Fine, with Occasional Murders Film Review

Aka - Hare tokidoki satsujin

This was very much a film to show Kadokawa’s latest Idol, Noriko Watanabe, who not only is the main actress in the film but also gets to sing the theme song. But it strikes me as a very odd Idol film with a mixture of sweetness and murder. The occasional murder, yes. Three of them and very bloody with nudity as if from an Italian Giallo. Who was the audience for this? Kadokawa had a few female Idols at the time churning out youth-oriented films like School in the Crosshairs, Sailor Suit and the Machine Gun and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, but this doesn't really fit into that narrative. The film is a nasty piece of work on one level and an oddball romance on the other. It never really adds up to anything that is believable.

Namiko Kitazato (Mitsuyo Asaka) runs a large corporation and one evening while outside at a construction site, she sees a man running away and then sees the body of a dead call girl with her clothes ripped off and a knife in her throat. She did not get a good look at the man but soon receives a call from him warning her to identify another man or her daughter Kanako (Noriko) in the United States will be killed. And photos of Kanako follow. She does as he orders and that man she identifies kills himself. She is filled with guilt but afraid to call the police and when Kaneko returns home, she confesses everything - and just as she is about to tell her daughter who she thinks the killer is - someone in her organization and circle of friends - she dies from a bad heart. Come on mom, just one more word. Nope.

It then falls on Kaneko to find out who the killer was, but she really doesn't do much of anything. The rest of the film takes place in the mother's large house with all the potential suspects coming to pay their respects. She also discovers a secret room that her mother kept - with a poster of Casablanca and photos of Bogart and Bergman. Another murder takes place with the same M.O. and the police think the killer is in the neighborhood. These two comical dimwitted cops seem to be in a different movie - but in fact the man they are looking for is in the house. When he says he is innocent, Kaneko believes him and hides him in the secret room. These mourners are a strange lot - one has put bugs in the house and been listening to everything, another tries to rape Kaneko next to the dead mother's body. The maid Marie is getting it on with all the men on the side. Finally, Kaneko does the old tried and true method of finding a killer - announce that she knows who it is and that she will tell the police tomorrow. Suddenly, the lights are off. A bit trite with dialogue that feels unreal much of the time. I was curious enough as to who the killer was to stick with this, but it wasn't easy to keep my attention.