![]() ![]() ![]() As Memoirs of a murderer progresses, the spectator captured by his wish to know, some surprising and some less surprising twists are introduced. But eventually the spectator’s position begins to overlap somewhat with the enjoying position of the public the spectator being driven by the same enjoyable wish to know. The perverse pleasure that the media and the public derives from Sonezaki, as the one who went beyond the law, is very sensibly brought to the fore in the narrative and becomes even slightly disturbing for the spectator. A collective interest that, for the victims, constitutes a repeating confrontation with the impact of the trauma, but also enables them, as Sonezaki drapes himself with the image of the murderer, to orient their anger, an anger that could not be oriented for twenty-two years (Psycho-note 1). The narrative shows the perverse collective interest of the public into those people who went beyond the law to enjoy themselves. The importance of his ego is furthermore underlined by the “I” in the title of the book, the “I” as being the one who takes up the image of murderer.įor the greater part of the narrative, Memoirs of a murderer concerns the enjoyment beyond the law as well as the enjoyment the media and the public finds in the enjoyment beyond the law. The conference, a true show for his ego, ridicules the police and media and glorifies his deeds. When Sonezaki first appears on the stage, it is already apparent, that despite his vocalized reason to find retribution with his publication, the prime reason of his coming-out is enjoyment and to reap the glory for the murders he can’t be tried for. But then Toshio Sendo (Toru Nakamura) raises doubts concerning the veracity of Sonezaki’s account (Narra-note 2). Detective Makimura (Hideaki Ito), who investigated the string of strangulations as his first murder case, feels powerless. ![]() As the strangler’s last crime happened just before the changes in the criminal law took effect, he appears to have evaded punishment for his crimes. He announces to reveal the truth of the murders once and for all in his confessional book, “I am the murderer”. Seventeen years later and twenty two years after the killings happened, Masato Sonezaki (Tatsuya Fujiwara), the Tokyo strangler organizes an elaborate press conference. In the very same year, the Japanese government revises the statute of limitations, eliminating the statute of limitations for capital offences (narra-note 1). In 2010, after fifteen years of unsuccessful investigating, the case of Tokyo’s serial strangler gets closed. While the plot is virtually unchanged, can Yu Irie make this narrative as exciting as the original was? Yu Irie, known for 8000 miles (2009), Hibi Rock (2014), is no stranger to the suspense genre, as he directed the popular suspense film “Joker Game” (2015), which won the Fan Grand Prize of the Nikkan Sports Film Award. It was so successful that Robot Communications decided to make a Japanese remake, with Yu Irie as director. When Jung Byung-gil released his first mainstream feature confession of murder, he probably never expected his movie to become so popular and that it would become an award-winning movie – it won the thriller competition of the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival for instance. “As long as one doesn’t expect to find any deep psychological truths on the nature of the serial killer in the narrative or a deep character study of a murderer as such, proves to be as thrilling and satisfying as the original was.” ![]()
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