Strawberry Night's Movie-Sequel, "Invisible Rain" Requires The Preceding Series and 2010 Special.
While I love Strawberry Night as a whole, I think this film is the weakest portion of the story; it is a decent bookend to the narrative, but it's missing some of the key emotional cruxes of the series.
I think this film should have been much more fleshed out in terms of character interactions; particularily, more scenes between Himekawa and Isao (the anti-hero guest character for the movie) would've heightened the quality of the story. As it is, the case presented in "Invisible Rain" is probably the weakest out of all the investigations the Strawberry Night characters have participated in. There's less of a focus on the motivation of the killers or upon Himekawa's personal feelings on the crimes she's investigating. The whole plot comes off as unintentionally dull. On the plus side, this film is as I said earlier: a bookend. It completes Himekawa's story arc that starts in that 2010 special.
Throughout the series, Himekawa is reprimanded by her fellow division commanders in various ways and by the end of this film you can see small spurts of real growth in her character. There are very subtle moments where Himekawa directly admits that she has been too headstrong and isolated in past investigations. This film needed way, way, way more subtle moments in that manner. The investigation process that Himekawa takes part in is the real attraction of this series. Specifically, the workman-like fashion in which this police procedural series is written emphasizes meetings, planning and interviews. It is, strangely, less concerned with aestheticising clues, evidence or perplexing mysteries. If you don't want to see people walking the streets asking questions, you're probably watching the wrong show! These small conversations are the strongest reason for watching the TV show, specials and this movie (even though the film is lacking in this conversational aspect compared to the previous entries). Yes, there are criminal cases being investigated by Himekawa's team, but the intricacies of maneuvering around her colleagues, her superiors and her own investigation team are always what drives the narrative to interesting places.
All that said, the key thing this film is missing is a climactic interrogation scene where Himekawa confronts the suspect in an emotional manner; I think the climactic scene we were given for this film is quite the cop-out in this respect. No pun intended, it just came to my mind!
Without spoiling too much, the main takeaway from this movie is that people who share deep, emotional trauma can sense and "see without seeing" that trauma in each other. That is why it is called "Invisible Rain"; I think the concept was adequately done, but this film's thematic content is nowhere near the superb closer to the television series "Soul Cage" or the pivotal flashback sequences in the 2010 special. If you don't want to watch the entire series (or if you've accurately sensed that I'm NOT RECOMMENDING you watch this movie as a blind watch), I'd highly recommend watching the 2010 special and then perhaps the last three episodes of the television series (Episodes 9, 10 and 11).
This movie may disappoint you; the television series will not.
I think this film should have been much more fleshed out in terms of character interactions; particularily, more scenes between Himekawa and Isao (the anti-hero guest character for the movie) would've heightened the quality of the story. As it is, the case presented in "Invisible Rain" is probably the weakest out of all the investigations the Strawberry Night characters have participated in. There's less of a focus on the motivation of the killers or upon Himekawa's personal feelings on the crimes she's investigating. The whole plot comes off as unintentionally dull. On the plus side, this film is as I said earlier: a bookend. It completes Himekawa's story arc that starts in that 2010 special.
Throughout the series, Himekawa is reprimanded by her fellow division commanders in various ways and by the end of this film you can see small spurts of real growth in her character. There are very subtle moments where Himekawa directly admits that she has been too headstrong and isolated in past investigations. This film needed way, way, way more subtle moments in that manner. The investigation process that Himekawa takes part in is the real attraction of this series. Specifically, the workman-like fashion in which this police procedural series is written emphasizes meetings, planning and interviews. It is, strangely, less concerned with aestheticising clues, evidence or perplexing mysteries. If you don't want to see people walking the streets asking questions, you're probably watching the wrong show! These small conversations are the strongest reason for watching the TV show, specials and this movie (even though the film is lacking in this conversational aspect compared to the previous entries). Yes, there are criminal cases being investigated by Himekawa's team, but the intricacies of maneuvering around her colleagues, her superiors and her own investigation team are always what drives the narrative to interesting places.
All that said, the key thing this film is missing is a climactic interrogation scene where Himekawa confronts the suspect in an emotional manner; I think the climactic scene we were given for this film is quite the cop-out in this respect. No pun intended, it just came to my mind!
Without spoiling too much, the main takeaway from this movie is that people who share deep, emotional trauma can sense and "see without seeing" that trauma in each other. That is why it is called "Invisible Rain"; I think the concept was adequately done, but this film's thematic content is nowhere near the superb closer to the television series "Soul Cage" or the pivotal flashback sequences in the 2010 special. If you don't want to watch the entire series (or if you've accurately sensed that I'm NOT RECOMMENDING you watch this movie as a blind watch), I'd highly recommend watching the 2010 special and then perhaps the last three episodes of the television series (Episodes 9, 10 and 11).
This movie may disappoint you; the television series will not.
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