113rd directorial credit for Takashi Miike (he actually already has two more after this), “Lumberjack the Monster” is based on the homonymous 2019 Mayusuke Kurai novel, was released widely in Japan December 1, and is now available on Netflix.
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The rather labyrinthic story unfolds as such. The initial scene shows a raid inside the house of a woman, who turns out she was doing experiments on children she had abducted. Before she is arrested, she kills herself in front of her latest ‘specimen’. The next scene introduce us to lawyer Akira Ninomiya, who is soon revealed to be a psychopath killer, a capacity that grows more intense as the movie unfolds. His only friend, if someone can deem him so, is Dr Kuro Sugitani, another psychopath who acknowledges both himself as one and Ninomiya, and is actually a champion of the complete lack of ethics regarding medical research.
As the main arc of the movie begins, a series of murders where the victims have their brains removed has put the police on alarm. Profiler Ranko Toshiro is a key member of the research, while Inui, a detective, is troubled by his violent past involving one of the persons of interest in this case, Takeshi Kenmochi. At one point, Ninomiya is suddenly attacked by someone in a Lumberjack the Monster mask. The lawyer barely survives, but upon the hospital exams, he learns that he has a microchip implanted in his brain. The more the plot thickens, the more the different stories and characters are revealed as common parts of something bigger.
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Takashi Miike and Hiroyoshi Koiwai (as much as the original story) take inspiration from the anime/manga “Monster” while the “loans” from the director’s own “Lesson of Evil” are also spread throughout the movie. The case, however, is quite intriguing, with its many arcs, even with some plot holes here and there, resulting in a mystery/horror film with much appeal.
This trait can be placed on both the script and the overall characterization, which, in itself, benefits the most by the acting. Truth be told, Kazuya Kamenashi does look too ‘polished’ on occasion, but the same does not apply to the rest, who do portray their characters in rather intriguing fashion. Nanao as the profiler Ranko Toshiro follows the smart, weird and sexy archetype to perfection, Shota Sometani as Sugita is an impressive sociopath, Shido Nakamura as Kenmochi plays the rough and tough with gusto, while Kiyohiko Shibukawa gives another show-stealing performance as the problematic detective Inui.
Furthermore, the twists work relatively well, even if the story does go too far on occasion, while the production values are also on a high level. Particularly the artificiality of some sets looks and functions excellently, essentially mirroring the sociopathic mentality of many of the protagonists. The action scenes are definitely well done, occasionally including a noirish essence, while Miike has included enough grotesqueness to both appeal to fans of gore and not to alienate those who cannot handle violence on their movies. All in all, Nobuyasu Kita’s cinematography is top notch, while Naoichiro Sagara’s editing results in a fast pace that suits the overall aesthetics to perfection.
There is, however, a significant issue with the film. And that is that, although quite well done, there is nothing truly original here, resulting in too much of ‘seen this done that’ throughout the movie. This aspect is what brings the whole thing down, as “Lumberjack the Monster” will offer entertainment aplenty particularly to fans of action thrillers, but will be forgotten soon also, as there are many similar films out there, that are also better, with Miike actually being responsible for a number of them.
