This is one of those movies that is better watching it the second time than the first time. The first time, I honestly hated the movie and the pacing was awful and a bit of a torture. It definitely requires a lot of patience, focus and investment. The second time, it goes by a lot faster and is more interesting.
The reason is watching it the first time, it is an absolute bore/slow/mundane just seeing the guy interview people and all you wonder to yourself the entire time is why you should even care about these people. The interviews itself is really not even exciting or interesting either unless you know the ending.
I agree with the other reviews that it takes too long for the payoff. I thought the twist was predictable, but if you watch it the second time, the beginning boring mundane scenes are what becomes more interesting to watch.
You also pick up little detail symbolic clues like the wreath in the murder home and coffee shop; I wondered why the camera would pan in a weird framing shot to show emphasis on the wreath. There's a lot of symbolic scenes that make you interpret and think instead of how Hollywood directly shows it in your face (instead of directly showing sex, the multiple hands that look like something from a horror movie; you feel trauma and disgust of what the character went through)
Watching it the first time, it can be very confusing to follow the characters/names because the actors also end up looking quite different/hairstyle of themselves being interviewed from their past time.
Natsuhara, is the rich perfect beautiful girl everyone wishes they could be. One of the movie's theme really deals with how society treats people based on their family background, status, sorority groups and some evil things people end up doing just to fit in.
Hikari Mitsushima, playing Mitsuko, definitely steals the show here. She really delivered a genuinely convincing poor abused mental character.
I think the movie would have been better if the pacing was refined more. The movie could have been half the length and still tell the same story. However, if you have the patience and focus and into psychological thrillers, you'll find it intriguing, especially viewing it the second time.
I don't think the twist was a major shock or had that huge impact as when I saw the Korean movie "Oldboy", but the movie is really dark and depressing the more you think about it.
Although the plot is entirely different, the pacing and main character/behavior of movie reminds me of a lot of the American movie called "The Drop" (2014) with Tom Hardy. (so if you enjoyed this movie, I would recommend that)
