lasttimeisaw Prolific Japanese filmmaker Yoshitarô Nomura's THE CASTLE OF SAND is the first screen adaptation of Seichô Matsumoto's popular novel INSPECTOR IMANISHI INVESTIGATES, it starts out as a diligent police procedural investigating a mysterious murder of an elderly man Miki in Tokyo by two detectives, Imanish (a phlegmatic and conscientious Tanba) and his younger, hot-blooded colleague Yoshimura (Morita). Nomura pulls no punch in detailing the circumstantial process of tracking down probable leads out of niggardly clues: the dead man's provincial accent and a word which can be either construed as a name or a place. It requires much legwork and fast-train commute, but often leads to a cul-de-sac, only when the victim's stepson comes to Tokyo to identify the body and with the help from a phonetic expert, the investigation finally veers onto the right track, but another conundrum ensues, Miki was a retired police officer in a remote rural town, and his reputation is impeccably saintly, no one can figure out any reason why someone wants to rub him out. As usual, the devil is in the details, the linchpin of the is boiled down to an abrupt decision which make Miki alter his original shrine-gallivanting route to visit Tokyo, a city he has no connections with. By the time the film reaches this stage, Nomura has officially shunted this whodunit to a whydunit, by introducing a young pianist Eiryo Waga (Gô Katô), whose star is on the rise but indubitably is the culprit as it turns out that Reiko (Shimada), his paramour, is the one who helps him discard his blood-stained shirt. Further compounding the situation is that Reiko is pregnant with his child and decides to raise the baby on her own against Eiryo's insistence on abortion, which clearly will hinder Eiryo's propitious union with Sachiko (Yamaguchi), the daughter of the Ex-Finance Minister (Saburi). But this subplot stops short with an offhand miscarriage. So the remaining task is to piece together the linkage between Eiryo and Miki, and the film's strength is hinged on whether the motive is cogent enough to fall in with the story. A lyrical flashback, frequentely accentuated by DP Kawamata's tourist-luring propensity for zooming-out, of Eiryo's childhood nearly 30 years ago, whose really name is Hideo Motoura (Karuta), how his peripatetic scrounging days with his leprosy-afflicted father (Yoshi Katô) has a short confluence with a young Miki (Ogata), which predestines the future tragedy, pans out concurrently with the diegetic symphonic accompaniment which Eiryo virtuously performs on the stage with a full orchestra in front of a full-house audience, the piece is befittingly christened Destiny, which is sonorously composed by Mitsuaki Kanno. Gô Katô dexterously contrives the crescendo with flying colors, but digressing back to the "motive" sticking point, it is hard to condone that Eiryo would cold-bloodedly resort to murder, especially to someone with only good intentions, just because he doesn't want to acknowledge his buried past, plus the reason why he is desperate to hide it is less expounded as well, apart from the prejudice of leprosy. Whilst Nomura flags up the indivisible blood tie and makes heavy weather of the lachrymose father-son separation, it only recoils on itself when all Eiryo refuses to commit is a belated reunion, and if we contextualize the story in its time, one may uncomfortably apprehend that the plot could be Nomura's disguised plea to urge Japan's post-WWII youth to forgive the militaristic past of their father's generation, which materializes as a dangerous signal undercuts the film's otherwise commendable artistry, history should not be forgotten, lest we are so inclined to make the same mistake ad nauseam.

poikkeus CASTLE OF SAND is an engrossing, laid-back police procedural that captures your attention even when the plot seems fairly ordinary. A Tokyo cop (Tetsuro Tamba) is troubled when a retired cop is found brutally murdered, with no evidence save the vague recollections of a few townsfolk. At times, the story is reminiscent of a regional travelogue, but in learning more about Japan, Tamba hones in on a small set of likely suspects, but everyone is so agreeable that uncovering the truth becomes like rooting out the one hidden evidence of violence in a sea of potential data. Regrettably, the film unravels in the final forty or so minutes, when the remainder of the story is told with musical accompaniment of a famous pianist. The plot becomes frankly loses credibility and even becomes rather nonsensical. The movie changes mood and style, and dripping with melodrama.

simonize-1 This film CASTLE OF SAND expands on genre conventions and is cinematic in the best sense. YOSHITARO NOMURA takes what was presumably a best selling novel in Japan, and creates a fascinating mystery with all the requisites: the pairing of a veteran and a rookie detective; a murder with a minimum of clues; an unidentified victim; a journey of discovery for both detectives when the investigation seems to have come to a dead end; the seemingly arbitrary introduction of a key figure on which much hinges, and so forth. The director tells a story with voice overs and the requisite dialogue but as often as not his camera tells the story.I have seen any number of Japanese films in my 50 plus years, but I still felt I was undergoing the journey and the search that the two detectives take, through the rural regions of Japan that are in stark contrast to their operating base, Tokyo. The story has elements that take it beyond the realms of the mystery and police procedure genres, and the conclusion is worthy of the time the director has spent in weaving his tragic tale. The film is now available on DVD via Panorama; it is in the original Japanese with Chinese and English subtitles. It is a SINGLE LAYER DISK, LETTERBOXED and in STEREO, which is paramount because music is central to the whole affair. Unfortunately my copy had a sequence when the senior detective is addressing his colleagues and no subtitling is provided (you simply see the same line for an awkward length of time). However the viewer should be able to extrapolate what has been said. All in all, a film and DVD worth seeking out!

noirfilm At first, I thought this was going to be a standard murder-mystery story. A police detective doggedly pursues slim clues all over the map to find a murderer. However, when the events which led up to the crime are revealed through flashbacks, the story takes an emotional turn which even brings tears to the detective's eyes. Like most Japanese movies, it starts slowly but comes alive at the end. I recommend it.