Ôkoku (aruiwa sono ie ni tsuite)

Pros: 1. The framing helps to add a personal feel to the movie, thus giving the character interactions greater depth. 2. The lighting is superb and it changes to appropriately match the intended atmosphere of the Director (Natsuka Kusano). 3. The actors, and especially Asami Shibuya (Aki) and Tomo Kasajima (Nodoka), give as decent a performance as they can give with the dull script. 4. The film does a great job at showing how the same conversations, the same words, can have different meanings and tones depending on context, physical gesticulations, voice intonations.

Cons: 1. The movie is ridiculously, and pointlessly, slow-paced. It does not feel that the run-time of 2 hours and 30 minutes is justified. It definitely would have worked better as a short. 2. None of the characters are interesting and likable which makes it difficult to be invested in their circumstances, and the script in general. 3. The plot, if it can even be called that, is rather dull, and for obvious reasons, way too repetitive. 4. The film is rather pretentious and thus obnoxious. 5. The opening scene of Aki conversing with the detective ruins the potential tension that could have been built on throughout the movie, as you already know the outcome.