Yurigokoro jmovie review

At the beginning of Yurigokoro, Ryosuke's (Matsuzaka Tori) life seems to be going well. His cafe business is booming and and he introduces his fiance Chie (Seino Nana) to his father.

However, Chie disappears the next day and Ryosuke realises that he knew nothing about Chie to help him find her. It is during this time that he finds a handwritten journal among his father's belongings.

The journal is by a murderer Misako as tells about how Misako does not have yurigokoro or this ability to feel and only feels alive when she kills. Ryosuke finds himself absorbed by this journal which seems to somehow resonate with him.

First off, Yurigokoro is one hell of a gorgeous movie. Best looking movie I can remember in quite a while. Even better than Kenja no Ai which was a beautifully shot jdorama. The lighting and the use of colours were exquisite. Movies are a visual medium and a lot of times I feel like directors forgot to paint their movies.

There are however, a couple of grotesque scenes that really made me feel uneasy early in the movie. I actually stopped and thought about not continuing. Powered through but I felt sick watching those scenes.

Anyone can see the twist coming a mile away, so I will just say Yurigokoro is about whether inherently bad people can love and do good things and whether evil is something that can be passed on.

There's something about Yurigokoro that did not gel with me. Maybe I got grossed out too much in the beginning or maybe Misako was portrayed too much as a sympathetic character or Matsuzaka Tori's portrayal of Ryosuke felt one note. Maybe its just the twist being obvious from the beginning.

If you like your dark and gross Japanese movies, Yurigokoro might be for you but for me it just did not resonate with me. Meh. Thanks to Faiz Ikari for recommending it though. I got the raw from nyaa and the subs from avistaz.