Heracin

This movie took me on a wild ride : I felt physically sick at some point because of the events unfolding on screen. The fact that the story is based on real life events is just heartbreaking and the social criticism raised by it is really worth a watch. It left me with a very profound and resounding impression.

The unreliable narrator angle took by the film is very interesting in itself and has a clear shock factor. I wish a longer epilogue would have exploited it even more, especially to get more details on the outcome of the story. I also wish a third view would have been set up to define even better the media role : the part of Kamenashi Kazuya could have been developed more, even if in itself it did a solid job showing the brutal impact of media targeting. A better pacing and and a longer epilogue showing the various sides would have been perfect to round up the movie.

The acting was excellent : Ayano Go as well Shibasaki Ko who hold central roles, were both scary and painfully touching depending the angle you were looking at the story. Miura Kira played incredibly well his traumatic part and overall, I hope to see him grow into an amazing career, as kid role can sometimes make or break a movie, and here it was really well acted.

The production value was pretty good: very grey and anxiety-provoking...With images that are leaving me with lasting torturous feelings.

I would strongly recommend this to people looking for a crime thriller with a very interesting point of view. The movie can be pretty triggering so you might want to have a look at the tags. However, I feel the best way to enjoy this movie is to go in blind, not knowing what it is about. I had no clue what the story was about and it really impacted my watching experience in a positive way as I was dumbfounded and grasping with a lot of feelings.