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Sayuri japanese drama review
Completed
Sayuri
0 people found this review helpful
by Karinanose
Jun 16, 2025
Completed
Overall 6.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

Somehow this might make you cry

I am a fan of the director and find most of his works veer into utter insanity. There's always a mix of humor, sadness and general chills. It's one of the better attributes of this director. You know you are about to watch something silly as hell when you watch his movies.

I found that the overall story in this was like 3 different parts. One was a haunted house horror movie, then a Shonen protagonist training montage and then family drama. I was in awe of how it transitioned. It definitely will be for a very niche crowd as it has tons of faults. However, if you just allow yourself to walk into this script you may find it has some good points.

The overall acting is kinda terrible. There were only a few good moments, which when they hit, they were strong. The quickness and dispatching of characters is crazy. It will surprise a lot of people. It is gory but not over the top. What will really set you off however is the reveal of why Sayuri is the way she is. Heavy warning and spoilers but there is SA of a minor in this story. It will be hard to watch even though this movie up until that point was somewhat hysterical.

This is why I said it might make you cry because the ending actually somehow made me tear up because of the wrong doings to Sayuri. The tonal whiplash is also a signature of this director. You may also come to the conclusion that he may not be that grounded himself but that's sort of why I adore his movies.

Which was surprising but understandable. But just like prior movies like OCCULT and SHIROME they tend to force you into all sorts of absurd emotions.
The music also was somewhat hilarious, swinging from Horror to Battle Anime to Sad depression. The ending theme really got me after everything was said and done. The final few scenes are actually really sweet and well shot. I thought overall the movie was well shot. It had just a little bit of everything for trickery to make you feel tense. I particularly enjoyed the flickering light sequences. There's some really pretty golden time shots in this movie. It seemed to be it's signature oddly enough.

I say give it a chance but only if you can get pass the SA and overall sporadic nature of the movie.
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