Synesthesia (2005)
Shin is a professional voyeur who provides live camera feeds of everything from the street corner to the public toilet. He is also afflicted freakish phenomenon known as synesthesia - a glitch in his wiring puts his five senses in a blender and spits out something close to insanity. A high-profile murder propels him into a psychological odyssey in pursuit of Picasso - a serial killer, snuff peddler and fellow synesthete - who leaves deadly hidden messages in his victims' blood that only Shin can decipher. Lulling his victims into a trance with a spellbinding video game, Picasso leads Shin down a mysterious, hypnotic trail of death.
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Sorry, this movie sucks
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Beautiful, moving film.
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Police hunt for a killer who orphans a teenage girl suffering from a rare sensory disorder; she experiences one thing as another - clouds smell like daffodils, straw tastes like tomato sauce, that kind of thing. The potential of this idea, both in terms of plot and visuals, is immense, but unfortunately it is never realised due to a script that relies heavily on exposition and some ham-fisted direction by Matsuura. Eguchi gives his best performance since Swallowtail Butterfly, but his sidekick (Ando?) mugs it up in every scene he has. The guy playing Picasso thinks good acting is no acting, or no reacting. I mean, I don't think he even blinks. He's obviously trying to be Kitano, but fumbles it badly. The talented Ishida is under-used as one of a male-female detective duo whose only function seems to be to narrate the plot holes. Oh, and to smoke, and even the product placement on behalf of Japan Tobacco is ham-fisted. The camera is constantly slowly tracking right-to-left, but this seems less an aesthetic choice and more like a grip left the dolly on an incline and forgot to lock the wheels. I came to Gimmy Heaven after reading a favourable review in a usually reliable publication, so someone out there likes it. The one good thing was how the point-of-view of the girl is handled once we get to see things (specifically, rain) through her condition. Unfortunately, it is too little, too late.