Rinjo: The Last Message

I like the Rinjo series. Its one of the very few police procedural jdoramas that gets it right. Its your usual police maverick who oversteps his boundaries show but not everyone in the organisation is portrayed as incompetent and Moriyama sensei from Doctors plays Kuraishi's superior who begrudgingly respects Kuraishi's abilities. None of that main character has proven him/herself over and over but everyone hates the main character cause they are useless at their jobs. Most importantly, Rinjo is about how Kuraishi solves the crimes and not manufacturing cheesy/cool moments.

Which brings us to this Rinjo movie, The Last Message which starts of with one of the fakest mass stabbing scenes brought to screen. I appreciate them going for a wide continuous shot but lack of visual contact with the knife is does nothing to sell me on the scene.

The Last Message has a good story but two things take away from it. First is the story about the mother of one of the stabbing victims which just feels tacked on just to lead to a tear jerker reason for her daughter to be at the scene of the stabbings. I guess that's why the movie is called the Last Message but drawing a family picture over graffiti is hard to buy.

Second is the long debate at the end with the karmic stabbing ending which just feels so contrived. Its like stupid shit has to happen because the karmic jmovie laws decree that people always have to pay for their sins at the end of a movie.

Besides those two gripes, I like the story and the twist and turns, especially with the old policeman. They've also got a good reason to introduce this new police dude who's always pissed at Kuraishi. Watchable, just don't not as good as the series.