ThiefHott Too much of everything

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Armand if it not becomes boring.a French writer in Japan. in search of a ghost. a meeting. adventures. and a confuse chain of events. the story is beautiful and the cast is nice. but not Benoit Magimel or Lika Minamoto can save the film. it remains a mixture of Hollywood crumbs and Oriental atmosphere. drawing of thriller with few drops of erotic scenes. and the end can impress at first view. like a magic of clown. but it is not really credible and seems be a kind of Pulp Fiction copy. full of good intentions, its ambitions are too great. it is not really a sin. but the game with delicate ingredients for a story with beautiful air but without a real subject is not base for success. only for a sparkle.

Phil I'm not sure why this film was made, every character is bland and the actors are either talentless or badly directed, everything is by the numbers; dream sequences, an incredibly obvious twist, no social commentary and no examination of morals or motives. Don't expect anything particularly Japanese or French, this is as bland as anything out of Hollywood, it only inspires confusion and frustration. Like many movies made about writers this is full of awful writing, it should have been two intelligent complex characters matching wits, subtly probing, dropping taunting elusive clues. Instead it is one barely competent adversary foiling a totally moronic protagonist while dropping unambiguous proof and lucking into foiling the one able character who is then perfunctorily killed.

Claudio Carvalho The writer and college professor Alexandre Fayard (Benoit Magimel) studies and gives lectures about the gruesome literary work of the mysterious Japanese writer Shundei Oe that is considered by him the master of manipulation. In his underground detective novels, evil always prevails and Shundei Oe has never allowed anyone to see his face, and his only image available is a frightening picture on the back of his best-sellers. Alex travels to Kyoto to promote his successful detective story that follows the same style of the Shundei Oe but with a positive message instead and meets his publisher Ken Honda from the publishing house Hakubunkan. While in an interview in a TV show, Alex receives a phone call from Shundei Oe that advises him to return to Paris, and Alex believes it is a marketing strategy of Ken. Then Alex and Ken go to a tea house where he meets the Masochist geisha Tamao (Minamoto Lika), and Alex has a crush on her. Tamao discloses to Alex that she knows Shundei Oe and his real name is Hichiro Irata; further they were lovers when she rejected his proposal many years ago. From this moment on, Hichiro Irata loathed her and vanished. When she got pregnant of the wealthy and powerful business man Ryuji Mogi (Ryo Ishibashi), Shundei Oe returned and stalked her. Alex decides to help Tamao and Ryuji Mogi against the menace of the deranged writer, and his mind is blurred between fiction and reality in dreadful nightmares."Inju, La Bête Dans L'Ombre" is flawed, but also mysterious and intriguing. The story is supported by good screenplay with murders and twists, direction and performances and a wonderful cinematography. Unfortunately there are very few characters and based on the explanation of Alex that Shundei Oe would be the master of manipulation, I could predict the identity of the bleak writer that recalled the unforgettable conclusion of "Body Heat". Nevertheless this movie is engaging and highly recommended. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Inju, O Despertar da Besta" ("Inju, The Awakening of the Beast")

Harry T. Yung (brief report from the Toronto International Film festival) Despite the teaser on Internet, "Inju" turns out to be a somewhat mainstream mystery thriller except for maybe a little bit of kinky stuff that ranges from pretty standard to outrageously hilarious. If you have seen enough mystery thrillers, you'll probably guess the final twist before the end, although how soon you get it depends on how much of a veteran of this genre you are.The plot has some elements of interest. Top Japanese thriller writer Shundei Oe who leans heavily on the dark side has steadfastly refused to review his identity, showing on his books only an ominously drawn self-portrait. A keen follower of Oe's work, French newcomer Alex Fayard surpasses his idol with his own work which, when translated into Japanese, breaks Oe's sale record, the first time any author has done it in 10 years. As a promotion gimmick, he is invited to go to Japan to meet Oe, even though the publishers still haven't quite figured out how to find this mysterious author. Then as always, a woman comes into all these, a bewitching and seductive geisha who get entangled with both authors.As mentioned, this is a somewhat mainstream thriller, without playing up the pseudo psychological side – a wise choice, making the movie simple and enjoyable rather than tediously pretentious. Event-driven and clue-seeking under a formulaic structure, the movie takes the audience down a predictable path of mild thrills and occasional laughs (many quite unintentional). The ending twist will not exactly extract a gasp from a seasoned thriller audience. There is no need to rush to the cinemas. A DVD will do nicely.