The Unsolved Mystery: Creepy Tale of Missing Family
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Writer: Chihiro Ikeda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Screenplay) Yutaka Maekawa (Novel)
Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi, Toru Baba, Ryoko Fujino, Masahiro Higashide, Teruyuki Kagawa
Plot: Takakura is a former detective. He receives a request from his ex-colleague, Nogami, to examine a missing family case that occurred 6 years earlier. Takakura follows Saki’s memory. She is the only surviving family member from the case. Meanwhile, Takakura and his wife Yasuko recently moved into a new home. Their neighbor, Nishino, has a sick wife and a young teen daughter. One day, the daughter, Mio, tells him that the man is not her father and she doesn’t know him at all.
Tagline – That man isn’t my father, he is total stranger.
Runtime: 2 Hours 10 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Creepy by Name, Disturbing by Nature
Story: Creepy starts when former detective Takakura (Nishijima) is starting a new life with his wife Yasuko (Takeuchi). Where he is working as a professor of criminal psychology at the local college. His former partner Nogami (Higashide) comes to Takakura in hopes he can help with a mysterious missing case. Where a family vanished leaving only their daughter Saki (Kawaguchi) behind, while Yasuko finds out the neighbours aren’t as friendly as she had hoped with Nishino (Kagawa) coming off creepy.
As the case that Takakra is working on starts taking an interesting yet disturbing twist. Nishino continues to start acting creepier and creepier, which only becomes odder when the girl living there claims she isn’t his daughter.
Thoughts on Creepy
Characters – Takakura was a police detective who saw his career take a tragic spin when he fails to save a victim from a serial killer. He needs a change he becomes a professor of criminal psychology, moves his family away from the big city to start fresh. His skills are still wanted when his former partner comes to him for help to solve a mysterious disappearance of a family. Which will only bring him back into a shocking discovery.
Yasuko is Takakura’s wife, she is happy to start a new life and looking forward to meeting the new neighbours and the next step of their lie together. Nishino is the socially awkward neighbour, that doesn’t seem to be able to hold a conversation without getting creepy about it. He keeps his life secret, only opening up on the smallest details when it seems to work for him. Nogmai is the former partner of Takakura, who asks him for help with the latest case doesn’t seem to offer any answers, which will opening up the old version of Takakura who proves himself to be brilliant detective.
Performances – Hidetoshi Nishijima is wonderful in the leading role, which sees him caught between a new life or the old one he was successful in. Teruyuki Kagawa is truly disturbing in his role which will make you feel uncomfortable whenever he is on screen. Yuko Takeuchi is great to watch in her role which sees her caught in the middle of everything going on.
Story
The story here follows a former detective that starts teaching, only to find himself drawn back into a case which might have a connection closer to home for him. This is a story that does take a little bit of time to get going because we do get a clear path we are heading down, but start following two different stories that will connect. The story does become very dark though which is intense to watch to see just what the serial killer has been up to and his plan for people. It only gets upped when Takakura is left knowing the truth and being left helpless to take the killer down at times.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in this film comes form seeing just what the serial killer has been doing with a new unique way of covering up the bodies in his path. While the mystery comes from seeing how a former case could become difficult to solve.
Settings – The film shows us how serial killers could operate in any neighbourhood, showing us just how they can get away for so long.
Scene of the Movie – Bag time.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does take slightly too long to get going.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the most creepy disturbing serial killer films you will ever see, just seeing how a cat-n-mouse battle takes over.
Overall: Intense thriller.
