I have seen this movie at the Berlinale Film Festival in Germany. For a European, it is always interesting and challenging to learn about Japan. The Japanese culture is so different from the European, so you generally cannot take anything for granted. In particular, this holds even more so for this movie.
It is about playing with the expectations and breaking assumptions, of any audience, constantly, no matter whether it is Japanese or European.
Some examples:
Can you expect to start up a rusty old car sitting in a swamp for years just by inserting a new battery?
Can you imagine a serial killer that is actually a nice boyish guy which acts as a guardian angel sometimes?
Would a mother leave her 3-year old child alone for a while to help some fugitive, to secretly install fireworks in the storm drains? And so on.
That is all what I want to say about the plot. The summary line and these examples must suffice. The absence of any certainties (regarding plot twists as well as underlying assumptions) makes it also bit confusing, but in a good way, though. Still, I think this complexity puzzled many spectators, and this is why there weren't many questions to the producers and the main actor after the festival screening.
Oftentimes in the movie something happens that seems to be completely predetermined, other events happen in a completely unpredictable and even absurd manner. The fact the movie walks on the fine line between determinism and haphazard, makes it also very profound. It is also a statement about the Japanese society and its people - and the many transformations it underwent in the last, say, 100 years. In this movie, most people have a positive attitude towards live and outcomes of their actions, even if bad things happen... murder, betrayal, treachery. Don't take it all too seriously.
I realize that I am trying to unravel the this movie. I have never seen anything like that before. Enjoyed it very much.
