Director- Adachi Masao.I decided to watch this film as I was intrigued by how he would tackle the subject of Nagayama Norio.His approach to the subject is from the side of objective facts, telling things as they are through a loose narration without sensationalising the events. The lack of voyeurism and forceful sensationalism takes it a long way ahead. In the current time of a rise in true crime podcasts driven solely through the pursuit of views, deliberately mushing up facts to make it more "spicier", this film is a breath of fresh air.The societal structures, unlike other New Wave works, don't deal with frustration and alienation. The film neither explores themes of his identity through external interactions nor internal introspection, but rather through the environment as a collective entity, through a rather impersonal view into what an individual could have been like. The film excellently avoids having any interviews about the people affected by the killer, as it allows us to be impartial observers.The imagery throughout the film gives it the vibe of a time capsule for a Japan of the past. The music and imagery have a calming effect while the narration speaks of the killer's deeds, which should have been an interesting duality, but in Adachi's pursuit to humanise Nagayama, he fails to express the gravity of his deeds.Adachi tries to give a theory about how his environment and past shaped him to be a killer, showing imagery about the places connected to him and his victims. He, though, does not try to whitewash him, instead presenting only the facts, which allows the audience to make their own decisions regarding their takeaway from the material.He doesn't show the audience Nagayama throughout the whole runtime, giving it a more unbiased feel. It also allows us to make our own interpretations of why he became who he is as we experience what he saw.As the film goes on, we learn that his life wasn't much different to ours through the imagery of desolate locales and urbanised bustling atmospheres. Thus, the film keeps what made him snap and shoot his victims, rather dubious. This not only humanises him further but also establishes that anyone can become the next Nagayama if enough attention is not paid to them.The film just gives us a vague idea about what the cause of it was, and through that, one can assess that the environment might be the cause of oppression, but at the same time, one can assume that the act was just driven by momentary impulse and further doubling down. The open-to-interpretation nature of it is quite an intriguing setup.One can even assess that this film, through showing his environment, is vehemently blaming it for allowing such a person to rise. This would make it a reactionary tale about how to deal with such cases in the future.Overall, this is quite an interesting film, transcendental in a way as it allows us or rather makes us, to introspect throughout the runtime. I will try to watch Double Suicide next.
Director- Adachi Masao.I decided to watch this film as I was intrigued by how he would tackle the subject of Nagayama Norio.His approach to the subject is from the side of objective facts, telling things as they are through a loose narration without sensationalising the events. The lack of voyeurism and forceful sensationalism takes it a long way ahead. In the current time of a rise in true crime podcasts driven solely through the pursuit of views, deliberately mushing up facts to make it more "spicier", this film is a breath of fresh air.The societal structures, unlike other New Wave works, don't deal with frustration and alienation. The film neither explores themes of his identity through external interactions nor internal introspection, but rather through the environment as a collective entity, through a rather impersonal view into what an individual could have been like. The film excellently avoids having any interviews about the people affected by the killer, as it allows us to be impartial observers.The imagery throughout the film gives it the vibe of a time capsule for a Japan of the past. The music and imagery have a calming effect while the narration speaks of the killer's deeds, which should have been an interesting duality, but in Adachi's pursuit to humanise Nagayama, he fails to express the gravity of his deeds.Adachi tries to give a theory about how his environment and past shaped him to be a killer, showing imagery about the places connected to him and his victims. He, though, does not try to whitewash him, instead presenting only the facts, which allows the audience to make their own decisions regarding their takeaway from the material.He doesn't show the audience Nagayama throughout the whole runtime, giving it a more unbiased feel. It also allows us to make our own interpretations of why he became who he is as we experience what he saw.As the film goes on, we learn that his life wasn't much different to ours through the imagery of desolate locales and urbanised bustling atmospheres. Thus, the film keeps what made him snap and shoot his victims, rather dubious. This not only humanises him further but also establishes that anyone can become the next Nagayama if enough attention is not paid to them.The film just gives us a vague idea about what the cause of it was, and through that, one can assess that the environment might be the cause of oppression, but at the same time, one can assume that the act was just driven by momentary impulse and further doubling down. The open-to-interpretation nature of it is quite an intriguing setup.One can even assess that this film, through showing his environment, is vehemently blaming it for allowing such a person to rise. This would make it a reactionary tale about how to deal with such cases in the future.Overall, this is quite an interesting film, transcendental in a way as it allows us or rather makes us, to introspect throughout the runtime. I will try to watch Double Suicide next.
