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Highly Overrated But Still Good

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A-list acting, B-movie intentions, C-grade novel with D for scriptwriting. I confess I saw this without English subtitles, but subs are not likely to change my comment. A high-rated film starts with a good story, second in importance is the quality of the visual experience, third in importance is acting because actors almost always do their job with more actors available than roles available. This film has it all reversed. The script makes the film way too long. How many professional critics keep saying this about nearly every Japanese film, but current films still are overly long compared with those of the Japanese golden age of film? Far too much screen time was spent on the clumsy robbery and too little on the background of characters that are supposed to be what makes the source novel unique. I was disappointed at the end because the source novel relies on a concealed truth I consider my second most hated plot device in Asian films. Only amnesia I hate more. Doubly disappointing was the short time allotted to the crime's aftermath after wasting so much screen time on what came before. The film takes its time and then hastens to the end. Unless you are a fan of the starring actors, there are far better crime films to be seen.