Review: BLACK KISS tries to be too many things at the same time and, naturally, fails because of its schyzophrenic approach (and muddled script). However, the manner of its failure is somewhat interesting and makes for a fine viewing experience. It opens with several in-your-face Hitchcockian references: the characters go to a club called VERTIGO and the first murder takes place in BAT'S HOTEL (instead of BATES MOTEL). Asuka witnesses the murder peeping through her (rear?) window in a scene that is quintessentially Hitchcockian, but which also recalls his disciples, Argento and de Palma. The killer herself looks like Argento's leather-clad psycho who's at the same time an SM dominatrix with a fetish for (Batman's) Cat-woman. Thrown into the mix are photographs which, when enlarged, add new pieces to the puzzle (another Argento touch) and outrageously gruesome murders – shown not as Argentoesque set-pieces, but mostly in their aftermath, more akin to SE7EN. The director even goes so far to steal the famous jump-scare from SE7EN (when a 'corpse' is suddenly re-animated for one last gasp), but in this instance it feels just like a cheap (and unconvincing) trick, since the corpse in question is actually a torso cut up so badly there's no way in Hell it could live long enough for this brief resurrection.

Logic is thrown out of the rear window, but that's to be expected from someone inspired by Hitchcock filtered through sensibilities of Argento and de Palma. Old Hitch always claimed that his ideal film was not a 'slice of life', but compared it to a cake from which all boring parts are deleted. BLACK KISS, however, is a cake with too many layers of cream and sugarcoating for it to be edible: it's like one of those artificially colored cakes which are nice to look at, but are not nearly as tasty. The film is all over the place, lacking unity of tone and purpose: it opens with a strong sex scene more at home in a pinku flick, but its sensuality is irrelevant for the scene and is never returned to. The opening murder suggests a splatter, but later scenes lack gore and are beautified so much that any sense of gruesomeness is entirely lost: corpses are turned into mannequins and teddy-bear toys. From its pinku start and splatter opening it continues with a lot of drama, then goes into mild, un-thrilling thriller, then some more drama, sprinkled with an occasional, brief horror of new-found corpses of irrelevant side-characters.

Essentially, BLACK KISS lacks discipline: it is too inconsistent to work as either horror, thriller or drama, because horror loses its edge when its promising premise is treated as an intrusion into a quirky drama-thriller. It feels almost out of place and is dilluted by the disproportion that drama gets. On the other hand, both drama and thriller are pointless since there are no real characters in this stew: they are either empty cliches (like the bland aspiring model Asuka, poorly acted by Reika Hashimoto) or they remain enigmas until the very end, like Kasumi. It must be said that the latter at least shows signs of promise due to exquisite features and body language of Kaori Kawamura, who perfectly embodies someone who's been around and tasted some of the bitterness of life. However, even these two are lost for a long while during the dead-end police procedural subplot, particularly with an insecure detective's pursuit of psycho-cult leads. The same can be said for the thankless role of the paparazzo: Masanobu Ando (memorable as Kiriyama from BATTLE ROYALE) is practically wasted as a two-dimensional red herring in the silly excuse for a plot.

The director, Makoto Tezuka, is the son of Osamu Tezuka, a legend of Japanese animation thanks to titles like ASTRO BOY and KIMBA THE WHITE LION. Tezuka Jr. has yet to fill his father's shoes: in his previous film, HAKUCHI THE IDIOT (1999), he has already expressed a tendency towards rambling, over-long, self-indulgent exercises in style, unsupported by any real substance or coherence, and BLACK KISS is all that, too. Tezuka has a good eye for visuals, and his films are a joy to watch: however, his lack of interest for storytelling or rhythm is a serious deficiency. You cannot but be mad when, after 2 hours and 10 minutes, you reach what must be one of the most frustrating 'revelations' in any Japanese horror/thriller I can think of. I won't spoil it for you, but will only say that, once the killer's identity and motives are revealed (or are they?), little if anything in the preceeding plot makes any sense. With all this in mind, BLACK KISS remains a mixture of occasionally interesting parts which never coalesce into a meaningful or at least effective whole – watchable, but unremarkable, except for its flamboyant style.