Nightmare on Elm Street with an Asian slant. Didn't much care for the lead actor and actress (both of their performances seemed very bland and their characters weren't that interesting to begin with). Basically, I've seen everything in this film done better in other films.
A lot of the widely raved about Japanese horror films are just not my thing. In some instances, I have to shut them off early because I get little out of it outside of a whole lot of gore. People call films like "Hostel" torture-porn, so I don't know what nasty name you want to give to a film like "Suicide Club" or "Ichi the Killer". "Nightmare Detective", however, is refreshing in that it's gore isn't as extreme, disturbing, and violent as many other films. In fact, it's not much worse than what you'd see in an American horror film. In fact, this horror film doesn't resemble much else than an episode of CSI with a slight supernatural twist, however due to a solid director it's kept engaging and clever throughout.
The star of "Nightmare Detective" is Keiko (Japanese pop star Hitomi), who has been reassigned as a full fledged detective after simply having a desk job as a police analyst. She's not exactly socially equipt, and that's made abundantly clear with her lack of communication with her team. One of the men in particular calls her "princess" and doesn't care for her too much, nervously claiming that she'll one day be his boss. So, of course, the frail young attractive female needs to prove herself to those damn sexist men. Keiko's first case comes when two suspiciously brutal suicides are reported. The common thread linking the suicides is that both people placed a phone call to a man referred to as "0" (director Shinya Tsukamoto himself) shortly before their death.
Keiko soon looks for aid in Kagenuma (Ryuhei Matsuda), the nightmare detective who the film is named after. Kagenuma has the power to enter dreams and read people's minds. This gift is more of a curse as he see's the dark things lingering in peoples minds, such as when he sees a family worrying about nothing more than money after their father has passed on. Although he denies assisting the case at first, soon Keiko and Kagenuma become a full-fledged nightmare detectiving tag team! Yeah! This plot is way too familiar and it especially falls apart near the end, however some decent performances and strong social commentary make it very watchable.
"Nightmare Detective" is not your run-of-the-mill Japanese horror along the lines of Ringu or Ju-on. While it deals with the supernatural and contains several similar plot devices (the phone comes to mind immediately), Tsukamoto smartly dismisses these comparisons aside in one of the first scenes of the film. As we see Kagenamu entering a man's dream, we see the familiar long, black hair of a girl flowing down the side of a wall. This is treated as if it were a gag. Little things like that are absolutely necessary for a story like this as it keeps us engaged. While this isn't typical Japanese horror, this is typical detective thriller with a supernatural edge - so the audience demands a little bit more than what the plot offers on the surface. Tsukamoto delivers.
I didn't particularly care for Ryuhei Matsuda's performance as the nightmare detective. A lot of these films have your typical tortured badass, but Kagenuma was particularly uncharismatic and uninteresting. All his performance seemed to do was heighten Hitomi's even more, who has a very solid debut as an actress. Also, Shinya Tsukamoto manages to be especially creepy near the end.
While in a lot of ways this film was a pleasant surprise and very engaging, there were a lot of things here and there that really took away from my full enjoyment. For instance, I didn't like the "Evil Dead"-style first person shots in the nightmares. Although apparently invisible to the characters, we always knew exactly where it was. There's nothing scary about knowing what's behind the corner and where it's looking. A lot of the horror didn't work for me much, with only a few legitimately creepy moments coming in a large garage of bikes and near the end where Keiko was trapped in a small enclosure.
"Nightmare Detective" is "A Nightmare on Elm Street" meets every episode of CSI you've ever seen. That being said, the film aspired to get more out of it's genre and it successfully depicted typical urban alienation in a clever way. The film solidly makes it's point that we're all silently begging for a release and recognition, no matter what facade we decide to chose. It's about the horrors that lie in the undiscovered corners of the human mind. This isn't a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but I was certainly thoroughly entertained.
Very good. I enjoyed the refreshing premise this movie presented, and the atmosphere was delightfully dreary. I have to agree with previous reviewers, though, that the actual Nightmare Detective is sorely amiss for most of the movie and the female lead is a little stiff. Nevertheless, a really enjoyable movie.
Eh...This was overhyped. Most of the cast was great, but hitomi really didn't "fit". I understand maybe her character was written this way, but she was very bland, colourless and lacking any sort of charisma or appeal (well, she looked good :p). Ando was alright, but I am never too impressed with his roles. For me, even though he was a smaller part of this film, I think matsuda shined really bright here...
Overall, it' s a nice concept, though some of the editing and shots came across as cheesy, and I got the feeling the cast didn't give their all.
The general concept of the film is familiar (see Nightmare on Elm Street) but this variation of the ?death by dream? scenario is somewhat more confusing. Having first screened this film at last year?s Toronto After Dark festival, I hoped a second viewing would be clearer...
The victims? blood flows freely and the effect of wounds spontaneously appearing is done well...
Nightmare Detective is a decent film that plays with an old idea but the lack of clarity (and thus time spent trying to decipher what happened) at the end subtracts a little from its enjoyment...
For a full DVD review, visit: http://www.popjournalism.ca/magazine/2008/05/27/new-on-dvd-nightmare-detective/
While it's a step above most of the Horror coming out of Asia lately, it still suffers some of the same problems. The whole thing is about some guy murdering people through their dreams and blah blah blah, it's nice looking and the gore is alright but God damn, the end goes on forever and it's mostly random images of crap.
actually... it's definetly another unique movie from shinya tsukamoto... every aspect well crafted... but... it makes me feel it's an A Nightmare on The Elm Street rip off... but don't get it wrong... it's still a good movie...
A great, surrealistic horror film that takes the J-horror genre and says, "piss off, I'm gonna do something different." A great bizarro film, with some pretty damn good performances, a great visual look/atmosphere that evoked old-school Argento to me, and a storyline that while predictable was a good little twisted tale. I heavily enjoyed it and consider it one of the better Asian films of the last few years.
It's really nice to be in the hands of a truly talented director. This is the first Tsukamoto film I've seen in the theater, and I was really excited, and holy eff, was I not disappointed. The film starts out as a sort of artier and meaner Dreamscape (an awesome film in it's own right) with folks gettin' killed off in their dreams and a detective who can enter them is talked into solving the case. It's great until that point, but then it becomes a Tsukomoto film and starts kickin' ass and takin' names. The climax of this film is nothing short of astonishing, and seeing it on the big screen was a true joy. I can't say too much about it (not just because of spoilers, but I'm still figuring parts out) but it's some of Tsukomoto's best work. Also, in his favour, it's probably his best performance as an actor I've seen so far. His scenes in the final act are amazing and he emotes better without speaking than most folks who act for a living. A great film and a great film experience.
another solid movie from Dimension Extreme. nightmare detective is about a guy who advertises commiting suicide with other people but once they look him up and talk to him then he gets into their dreams and tries to kill them himself. a very original movie with a few good twists along the way. has plenty of blood and action for everyone.
Over the years Shinya Tsukamoto has ranged across a variety of genres - from the mind bending SF of Tetsuo to the grimy eroticism of A Snake of June. Although both the genre and the plot can change from one film to the next, Tsukamoto's consistent reworking of similar themes and his kinetic visual style gives his films a distinct auteurial stamp that is difficult to miss. While Nightmare Detective, his foray into the horror genre, may well be the director's most accessible film to date, it is still very much a Shinya Tsukamoto film.
This time around he has merged popular concerns with internet suicide pacts with his own themes of alienation, despair and a loss of humanity. The result is a darkly ambitious film that manages to be genuinely chilling.
First class point-of-view photography, intentionally unlikeable characters and lots of invitations to understand a film made for directors. It didn't even matter whether the resolution was rewardin because the visual feast was already overwhelming. Better subtitlin would've made this a flawless film by its own standards.
personally i liked that film but in general the opinion of the people who have seen this movie is not really good i would say about 3 me i gave it a 4 because i really like the principle of a man going inside the dream of someone
MCT:August 23, 2008
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