Two broken daughters, one dead family, and a friendship that might be a trap.
Shinku is a compelling drama that focuses on the strange relationship that develops between two people who find their lives irrevocably changed as a result of a horrible multiple homicide. The first person traumatized is the lone survivor of the terrible family bloodbath, a girl who grows up to be a pretty college student. The second person affected by this heinous crime is the daughter of the murderer, a young girl who ends up becoming a tattooed bartender. A full decade after the crime, the killer is finally going to be executed, and the surviving member of the massacre decides to reach out and befriend the murderer's daughter. A tentative, odd sort of friendship blossoms between these two people, both of whom seem to have little in common personally, and every reason in the world for not wanting to meet. Yet they do, but not without reservations. And really, is this friendship quite what it seems? Or is it all part of some twisted plan for vengeance?
Acting
Uchiyama and Mizukawa's restrained devastation says everything.
Direction
Tsukinoki lets silence do the screaming.
Director
Takashi Tsukinoki
Rina Uchiyama
Kanako Akiba
Asami Mizukawa
Miho Totsuka
Fumiyo Kohinata
Yukihiko Akiba
Naoto Ogata
Norio Totsuka
Asahi Uchida
Akira Nakagaki
Takashi Tsukamoto
Takumi Watanabe
Maki Horikita
Yukihiko Akiba - Young
Mitsuru Hirata
Koichi Shiina
Yoko Minamino
Jitsuko Ihara
Yoshiko Tanaka
Kayo Saiko
Yoko Shimada
Dr. Tanaka
Ichirō Ogura
Kōjirō Kusanagi
Toshie Negishi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Adapted from a novel by Honobu Yonezawa, better known for Hyouka—this is his dark twin.
The tattoo parlor setting isn't aesthetic fluff; in Japanese crime cinema, body modification often signals characters rewriting their own narratives.
JP
