a Hello! Project front girl and a Johnny's Jr. boy, a cute movie about kids in high school. Maybe Kazunari Ninomiya could act a little bit, and maybe Aya Matsuura was thrown in to have a cute face and sing the theme song. Boy was I ever wrong. Ao no Honou dived deep into the psyche of a young man's head, without an obvious voice over theme or very many ways to communicate his thoughts (minus the subtle tape recorder device). It showed what this youth does to protect his family and live his life, but everything he did was natural, from the big, plot-point-esquire actions, to the tiny gestures that Japanese filmmakers are so good at capturing on screen. As the best movies will, Ao no Honou brings you into the movie, and if something shocking, sickening, frightening, depressing, or just tear-worthy happens, you'll feel it. You won't easily forget the face of the talented Ninomiya, either, and don't be surprised if his character's struggles are on your mind for days after watching Ao no Honou.

Flaight It is a reasonably high tension crime drama of a sort, kind of like Bridget Fonda's 'A Simple Plan' in terms of crime category. That's a rough comparison, but it has a fairly similar concept of crime and irony.The human drama is really what struck me. The story is fairly awkward, awkward enough that you'll pay attention the first time (given that you don't read spoilers – and this is not a spoiler). There is an emotional intimacy without any explicit scenes, which is often seen in Japanese movies. In fact it's so innocent compared to the west, perhaps the emotions it attempts to convey may be lost on the viewer if you don't pay attention. Personally, I enjoyed it because it's a refreshing approach by western standard, where the concept of intimacy is generally based on high energy bed action and explicitness. The director manages to keep it quiet and subtle, often with very few words, yet it's precisely that subtlety that seems to provoke much deeper human emotions of a youth that we might have forgotten in our later years. Intimacy of mind, if you will.The drama is made with strands of various relationship themes, such as good friendship, bad friendship, workplace, parent to son, brother to sister, and the most subtle of all is the love relationship. They are all interwoven to tell the story, but most of these relationships are projected through the 17 year-old high school boy, whose emotional turmoil is the mainframe of the plot. I've been noticing that a lot of Japanese movies often do not define good and evil in a typically Christian-Judean manner, but rather to portray good and evil as 2 sides of the same thing. This director's take on it is also interesting, if you choose to pay attention to that aspect of the movie; everyone seems to have their version of that duality.The scene is beautiful considering it's not a massive movie. Simple, yet effective use of natural resources and camera angles seems to do the job. Interiors are at first uncomfortable, but it grows on you somewhat. Fast action is minimal in the environment, as the main drive is the journey of the mind.The finale is fitting too - not necessarily in terms of what happens, but what is said by the boy; the very last paragraph read out as the movies comes to an end is probably the most significant part of the movie, so you may want to hear it out before you walk off. It seems to finally reveal the essence of the character, his simple boyish desires of life, complicated on the outside by his environment. Just like anyone's life then, with a complex texture of the surface hiding the simplicity of life. They are only simple lines, yet the context is as big as the whole movie. 'Why was the journey so hard then?', I found myself asking as the end credit hit the screen. Perhaps that is an unanswerable question. But what is easy enough to answer when you watch it through is, Why the last paragraph? Perhaps his girlfriend was the true enigma of the story. You will have to decide that yourself.It is strange how life tends to get complicated, even when we are able to appreciate very simple things in life. Why do things get complicated when a simpler life was all you needed? Why does simplicity always get tainted? Only if you could live it again, you would have found the happiness just around the corner – but no, you always have to go the long way to realize how close happiness once was. Or maybe life is only life when there are more questions than answers. Nonetheless you can attempt to answer these questions, if you like.It is not a ground breaking movie by any means, but the philosophy of life as a simple journey is subtly and beautifully projected through a peculiar circumstance, in the context of a maturing 17 year-old. As I found out, there is a slight cultural barrier in the setup and behavior of some characters if you are raised in the west. However, when faced with the philosophical component of it all, perhaps even its story only plays a supporting role. I hope you will feel it with your heart, as much as watch it with your eyes.