Director: Akira Nagai
Writer: Hiroyuki Yatsu, Masahiro Yamaura
Stars: Yuki Yamada, Jiro Sato, Shota Sometani
Synopsis: After a man arrested for vandalism claims to have planted bombs across Tokyo, a police negotiator must solve his cryptic clues to stop the explosions before time runs out.
The cerebral Japanese thrillers at the Fantasia International Film Festival continue with Suzuki = Bakudan, an adaptation of Katsuhiro Go’s novel of the same name, which sees a police detective going head-to-head with the film’s titular character, Suzuki (Jiro Sato), who claims to possess psychic powers and tells detective Ruike (Yuki Yamada) that a bomb will explode in Akihabara. Not believing his claims, this begins to change when a bomb does explode, and more devices, he states, will blow up do so. No one knows who he is, but he seems to have the knowledge that a chain of bombs was set up all over Japan and will go off every hour.
Most of the movie is set inside an interrogation room, as the back-and-forth between Suzuki and detectives Ruike and Todoroki (Shota Sometani) attempts to uncover where the bombs are placed, while two other police officers in the field are trying to find out their whereabouts, depending on Suzuki’s cryptic messages. That’s right, because Suzuki will never directly tell the police where the bombs are. It will always be said in the form of a clue. They will have to figure out on their own what that clue means before the bombs go off and thousands of lives are lost.
This gives Suzuki = Bakudan a real edge, because whenever director Akira Nagai cuts away from the interrogation room and shows potential dangerous locations, we know time is running out, and the officers in the field do not have time. When Ruike and Todoroki attempt to peer into Suzuki’s psyche, we know that there is some time to figure out what’s occurring, but not that much. It’s a complicated intellectual challenge to parse the various plot threads Nagai lays out before us, but Suzuki = Bakudan is an always-enthralling, effectively taut thriller that consistently surprises its audience with a wide array of intriguing plot developments that keep us on the edge of our seats.
Discussing the various permutations of the film without spoiling is difficult, so this review will keep details to a minimum. What you need to know is this: the aesthetic compositions of Suzuki = Bakudan are so alluring, with an opening credits sequence that evokes David Fincher’s Se7en, that it’s hard not to be swept up into the emotions of what’s on screen. The camera always finds new and interesting angles to keep us engaged and elevate its already phenomenal performances from its star-studded cast.
Sato, in particular, steals the spotlight away from everyone as Suzuki, whose mysterious nature might be the most intriguing aspect of the whole movie. Who is he? Why does he know so much about potential bombs? Does he have any ulterior motives? Or is he truly a psychic? Through a mastery of emotional control, Sato will keep you guessing until the bitter end, but he also isn’t alone. One also has to mention the impeccable work Shota Sometani has been doing in Japan for some time, and with this film and AnyMart (also premiering at Fantasia), he’s carving out one of the most interesting filmographies within Japan.
I’ll admit to never having heard of Akira Nagai’s work before, but what he has accomplished here encourages me to seek out his previous work. Such control over his aesthetics and sense of tension is hard to pull off so well, but there was nary a moment in Suzuki = Bakudan where I felt the film’s 137-minute runtime, even when he repeats conversations or accentuates elements we’ve heard of before. The thing is, he can afford to do so because a detective thriller will always investigate the case at hand or interrogate a suspect with the utmost attention to detail.
I can’t say that Suzuki = Bakudan reinvents the screenwriting or thematic wheel, but I also can’t say the film is a disappointment. If anything, it’s one of the most engaging films I’ve seen at this year’s edition of Fantasia, and one bound to have a fanbase when it hopefully reaches a broader audience away from the Concordia walls and into our cinemas or our living rooms. Preferably the former, because this will undoubtedly hit the big screen.
