Bought on a whim since I’m getting back into physical media - this has a relatively new 4K restoration that’s as crisp as you could want it. The film itself is pretty good - a murder mystery surrounding a rich but dysfunctional family after its patriarch dies. The entire family fortune has been bequeathed to an apparent non-descendent, but with some unusual stipulations that seem to incentivise murder. And what do you know, people are dropping like flies. It’s up to a barefoot detective to solve the case.  

It’s directed by Kon Ichikawa, who takes the impeccably composed austere interior shots from Ozu, but gives the editing job to someone on crack. There will be dialogue scenes that will play out modestly, but suddenly shoot through about 12 cuts in 5 seconds. There are also some bold stylistic flourishes, some working better than others. Key scenes have filters and screen effects. Sometimes Ichikawa messes with the frame rate, briefly making me wonder if I need to replace my HDMI cable. 

The murder mystery is engaging and more satisfying than Glass Onion, and there’s a streak of humour in it. Towards the end there is much over explanation of the method of murder - apparently the audience must not miss a single detail - but I’d rather have had more exposition on the family scandal that started the whole thing (involving the illegitimate child of a gay priest).

Bought on a whim since I’m getting back into physical media - this has a relatively new 4K restoration that’s as crisp as you could want it. The film itself is pretty good - a murder mystery surrounding a rich but dysfunctional family after its patriarch dies. The entire family fortune has been bequeathed to an apparent non-descendent, but with some unusual stipulations that seem to incentivise murder. And what do you know, people are dropping like flies. It’s up to a barefoot detective to solve the case.  

It’s directed by Kon Ichikawa, who takes the impeccably composed austere interior shots from Ozu, but gives the editing job to someone on crack. There will be dialogue scenes that will play out modestly, but suddenly shoot through about 12 cuts in 5 seconds. There are also some bold stylistic flourishes, some working better than others. Key scenes have filters and screen effects. Sometimes Ichikawa messes with the frame rate, briefly making me wonder if I need to replace my HDMI cable. 

The murder mystery is engaging and more satisfying than Glass Onion, and there’s a streak of humour in it. Towards the end there is much over explanation of the method of murder - apparently the audience must not miss a single detail - but I’d rather have had more exposition on the family scandal that started the whole thing (involving the illegitimate child of a gay priest).