Museum is an underappreciated gem from the director of the live action Rurouni Kenshin movies.

 

For today's post, I wanted to take a look at what I feel is an underappreciated gem of a movie. Based on a manga by Ryosuke Tomoe, directed by Keishi Otomo and starring Shun Oguri, it's the 2016 crime thriller, Museum! Keishi Otomo of course is the director behind the Rurouni Kenshin series of live action movies and Shun Oguri is one of the best actors of his generation. These two combined with a stellar supporting cast created magic in 2016, let's take a look, shall we?  

Museum's plot follows detective Hisashi Sawamura, a man extremely dedicated to the job. Unfortunately, being a brilliant detective has cost Sawamura his family as his wife takes their son and leaves him behind. Due to this, the stress has caused him to become a wreck, his home is a mess, and he barely sleeps. To add onto his misery, a serial killer emerges with a series of brutal murders happening during heavy rain. Some investigation proves that the killings are done in a ritualistic fashion as some sort of punishment for misdeeds and that the victims all share one thing in common. All of the victims were members of the jury that preceded over a homicide case three years ago. One of the jury members just so happened to be Sawamura's wife and thus, she is in grave danger of becoming a victim of the serial murderer. To make things even worse, the killer wearing a frog-like mask and a heavy trench coat appears before Hisashi and taunts him as he always seems to be one step ahead. Naturally, Hisashi pursues the killer and already being broken, falls further down into the depths of despair. 

The cat and mouse game we are presented with in Museum is incredibly compelling. Sawamura is a very intelligent detective and often appears to figure things out rather quickly, however, he's always so close and yet so far when it comes to this particular case. The killer is also very smart and manages to outwit the police chasing him numerous times and gets the better of Sawamura more than once. This serves to drive the downward spiral that Hisashi is going through as well as indicate that the murderer is a big threat and not some ordinary criminal. 

The murders whilst brutal and grotesque, are never explicitly shown on screen. The descriptions stated by the detectives are more than enough to get hints of just how twisted some of them truly are. We do, however, see some of the aftermath with mutilated bodies etc. It's quite tasteful as it's not an overkill of gore, it's rather palatable for those with a weak stomach. 

The cinematography done by Hideo Yamamoto, creates a near constant sense of unrest and tension in the air. Adding to this is the bleak colours, near constant rain and the environment itself, especially in the final stretch of the movie. 

There's also a car chase and some shootings along with the foot chases. None of them get Hollywood levels of absurd except maybe the number of times a car flips over after a collision. The result is acceptable though as the driver of the vehicle is rendered practically helpless. The shootings themself are a little theatrical but help serve the story and the performances of the actors carry them. 

Keishi Otomo has proven to be a quality director and this movie adds to his legacy thanks to his competency and dynamic use of a variety of shots to help bring the compelling narrative to life. Without Otomo at the helm, this could have ended up as a run of the mill crime thriller, a fact that I'm grateful didn't happen. 

What helps this movie stand out amongst its peers the most is the performance of leading man, Shun Oguri. In what should be a career defining performance, he brought the wreck that is detective Hisashi Sawamura life. He brought an incredible amount of varied emotion to the very difficult role, something he thrives on if you look at his body of work. 

I also have to single out Satoshi Tsumabaki who did an amazing job portraying the killer. He was unrecognizable and never came across as being too overly dramatic or over the top. His acting hit that sweet spot and he delivered some great disturbing dialogue. Comparatively speaking, he made a much more convincing killer than Fukase in Character in terms of his physicality. 

Machiko Ono did a splendid job as Haruka Sawamura, Hisashi's wife. She brought a great range of emotion to the role and really sold me on her feelings of neglect, agony and hopelessness. Yutaka Matsushige, Nao Omori, Tomomi Maruyama and Shuhei Nomura all put in mature performances as expected to round out the supporting cast. 

Overall, Museum is a solid, underrated crime thriller with a brilliant cast, competent direction and a compelling narrative. It's easy for me to recommend to any readers as I truly believe it's worth the watch for Shun Oguri's performance alone!