LAST WINTER, WE PARTED

A Grisly Murder Investigation Takes Unexpected Turns

Venue(s): Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills
From March 10 (Sat), 2018 to April 5 (Thu), 2018
Language: Japanese with English subtitles.
Official website: wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/fuyu-kimi/
Theater website: hlo.tohotheater.jp/net/schedule/009/TNPI2000J01.do
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPGPY2EZFIQ


Title: 去年の冬、きみと別れ (Kyonen no Fuyu, Kimi to Wakare)
Director: Tomoyuki Takimoto (瀧本智行)
Duration: 118 min

Director Tomoyuki Takimoto (Brain Man, Grasshopper) is back with another dark tale of obsession and murder, and this time, thanks to Warner Brothers, the story unfolds with English subs.

Last Winter, We Parted is based on crime writer Fuminori Nakamura's 2013 novel of the same name, described by Goodreads as “a dark and twisting house of mirrors that philosophically explores the violence of aesthetics and the horrors of identity.” Nakamura has been compared to Osamu Dazai and Patricia Highsmith, and this work to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Hell Screen (in which a 13^th-century artist is so obsessed with his own genius that he paints his daughter’s image as she burns alive, and is driven mad in the process).

Although it drops an important subplot about a fetish-doll group, the film manages to effectively scramble the chronology and keep viewers guessing. Aspiring reporter Kyosuke Yakumo (Takanori Iwata of High and Low) begins investigating the case of murder suspect Yudai Kiharazaka (Takumi Saito, in a role that reminds us he is much more than a pretty face). Kiharazaka, a world-renowned photographer, is famous for his obsessive fascination with his models, whom he poses in unsettling ways. His latest model, a beautiful blind woman, was burned alive in his studio during a shoot, and yet, he took no photos of the crime.

Released for lack of evidence, Kiharazaka agrees to talk with Yakumo, and gives him free access to his mansion. The reporter soon realizes someone else may be involved. The case is muddied further when Kiharazaka's sister, Akari (Reina Asami), returns from abroad. Anxious to interview her, Yakumo is instead seduced by her. And how does Yakumo’s fiancé, Yuriko Matsuda (Mizuki Yamamoto of Peach Girl), figure into the tale? She seems devoted to the writer, but soon falls under Kiharazaka’s spell. And then one day, she disappears.

Among its many disturbing twists and turns, Takimoto’s film also features a terrific supporting performance by Kazuki Kitamura (Parasyte, The Scythian Lamb), as Yakumo’s editor. Curious about the reporter’s increasing obsession with the case, he probes Yakumo’s background and discovers that no one of that name officially exists…

Photos: ©2018”Last Winter, We Parted”Film Partners

Toho Cinemas Roppongi