Waiting for a DVD of Akunin (March 18, 2011) Lee Sang-il, one of the most popular of Japanese movies 2010, translated the review here of Martha P. Nochimson for Cineaste magazine ( http://www.cineaste.com/articles/montreal-world-film-festival-web-exclusive ).
Warning: this review contains decisive revelations of the plot of the film.
"The distinction between guilt and love is one of the central aspects of the Japanese film Akunin ( Villlain ) directed by Lee Sang-il, who received the award for the Montreal festival awarded the best actress Eri Fukatsu, dressed as Mitsuyo, a single woman working in a men's clothing store, and that one day, against all logic, escaped Shimizu (Tsumabuki Satoshi), a sad and unhappy man. Mitsuyo Shimizu knows that killed Yoshino (Kirin Kiki), a pretty young woman, met through the internet, but believes, or wants to believe that he is a good man, overwhelmed by extraordinary circumstances. It is this interpretation to be the internal paradox of the film. Akunin deservedly made sense for its complex representation of exasperation criminal Shimizu. Can we all, the film asks Mitsuyo, kill under certain circumstances? The location where the film is that it comes painfully difficult, almost impossible to say.
early Ozu films there are references to the inability of the Japanese tradition to cope with the chaos that grows from the modern impulse toward freedom. Young people have cars, phones and internet and use them freely so instinctive, so even if they live at home, can not be controlled by older adults and essays. In addition, the family structure is no longer a bastion of stability and class issues have become more pronounced. Shimizu was pulled up by his grandmother because her mother is gone for reasons that are never clarified but nevertheless indicate a failure to comply with maternal duties. Yoshino, a young and pretty superficial, is an advantage, who knows how to take advantage of the love that his father feels for her, and coldly manipulates Shimizu, as he goes hunting for Masuo, a rich playboy, selfish and insensitive. But Akunin goes beyond social issues to wonder about human nature.
Yoshino realizes contempt Masuo test for her to live as a girl who has to work, only after he literally bangs out of his car on a deserted road. When Shimizu, who was following them, comes to her rescue, she has only a few seconds to realize the dangerous situation created by playing with his affection. In a blind reflex of fear and not thinking to herself, Shimizu threat hard to accuse him of rape, although he actually is not doing nothing but offer her help. This results in a spasm of terror Shimizu: If you lie about what he did with her in the middle of a desert place, no one will believe his version. The result is that he strangles her. We must believe that he went out of his head hysterically and has implemented his desire to keep her quiet? Or that is, by its nature, a murderess? When it is on the run with Mitsuyo, he seems to flourish in the bright heat of the first romantic love I've ever met, but when it becomes clear that the police tracked down the old lighthouse which is hidden, he turns to Mitsuyo, his face contorted and truly terrifying, and says: "I am not the man that you think I am 'and almost strangles her to death. Even after the police raid in the spotlight, he continues his stranglehold. It will take several strong men to save the girl. The fervor with which he tries to kill her makes it hard to believe, as they tried to take some viewers, who Shimizu, knowing that never again see the light of day, trying to make Mitsuyo not waste his life in emotional memory of their love. 
Director Lee takes a long time to demonstrate the wretched conditions of life which, in their country as young Shimizu, Mitsuyo and Yoshino are due to come to terms. The father of traditionalist Yoshino is a model of loyalty and righteousness, but treats his wife like a kitchen chair, and is absolutely helpless in the face of hedonism Masuo, who then attempts to kill Pakistan and get rid of his responsibility in the death of her daughter. (The power of money Masuo's family has the same effect as the money of Daisy and Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby , who casually ruin others and withdraw into their golden shrine). Similarly, the traditional grandmother Shimizu, always smiling and willing to sacrifice, lives at the mercy of the doctor's daughter and selfish charlatan where he works. The daughter left the child in the care of his grandmother, with little sense of guilt, so they can concentrate on his own desires, and the doctor elderly woman brutally extorting money that he earned with the sweat of the brow and set aside for Shimizu. And since there is no limit for the worst, the last time we see it is when a gang of reporters surrounding it like a pack of hungry piranhas frantically hunting for news about Shimizu. But in the end, the film fails to represent Lee in a clear and clean the crime or as a result of a dysfunctional culture, nor of the evil man. The final image contains such ambiguities. Mitsuyo is sitting in a taxi, with a beautiful bouquet of flowers that he bought with the intention to leave him on the street where Yoshino was killed by Shimizu. But he can not bring himself to do what he thought. Leave the flowers as a sign of mourning for a way to Yoshino would say that he no longer believes in a Shimizu victim of terrible circumstances. Can you say that? Mitsuyo is paralyzed by indecision. Fades the flowers in silence while the taxi driver asks her what she wants to do. Where is the referee in the modern Japan that can help shape the way he sees the world? "
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[ translation of Genji ]
[ translation of Genji ]
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