film name: INJU
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
cast : Benoît Magimel, Lika Minamoto, Shun Sugata, Maurice Bénichou, Ryo Ishibashi, Toshizo Fujiwara, Gen Shimaoka.
INJU is a thriller revolving around a french crime fiction writer Fayard who travels to Kyoto, Japan to promote his latest novel and also desires to meet the Japanese writer named Shundei Oe, who also is famous for his fiction crime novels which always have the negative forces on the winning side..He is a bit surprised to get a call from shundei Oe when he is in a television studio for a show threatening him to leave japan or face consequences.Fayard does’nt take it seriously thinking it as a marketing gimmick by his publisher Ken Honda , who tells him that Shundei Oe has never done any interviews and have not allowed to be photographed.He takes Fayard out to visit a geiko house where Fayard meets a mysterious geiko named Taomo. He is attracted towards her beauty and intrigued to see a scar on her back while she was performing.Fayard is further dragged into the mystery when he meets Taomo again.She tells him about a letter she got which she says is from her ex lover Hichiro Irata.He wonders why she is telling him about Hichiro as he doesn’t find any connection but when she reveals that Hichiro is Shundei Oe, he is shocked.Taomo further tells him that Hichiro is threatening her and wants her back in his life.She is very scared as she recalls his violent behavior when she rejected his marriage proposal several years back after which he disappeared, but now he is back.She ask Fayard to help her.Blinded by his desire for Taomo, he agrees to help her and starts looking for clues to trace the mysterious entity called Shundei Oe.Taomo is pregnant with her lover who is a wealthy businessman named Mogi.One day his friend, Honda is found dead.His death makes Fayard very worried for himself and Taomo.The mystery deepens and Fayard is lost and confused and soon ends up in jail for the murder of Mogi at his residence where he finds Taomo tied up and getting whipped by Mogi.He thinks he saved his innocent girl friend who was trapped but is shocked when one day he is visited by a man who tells him that there was no Hichiro Irata and no one was stalking his girl friend Taomo.In fact she herself is the mysterious Shundei Oe and she framed him to get rid of the competition as he was becoming famous, she felt threatened by him.
The film has a gripping screenplay which keeps the audience guessing all the time as to who could be the mysterious Shondei Oe.Not for a moment the suspicion goes towards the girl.Technically the film is well shot and the actors have performed well which helped to create a dark mood of the thriller.
