REEL JAPAN

Score: 3/10

MISSING is a long slog of a movie that can’t decide if it is an oddball buddy film or a Nancy Drew-esque detective flick. The buddies are a pervert and a slob who team up to commit crimes that crisscross the lines of mercy, sadism, and opportunism. The young detective is a streetwise middle-schooler who sets out to find her missing father though everyone around her shrugs off her suspicions. MISSING’s weakness can be found in the way each plotline disappears from view as one leapfrogs the other. The central issue tackled is suicide, a perennial Japanese obsession. Assisted suicide becomes the gateway drug for one character with a killer instinct. Katayama Shinzo directs. He directed another production with dark themes featuring men on the run: THE HOVERING BLADE (2021) as well as the gory and action-packed GANNIBAL (2021-2025). In MISSING, as in his other works, the performances are excellent. Ito Aoi (HUMAN SPECIMENS, IEYASU, WHAT WILL YOU DO?) stands out as young Kaede who boldly confronts a killer she suspects of kidnapping her dad, played by Sato Jiro with a carefully balanced mixture of grief and comedic timing. Shimizu Hiroya plays a mysterious young man with unhealthy obsessions. Morita Misato (CITY HUNTER, 2022) steals scenes as an eccentric suicidal woman stubbornly pursuing her goal. Unfortunately, these high caliber performances cannot raise the film above its automatic mediocrity. It is too disturbing to be funny, too funny to be taken seriously, too long to be entertaining, and too preposterous to be inspiring. 

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