Faceless - A Critical Acclaimed Movie Based on Hit Novel Which Sadly did not Truly Resonate with Me as Casual Audience

Like any other Friday, I was looking forward to new film released on Netflix. Yesterday it was a Japanese 2024 movie which looked interesting from its synopsis. So after doing my usual things after work, I immediately watched this. OK I'll just get on with it then.

Brief Story Line

Keiichi Kaburagi (Ryusei Yokohama - Usogui, Cursed in Love TV series etc) was a convicted criminal who escaped from prison and tried to hide himself while looking for ways to find proof of his innocence. He was being pursued by Detective Matanuki (Takayuki Yamada - Land of Tanabata TV series, The Naked Director TV series etc) who was being pushed by his superiors to capture Kaburagi urgently as it became national headline.

During his run, Kaburagi became close with few people like construction worker Kazuya (Shintaro Morimoto - Snow Prince, Passion for Punchlines TV series etc), journalist Sayaka Ando (Riho Yoshioka - House of Ninjas TV series, Lumberjack the Monster etc) and home care staff Mai (Anna Yamada - Golden Kamuy, Teen Regime TV series etc) who did not realized about him. 

So what would happen to Kaburagi and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

When I read the synopsis from Netflix, I was under the impression that this would be a thrilling full action movie of man on the run. But turned out it was different from my expectation. The film did focus on the lead character Kaburagi's attempt to escape from police chase while trying to clear his name, but the emphasis was more on the dramatic condition he was in and how he became acquianted and close to the people he met. There was no action at all and the investigation did not take too much screen time. Even the pursue by the police was not that suspenseful (including the climax).

The story itself while interesting felt a bit confusing at first, especially when it was unclear when some of the scenes occurred. After a while though, I finally understood the timeline which helped me enjoy it better. The movie also had a long duration of around 2 hours. It did not have any mid or post end credit scene, but you could watch the closing credits while listening to the nice song playing in the background. Sadly I could not find out the title or the singer as all the credits were in Japanese. 

Anyway, the movie was apparently based on novel written by Somei Tamehito titled Shotai which is the original title of this film in Japanese. It was directed by Michihito Fujii (The Journalist, 18 x 2 Beyond Youtful Days etc) who was also credited as screenwriter together with Kazuhisa Kotera (Missing, An Innocent Beat etc). Oh one thing that I felt when watching this was strong TV Movie vibe. However when I checked on the movie database, it did have small box office result when it was released in Japan and Taiwan in 2024. So I guess it was just my feeling. On separate note, when I was looking for this movie information, I noticed that there was a 4 episodes TV series with same title and plot back in 2022. Hence this should be the second adaptation of that novel.

The cast in general were pretty decent with best credit to my personal opinion should be given to the make-up department who were able to transform Ryusei Yokohama's appearances. I also found out that Shintaro Morimoto and Anna Yamada were among best newcomer in the 48th Japan Academy Film Prize where this film was nominated for other prestigious prizes including Best Film, Director, Lead Actor and others. Overall it received an amazing 13 nominations in various categories which would explain why Netflix acquired the rights to distribute this movie through streaming.

Overall I have no doubt that this movie was wonderful in the eyes of critics as proven by the numerous awards nomination. However, as casual audience, I personally felt the film did not exactly resonate with me. Usually when the reality did not match with my expectation, I could still enjoy it. But this time it did not do well for me. I found it not that thrilling, lack real intensity in the chasing, confusing at the beginning and the mystery was not dived deeply enough with too much empasis on the drama but somehow did not feel emotional. I did like the conclusion of this film and I also like Morimoto's characterization here. So if you are a fan of a highly regarded movie by critics with plot such as this, then you would like it a lot. However if you expect suspenseful and intense cat and mouse chase plot, then this might not be satisfying. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars