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This Man
Directed by Tomojiro Amano
Director
Tomojiro Amano
Producer
Kenta Sakai, Junya Tomiyama
Writer
Tomojiro Amano
Cast
Arisa Deguchi, Minehiro Kinomoto
contact
Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures Inc.
The mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in a public area. Authorities scramble to find the assailant, while other gruesome deaths pile up across the city. A single element links the cases: all the victims have psychiatric histories, and have drawn portraits of a sinister, monobrowed man seen in their dreams just before they died. The situation is already alarming when Hana (Arisa Deguchi) and Yoshio (Minehiro Kinomoto) hear the news report. At first, Hana is simply curious, directing her attention instead towards their beloved daughter, but when the rumour reaches her close friends, anxiety creeps into her mind, dragging her into this fateful epidemic of curses now spreading to numerous Japanese prefectures. Lacking any coherent clues to follow, she turns to the mystical, opening herself up to a dangerous universe where the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
With its folk-inspired premise, enhanced by numerous references to Eastern and Western horror classics like RING, FINAL DESTINATION, IT FOLLOWS and THE WAILING, THIS MAN could well be the new J-horror gem that rekindles the fervour of moviegoers worldwide. Director and screenwriter Tomojiro Amano (TRAPPED IN MAKYO) is certainly not lacking in ambition when it comes to freely adapting an urban legend that circulated in Tokyo in the 1990s, retaining the eminently playful aspect of the rumour while modernizing it by choosing mental-health disorders as the trigger for the curse, as well as its inevitable and horrifying denouement... and by flushing toilets. Armed with a decent budget, he favours an intimate approach by adopting the perspective of a normal family and a duo of completely bewildered investigators, then exposes the titanic scale of the spread in news bulletins and other institutional reports, all punctuated by some extremely successful gore effects aimed more at shaking us up than getting it all over the walls. Unsettling, intelligent, shocking, and devilishly entertaining, THIS MAN leaves us eagerly awaiting the next film from Amano, a true director who dares to think outside the box, as well audaciously wishing for a Western adaptation (with priests!). – translation: Rupert Bottenberg
Showings
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