Review for Crime or Punishment?!?

Introduction

I make no secret of the fact that I like quirky cinema, and in fact the quirkier the better. With Third Window Films championing the cause of Japanese independent cinema, I find that I'm spoilt for choice when it comes to the more creative, unexpected, and even downright weird, and every new release delivers another startling cinematic gem. It's like getting a box of chocolates and finding out that there are no caramels within. Unfortunately, there still is the occasional coconut cream, and even I have on occasion been out-quirked; most recently by Underwater Love. In my eternal quest to watch movies unlike anything I have seen previously, even the unique, on occasion, can fail to satisfy. That's a risk well worth taking though, and even if I knew nothing about Third Window Films' upcoming releases, I'd still want to watch them. But when I read the synopsis of Crime or Punishment ?!?, I'm a little embarrassed to say that I actually started salivating.


Ayame Enjoji is a glamour model with a tough life. She's the model that no-one notices, outshone and out-shadowed by her childhood friend Momo, she thought her day couldn't get any worse when her image was printed upside down in a magazine. Checking through all the copies at a shop with a no reading policy isn't helped by promising to buy the magazines, having lost her money. One shoplifting misunderstanding later, and she's face to face with the police. Her punishment is to be Chief of Police for a day. She thinks it's just a PR gig, wear the uniform, make a motivational speech, inspire the troops, and just stay out of the way for 24 hours. But she really is the Chief of Police, and she's expected to issue orders, and deal with whatever crimes occur. If that isn't enough, her ex-boyfriend Haruki is a detective at the station, and now ostensibly her underling. She has to deal with a murder, with witnessing a traffic fatality, and with a convenience store robbery turned into a kidnapping. That's nothing compared with the secret that Haruki is concealing.

Picture

Crime or Punishment?!? gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic NTSC transfer. The image boasts strong vivid colours, and a production design that takes advantage of that. There is an overall softness to the image though, detail levels could have been a tad stronger, and there is a smidge of shimmer. But contrast levels are good, and the depth of the image comes across well. One flaw that I did pick up on was a visual dropout, a missing frame at 47:46.

Sound

The film's sole audio option is a DD 2.0 Japanese track. The dialogue is clear, and there are no dropouts or distortions. It's not the most expressive sound design, but the stereo does give the film some space, and the music, though sparse, is quite idiosyncratic. You can watch the film with or without English subtitles, and they are accurately timed and free of error.

Extras

The menus follow the usual Third Windows template, in that they are animated, and the main screen offers you the choices of playing the film with, or without subtitles, a scene select screen, and a link to the extras page.

Among the extras, the most substantial is the Making Of, clocking in at 45 minutes, following the production behind the scenes as the film was shot. Candid interviews with the cast and crew are grabbed when convenient.

The Stage Show lasts 7 minutes, and in it the director introduces the scenes in his play that inspired this movie.

You get the trailer for Crime or Punishment?!?, and you get six further trailers for Third Window Films releases in another menu.

Conclusion

Crime or Punishment?!? turned out to be something of a delightful absurdity, taking the surreal visuals and characters of a Satoshi Miki film, and investing them with a darkly comic edge. The humour in Crime or Punishment?!? is quite black, while the appreciation of coincidence, fate, and sheer luck is something that instantly grabs the attention. It's just that Crime or Punishment?!? is very uneven and lacks an overall tone. It has a strong start, one that does grab the attention, but it sags in the middle, loses steam and focus, and it's only the conclusion that pulls things back together again to offer a rewarding finale. Having said that, this is the most I have laughed at an uneven film such as this in ages.


The film has a deceptive beginning, introducing us to an unprepossessing salaryman, as we follow him on a routine day, mousy, submissive, apologising his way into a convenience store where a cute girl that he is attracted to works. Only this routine day turns out to be anything but, when he's confronted by a corpse falling out of the sky, and he gets involved in an accident when he tries to call for help. This is just the key moment that links all the plot threads running through the film. The corpse is the victim of a murder in a nearby apartment building, unceremoniously pitched over a balcony. The room next door is inhabited by a gang of criminals who are plotting to rob a convenience store. And the dishevelled girl who witnessed the truck hit the poor salaryman is actually the protagonist of the film, Ayame Enjoji.


How these three plots intertwine and bounce off each other is central to the way the film develops. Ayame is already having a bad day to this point. A not altogether successful glamour model, she's already had to deal with her picture being printed upside down in a magazine, and being arrested for shoplifting when she was furiously checking through all the copies in the shop. She's been 'punished' by being made to be Chief of Police for one day, and having to deal with that, her unappreciative agent, her successful best friend Momo, and the magazine editors who don't take her complaint about the printing error seriously, is all sending her into a breakdown.


It's this fragile character who shows up the next day, thinking that she'll be a promotional image for the police, only to learn that she actually is the Chief of Police, and expected to make decisions and issue orders to the officer under her command. If this isn't enough pressure, she has to deal with her ex-boyfriend who is a police detective, and with whom she shares a dark past. On top of all this, she winds up with the murder case to deal with, and then the convenience store robbers upgrade to kidnapping as well.


It causes Ayame to re-evaluate her life, confront adversity, and take control of her destiny, to earn the respect that the police have been showing her as the temporary chief. It's a nice positive and uplifting message from the film. The problem is that the middle third of the movie, the transformative phase of Ayame's story, is bloated, wordy, and introspective, with a lot of it stuck in a repetitive loop of debate with her ex-boyfriend Haruki. It also relies a little too much on flashback, and while some of the vignettes of Ayame's past with Haruki are entertaining in their own right, they do tend to slow the pace of the story down.


Fortunately, things pick up for the finale of the film, and if you are a fan of toilet humour, this is perhaps the most hilarious part of the movie. It's not often that I laugh out loud at film comedies anymore, but Crime or Punishment?!? startled me into more than a few guffaws. I love quirky movies, and the absurd and unexpected situations in this film, along with some bizarre and wayward characters, make this a colourful and memorable such film, so much so that I find myself forgiving its undisciplined narrative and uneven pace. Crime or Punishment?!? is a rough diamond that could have used a little more polishing.