The Weinstein Company and Genius Products’ "Dimension Extreme" label comes through again with NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE (2006), famed Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto's freaky excursion into the spookhouse of the subconscious.
People are having nightmares in which they're attacked by some horrific unseen force, and in the process they wind up slicing themselves to bloody ribbons in their sleep. The only thing they have in common is that the last person each of them talked to on their cell phones was a mysterious man known only as "O", whom they met on an internet forum for suicidal people. Tackling the case is Lt. Keiko Kirishima (pop star Hitomi), a National Police Agency crime analyst whose desire for some hands-on, "tangible" experience has led her to trade her desk job for the world of crime scene investigation. At first she's unprepared for the carnage she sees on her first field case, causing veteran homicide detective Sekiya to scoff at her ("The princess can't stand the sight of blood"), while the younger Wakamiya (Masanobu Ando) proves an affable and cooperative partner.
The investigators are split into two teams--one, led by Sekiya, to work the case on a realistic level, and the other, led by Keiko, to delve into possible supernatural causes. To this end she seeks help from the deeply disturbed, suicidal Kagenuma (Ryuhei Matsuda), who has the ability to enter the nightmares of others. Reluctantly, Kagenuma takes on the task and both he and Keiko soon find themselves in a deadly and terrifying struggle against a powerful pyschic killer who has made them his next targets.
The murders are frightening and graphic--there's a whole lotta slashin' going on when "O" invades someone's nightmares. Not only do we witness the victims under attack by the killer's phantom dream manifestation in their minds, but also the horrifying sight of them slicing themselves to ribbons in their sleep. When Keiko decides to use herself as bait in an attempt to lure "O" into the open, she descends into this nightmare world totally unprepared for the bloody ordeal to come, her only chance for survival hinging on whether or not Kagenuma will cast aside his own fears and come to her aid.
This leads to an extended surrealistic journey through the minds of three people whose nightmares and painful subconscious memories have become intertwined. Director Tsukamoto, who also plays "O", stages it all with an abundance of sheer imagination and style, often with imagery that places the utter strangeness of David Lynch's ERASERHEAD within a more coherent narrative. A real plus in the visualization of these surreal images is Tsukamoto's refusal to rely on CGI unless absolutely necessary, instead using some wonderfully old-school animatronics and special makeup effects.
First-time actress Hitomi does a great job as Keiko. Not only is she beautiful, but she has an intensity that makes almost every shot of her interesting. Ryuhei Matsuda, with his Edward Furlong hair and dark, brooding looks, is a perfect choice to play the Nightmare Detective, Kagenuma. As "O", Shinya Tsukamoto gives us a complicated, unconventional villain who is refreshingly far-removed from the overfamiliar Freddy Krueger-style cartoonishness that plagues so many horror movies of recent years.
Tsukamoto's screenplay is similarly free of slasher-flick cliches, and he directs it with a lean, uncluttered visual style that is compelling to look at and serves this intriguing story well. The musical score by Chu and Tadashi Ishikawa is effective and sometimes beautiful. Both are well represented by the DVD, which is presented in matted widescreen format with Dolby Digital sound. Extras consist of a theatrical trailer and a lively, very informative "making of" featurette running almost an hour long, which was also directed by Tsukamoto.
NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE is solid entertainment that doesn't skimp on the gore while delivering the goods on every other level as well. And while listening to the Japanese language track with subtitles, I picked up a line, spoken by a sullen Kagenuma early in the film, which will no doubt serve me well in the future whenever I'm in need of a sublimely subtle putdown: "My will to live falters just from speaking with you."
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