We’re officially on school break for three weeks now and for these three weeks I’ll be trying to review one movie every day because I will be bored at home and probably will watch more than one movie every day so let’s see if I have at least 15 movies reviewed by the end of the break.

First movie I saw during my break, Kisaragi and sucks to be any movie after this (which was in fact Virgin Snow) because the second movie would look REALLY bad in comparison (as Virgin Snow did) and I mean REALLY bad because I have to say, to me, Kisaragi was almost perfect. My favourite mystery film ever? Possibly…

Main cast: Teruyuki Kagawa, Keisuke Koide, Shun Oguri, Yusuke Santamaria, Muga Tsukaji
Genre: “Murder” mystery, comedy
Length: 111 minutes
Released: 2007 June 16

Synopsis
Exactly one year after the suicide of D-list model Kisaragi Miki her five only fans come together for a commemorative meeting in a rented Tokyo apartment to chat about their beloved idol. After talking for a while the mood of the party shifts as the men begin to question “What if it was not suicide, what if it was a murder?”, thus starting the endless rounds of finger-pointing as to who is responsible for her death.

My Thoughts
Five men. One room. One murder mystery.

Yes, this movie only needed 5 actors, only one room (except for flashbacks of the crime scene) for you to see and just one story happening within a timeframe of two hours. It probably costs more to fly to America than it would to make this movie. Based on this information that I knew I thought that Kisaragi was going to be a boring two hours but let me tell you, Kisaragi does more with it’s 5 actors, one room and one mystery than some movies do spanning over a lifetime. I have to say that I have never seen such a compelling film related to fandom in Japan and never a mystery film that does not thrive on mere coincidences. Kisaragi is a mixture of many film genres: whodunnit, mystery, comedy, feel good and it takes into account all of these genres giving it a large audience but honestly, who wouldn’t love Kisaragi?

First up, the setting - the one small room is actually used to play in the director’s favour. Yuichi Sato is very skilled in making use of all the items and all the space in the cramped room to create as much action, humour and excitement as possible. The knife chases would be only half as funny if the director actually had some room to play with. Rather than looking cheap Kisaragi creatively comes to life in that one room and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Each character is referred to through their online aliases which are Guru (Oguri Shun), Yasuo (Muga Tsukaji), Snake (Keisuke Koide), OdaYuuji (Yusuke Santamaria) and StrawberryGirl -who is actually a guy- (Teruyuki Kagawa) and that is pretty much all we know about them… that is until we discover more and more and more about each of them. Each man vies for the main spotlight and each man succeeds taking turns to continuously monopolise the screen but for me the main standout has to be StrawberryGirl (Teruyuki) because he is just one AWESOME character. At the end of the movie they are no longer Guru, Yasuo, Snake, OdaYuuji and StrawberryGirl, they are a police officer, Miki’s childhood friend (and Johnny Depp from an angle of 45 degrees backwards), Miki’s friend and former rocker, Miki’s manager (FAT-B), and even Miki’s own father. Of course, we love them.

The biggest surprise for me was the tight plotting. Time after time the viewers are shocked with a new twist giving a new slant on the case. I can’t remember how many times I gasped or smiled at the new revelations and this is how the film keeps our interest. Kisaragi doesn’t lay out all the specifics of the case and it doesn’t bluntly tell the viewer what’s happening, it lets the viewers pick up all the clues slowly let it be visual clues, gestures/ acting or something hidden in the very witty and humorous dialogue. The smarter viewers (I’d like to include myself) could probably figure out all of these twists a few minutes before it is actually told but this does not mean that the plot is predictable, far from it, the film WANTS you to figure out what will happen before it tells you which is why it’s worth a second watch, that’s what all mystery genre things should do right? Viewers should not take their eyes off the screen for even ONE second, anything and everything could be a vital clue to solve the mystery and it is only on the second watch that you appreciate all the small clues, gestures and items that appear to be insignificant. Yes, I watched the movie back to back twice and believe me, it’s even more fun the second time ’round when you get all giddy noticing all the subtle clues. Even in very good mystery novels, films or dramas it would be hard to cover every single detail and to eliminate all possible plot holes, Kisaragi seems to do this with no problems. Perhaps basing this movie on one small case connected with only five characters did the trick but you’d have to tell me where the plot holes are because I sure can’t find them and because of the lack of very noticeable plot holes/ contrivances to advance the story Kisaragi came off as absolutely logical and believable… hey, this is Japan after all.

Seriousness aside, having an excellent plot and script does help the film but if you are one of the people who don’t really care for that you could enjoy Kisaragi too. It is one hell of a fun movie. It’s funny, joining the best of both worlds, slapstick and verbal humour. Kudos to the writer for always keeping a humorous front even during the most serious of times in the movie - there is no such thing as a dull moment here. And of course if you want to get more shallow than that just watch it for Oguri Shun and Keisuke Koide, my main point is, you just have to watch it!

Final Judgment
If you haven’t deduced the score from my opening paragraph yet here it is. 10 out of 10, one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time, both Western and Asian. I will pretty much forgive any small flaws right now because the movie is such a romp. Well deserving of the best picture award it won at the 50th Blue Ribbon Awards and the nominations at the Japanese Accademy Awards. I’ve never liked fandom so much before.