Jûzô Murasaki is a boy miscast in his classroom, being frequently abused, tortured, beaten and humiliated by the bully Tôru Akai and his gang of juvenile punks. After years of repression, rejection and fear without facing Akai, he develops a psychopathic dual personality with a violent alter-ego. While living in the apartment 13 of a tenement building, he becomes unable to control his violent dark personality, who plots an evil revenge against his upper floor neighbor Akai and his family.
I am a great fan of Asian movies and I found "Rinjin 13-gô" a hidden gem, developing a dark, gruesome and surrealistic psychological thriller of repressed hatred and revenge combined with horror. The screenplay follows the usual patterns of Asian horror movies, with a plot point in the very end, and the viewer must use his or her brain to understand the whole plot. I believe this is the greatest quality of screenplay writers and directors of this genre in Asia. I note that people accustomed to watch blockbusters and American movies only seem to have difficulties to properly understand the intelligent Asian screenplays. In this film, all the adult situations only have happened in the mind of the young Jûzô Murasaki, and when he faces the bully Tôru Akai, he resolves all his inner problems and the time-line will never happen the way it is disclosed in the film. Therefore, the screenplay is absolutely original and I do not recall seeing any similar story. In addition, the movie is stylishly shot, with unusual angle of camera and a nice cinematography. The actors and actress have great performances and there is a cult cameo appearance of the director Takashi Miike in homage to the promising Yasuo Inoue. My advice to the movie lovers is to keep his name in the pocket, since his debut could not be better. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Ódio" ("Hate")
I am a great fan of Asian movies and I found "Rinjin 13-gô" a hidden gem, developing a dark, gruesome and surrealistic psychological thriller of repressed hatred and revenge combined with horror. The screenplay follows the usual patterns of Asian horror movies, with a plot point in the very end, and the viewer must use his or her brain to understand the whole plot. I believe this is the greatest quality of screenplay writers and directors of this genre in Asia. I note that people accustomed to watch blockbusters and American movies only seem to have difficulties to properly understand the intelligent Asian screenplays. In this film, all the adult situations only have happened in the mind of the young Jûzô Murasaki, and when he faces the bully Tôru Akai, he resolves all his inner problems and the time-line will never happen the way it is disclosed in the film. Therefore, the screenplay is absolutely original and I do not recall seeing any similar story. In addition, the movie is stylishly shot, with unusual angle of camera and a nice cinematography. The actors and actress have great performances and there is a cult cameo appearance of the director Takashi Miike in homage to the promising Yasuo Inoue. My advice to the movie lovers is to keep his name in the pocket, since his debut could not be better. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Ódio" ("Hate")