A heinous murder case is shown on the screen. The lingering effect on the viewer’s mind becomes even more profound when he or she learns that the murders are not fiction, but are based on real criminals and incidents. In this issue, we have selected five Japanese films based on “murderers” who actually existed in Japanese crime history. These are not mere suspense or horror films, but masterpieces that approach the darkness of the human heart. This is the fourth installment. (Text by Sanae Abe)
Creepy: The False Neighbors (2016)
Director：Kiyoshi Kurosawa Screenplay：Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Chihiro Ikeda Original Story：Yutaka Maekawa “Creepy” Cast：Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi, Haruna Kawaguchi, Masahiro Higashide, Teruyuki Kagawa [Film Description] Former detective and criminal psychologist, Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima), is asked by his colleague Nogami (Masahiro Higashide) to analyze a family disappearance case. Meanwhile, while he feels uncomfortable with the Nishino family, neighbors he met at their new house, the Nishino’s daughter Mio (Ryoko Fujino) confesses that her father is a stranger, and the horrifying truth is revealed. Creepy: The False Neighborhood, a 2016 film by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is a psychological suspense film about the process of a neighbor’s abnormality slowly encroaching into one’s daily life. Although a work of fiction, its structure and depiction strongly reflect elements reminiscent of real-life heinous cases – the Kitakyushu confinement murders in 2002 and the Amagasaki serial murders that were uncovered in 2012. In the Kitakyushu case, the main suspect controlled several people through clever verbal mind control, forcing family members to commit murder against each other. The crime was so vicious and the damage so horrific that the media was restricted when the case was first uncovered. The entire incident is described in the reportage “The Erased Family: The Kitakyushu Serial Confinement Murder Case” (Shincho-Bunko), but the horror is so horrifying that one’s fingers tremble as one pages through the pages. The structure of this case overlaps with the unnatural relationship between Nishino (Teruyuki Kagawa), the neighbor in the movie “Creepy,” and his family. In Nishino’s house, his wife and daughter live under his control and quietly follow him, and eventually even the wife (Yuko Takeuchi) of the main character, Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima), comes under his influence. The structural similarities with the Amagasaki Incident, in which violence and fear dominated human relationships, should not be overlooked. The film also carefully depicts the process by which the protagonist’s wife is penetrated through a gap in their marital relationship, and before long she is placed under psychological bondage. Creepy” shows the reality of how the most private and secure place, “home,” can become a breeding ground for control and violence. The film depicts the closed relationships that are difficult to see from the outside, the verbal domination, and the fear woven by the presence of the “assailant with a normal face. This is not a special event, but rather a reminder of the dangers that could be lurking in anyone’s neighborhood.
Sanae Abe