Lumberjack the Monster is a 2023 Japanese horror film directed by Takashi Miike, and the cast includes Kazuya Kamenashi, Nanao, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Shido Nakamura, Riho Yoshioka and Shota Sometani.
Takashi Miike is known for his intense and controversial films like Audition and Ichi the Killer and famous for his extreme use of violence and gore, and being a fan of his, I was really looking forward to watching Lumberjack The Monster on Netflix.
The movie follows lawyer Akira Ninomiya (Kazuya Kamenashi), a ruthless man who will go to any lengths to get what he wants, with the help of his friend, Kuro Sutigani (Shota Sometani), a creepy doctor who experiments on unwilling patients.
Their psychopathic lives are disrupted when a serial killer known as The Brain Thief attacks Akira, trying to steal his brain but failing. Akira then wakes up in the hospital to find a mysterious neurochip in his head that gives him unexpected emotions.
Lumberjack The Monster maintains a surprisingly serious and suspenseful tone throughout, which stands in stark contrast to its outlandish and bizarre plot, and from the very beginning, the film pulls you into a world that seems grounded in a gritty, noir-like atmosphere, with a protagonist whose cold, calculating nature is meant to evoke a sense of unease.
The strange blend of absurdity and suspense can feel jarring at times, and the narrative’s attempt to balance Akira’s psychological transformation with the intense action sequences doesn’t always come across as smoothly as it could.
It leaves you questioning whether the emotional depth the film strives for can coexist with the relentless action and violence, but it’s an ambitious attempt, as Akira’s emotional journey pushes the story forward and adds a layer of complexity to the film's otherwise chaotic premise.
At times, the film comes across as a sleek, dark police drama, but it feels more like a TV show than something distinctive and the latter part of the film attempts to explore deep themes like monstrosity and human connections but ends up weighed down by too much explanation.
Instead of letting the themes emerge naturally through the characters’ actions and interactions, the film spends too much time explaining these ideas in long, drawn-out dialogues and monologues, and the more the characters attempt to articulate their emotional and philosophical dilemmas, the less effective the film becomes in portraying them authentically.
By trying to explain too much, the film just loses its edge and fails to fully embrace either a disturbing horror or a serious psychological exploration, and the overly dramatic conversations can be a bit confusing too, leaving you unsure if the dialogue should be taken seriously or not.
The twists in the film are quite effective though, and the production quality is high, and the action scenes being pretty well executed, and Miike balances gore in a way that satisfies without turning away those who prefer less violence.
But, despite some positives and things to like, the bottom line is that it really doesn’t offer anything truly new and it feels too familiar, and is a film that I think will be quickly forgotten and certainly not one of Miike's best offerings.
Overall, Lumberjack The Monster is a mixed bag really, and while it’s got the Miike touch, it never quite comes together in the way you want it to and you are left wondering and asking whether it was as good as it could have been?
And the answer, unfortunately, is probably not.
It's worth a watch, but don't go in with high expectations.
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