Today was the last day of exams for me, and after my paper, my friend and I went to watch a movie! This is the one she recommended:

Screenshot from: http://himitsu-movie.jp/

The first thing my friend said to me when we exited the cinema was “It was kinda gory, right?”

Apparently, all my cowering didn’t go unnoticed.

She was fine with it (the scary stuff, and yes, the cowering too) though hahaha. But despite the ‘gory’ scenes, Himitsu was a really, really interesting movie. And if you’re wondering, the ‘gory’ stuff is  (apart from the murders themselves) the death scenes, which you will find out when you watch it, I guess.

Basically, it’s set in a world where crimes can be solved using MRI – Memory Reproducing Imaging system. But, the memories are not valid in a court of law. The MRI is operated by Lab 9, headed by Tsuyoshi Maki. The new guy is Aoki Iikou, and on his first case, he finds out that an executed murderer is innocent and that his daughter is the real murderer.

From there, everything gets super complicated and there’s still a few things that my friend and I don’t completely understand. But, part of the story had to do with Maki’s past – a case he, his friend Suzuki, and Suzuki’s girlfriend Yukiko worked on. We did see a link, but we’re totally not sure what kind of link it was (this will make more sense once you see the movie)

The whole thing is totally confusing and riddled with secrets and red herrings. For example, Maki is always wearing a turtleneck, except in flashbacks to before the case with Suzuki, but we never do find out if it means anything. Or like when Maki collapsed in one of the early scenes, but we never find out why.

What I really liked about the movie, apart from the brain-teaser part of it, were the relationships. Maki’s loyalty to his dead friend, his dead friend’s girlfriend’s loyalty to an old friend, THE ENTIRE LAB 9. Seriously, Lab 9 looks like a good place to work (except for the death thing). There was one scene where Maki was going through someone’s memories, and for the sake of his team, he ordered them not to watch it. They were all just sitting there, and one person says “I wonder if he’s ok.” (or something like that. Can’t remember how the exact scene is) At that point, I saw the lab as people, not as background characters to provide information.

This is totally not for kids, given the violence and nudity, but it is interesting. It’s seriously a brain-puzzler, and my friend and I were basically discussing it from when we left the cinema till when we parted.