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Miki Nakatani,
Masato Hagiwara
:
Hideo Nakata,
Hideo Nakata
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Kino
: Foreign, Japan
: 104 min.
: Japanese
: English
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Following up on the wild success of Ring and Ring 2, Hideo Nakata takes a break from spine-chilling horror to direct his labyrinthine postmodern crime thriller based on a book by Shogo Utano. After wealthy businessman Takayuki Komiyama (Ken Mitsuichi) finishes lunch with his beautiful wife Saori (played by pop star Miki Nakatani) at a tony Western restaurant, he discovers that she has disappeared while he was paying the bill. When he returns to his office, he gets a phone call informing him that she has been kidnapped, and demanding a huge ransom. With police detective Hamaguchi (Jun Kunimura) looking on, Komiyama sets out to a lonely highway to drop off the money, only Saori is not there. Cut to a flashback where the kidnapper named Kuroda (Masato Hagiwara) gets a call from Saori. Being in the profession of doing strange and shady things for all kinds of people, he agrees to fake Saori's kidnapping for a cool million yen. Saori apparently feels that her husband is looking elsewhere for affection, and wants to get out while the getting is good. Flash forward to Kuroda returning to his office with ransom money in hand, only to find the trussed up dead body on his floor. The phone rings and the anonymous caller tells Kuroda that he knows he killed Saori. But is Saori really dead? ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Catalog Description courtesy of HKFlix.com. Used with Permission. © 2003 HKFlix.com
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| Hitchcock Wannabe
by talltale
September 25, 2004 - 7:42 AM PDT
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3 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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| CHAOS is a so-so mystery thriller from Japan that time and newer (but not necessarily better) films such as "Memento" have left in the dust. The fun here is comes from your growing realization that things are not what they seem in this story about the disappearance of a businessman's wife. The cast is good, the direction OK, and the flips-flops back and forth in time and point-of-view are interesting--for a while. Once you figure it out (which happens long before the film comes to its rather tiresome end), it's all downhill--and far too slowly--to be much fun. Comparisons to Hitchcock's "Vertigo" are somewhat apt, but this film does not come within arm's length of its predecessor visually or emotionally. (And, pace JBellows, it was Kim Novak, not Grace Kelly, who appeared in that one.) |
| Hitchcock, roll over in your grave
by JBellows
August 19, 2003 - 2:17 PM PDT
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3 out of 7 members found this review helpful
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I really want to give this a perfect ten. But no. The above description is a great teaser. You really oughtta see this film to get full gist of it. A suggestion, don't get up to pee during this movie because you'll miss important clues in this really really complicated triple crossing.
The last three minutes sucked eggs eight days after Easter and the DVD extras (easter eggs?) also blew chunks like a first time drunk on prom night. These drag it down from being perfect. Besides, just to see the actress who plays the Grace Kelly role is worth it.
Also rent Audition, another Japanese creep fest. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.25)
100 Votes
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