Product Details

• Actors: Takashi Miike
• Directors: Takashi Miike
• Format: Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Cantonese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Tokyo Shock
• DVD Release Date: May 19, 2009
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001UNSZ9O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,864 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Detective Story" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

DETECTIVE STORY - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Nightmare is in the Paradise..and Insanity is IN.Sanity, May 19, 2009

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Woopak "The THRILL" (Where Dark Asian Knights Dwell) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detective Story (DVD)

Controversial Japanese director Takashi Miike has been known in the U.S. as a master of horror, a title he has earned. This man has been hailed as one of the best directors of this age, even by Tarantino. I've always seen Miike as one of the most versatile directors around, he has given the Japanese movie-going public "kid-flicks", Japanese comic book adaptations, gritty and violent Yakuza stories, and films of disquieting horror. "DETECTIVE STORY" (aka. Tantei Monogatari, 2007) is a comedic mystery; quite bizarre but all the more disquieting with its premise, the film looks to be a welcome return to the stuff which made Miike famous in America; gore and crazy death scenes.

Raita Takashima (Kuroudo Maki) is a businessman who just moved in an old apartment building where his next door neighbor is another guy named Raita Kazama (Kazuya Nakayama). But as a private eye, the other Raita's life is way different from a businessman's lifestyle. One night, in the beginning of a bizarre series of murders, one of the private detective's potential clients is murdered and has her liver removed. The following victim has her kidneys removed, the next one is found dead missing her lungs. Kazama is accused as the one behind the killings, and must now follow the clues to find the true killer with the aid of Takashima. A very sinister secret is poised to shock the two Raitas as this serial killer is an eccentric painter bent on creating an `immortal' work of art.

"Detective Story" has a premise with potential, the film has the usual Miike signature of gruesome death scenes but curiously it seemed mild compared to his other films. Some of the gore scenes are "fogged" in the film's first half, as to emulate a little `censorship' but then the gore becomes more graphic near the climax. Yes, there are severed fingers, processed human organs, disemboweled body parts and a very creepy guy in a mask with maggots all over his arm. This guy's relationship to Kazama may feel reminiscent to Edward Norton's relationship to Hannibal Lecter in "Red Dragon", but the film doesn't really focus their relationship.

Much of the film's focus is the investigation sequences by Kazama who proves to be a bumbling detective. There are a lot of comedic touches as our clumsy private eye goes through his antics, some are funny while some are definitely a little heavy-handed. I thought actor Kazuya Nakayama's performance was a little too "cartoonish" and I did feel a slight disconnection to his characterization. Kuruodo Maki's Takashima is also a little goofy as he spends a lot of time staring at Kazama's assistant, Mika...Miike does know how to pick his female performers; the Japanese actresses looked positively sexy in a very innocent way. (too bad there is very little nudity) The child who played Miho does steal the show that I couldn't help feeling sympathy for her.

The story does have its credibility as Miike does set the plot's groundwork, and everything does add up in a manner similar to other suspense thrillers. The film's main concept does pitch in some discomfort from his audience as it deals with psychological child abuse, vanity and imbalanced psyche. The character of Yuki Aoyama does feel unsettling but the actual revelation feels a little too forced. I guess it is because the film is a comedy, that any visceral impact in its narrative seems a little lost after all the humorous scenes pitched in.

I have mixed feelings about this film. I may have to say that I am surprised that I didn't really enjoy this one film by Miike. I suppose one has to be in the proper mindset to enjoy this film, and while it is clearly a comedy, I thought it could have done better as a solid thriller. The blood and violence was very mild compared to his other films, and the death scenes offers very little in the way of becoming fresh. The final scene did make scratch my head, and I couldn't help snickering. I guess I was expecting a more put together film for a film by Takashi Miike--this film is a Hoot!

Rental [2 ½ Stars]

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Miike Does Giallo??, April 3, 2010

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Captain Insanity "Horror Happy Hour" (NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detective Story (DVD)

Every time I watch a Takashi Miike flick I have to wonder if he has multiple personalities.
Because no two Miike flicks seem alike.
And Detective Story is no exception.
It seemed like a made for Japanese television movie (not like american television mind you, Visitor Q aired on TV over there keep in mind)
with heavy influences of Argento's later giallo's (Trauma, Sleepless, Card Player, Do You Like Hitchcock?)
with hints of Suspiria, Silence of the Lambs, and Lewis's Color Me Blood Red.
About a badly dressed private detective trying to solve a murder case, that he wanted no part of, but now he's involved because he's the one being framed.
If you look in the backgrounds of some of the shots you can see something else is at play here.
Subtle ghosts creeping about.

While it's a little more serious than something like Yakuza Like a Dragon or Dead or Alive, it's not without it's signature Miike idiosyncrasies.
(especially the all too confusing conclusion)
I loved the detective sporting the gaudiest vintage clothing since the conception of vintage, all while trying not to stand out,
his next door neighbor, the businessman with the same first name, who moves around as a sort of hobby,
& the criminally insane, maggot obsessed, masked, Japanese Hannibal Lechter-ish consultant with the high-pitched voice, who's depicted on the cover.
The gore was all "aftermath gore", but it was beautifully done so.
Bodies hanging from trees.
Bodies crammed into bathrooms with dirt stuffed in their mouths.
Bodies with organs missing, replaced with a bag of water.
The filter used on the camera made every color seem like a pastel.
Almost washed out.
It complimented the sublime artwork used in the film.
Razor-sharp paintings of mutilated limbs, and bodies all clinging to each other.
I would love to have one hanging in my living room, or bedroom.
This was unlike anything Miike has ever done, (which isn't saying much) but it shows that the man can do just about anything.
Think of a quirky Murder She Wrote with a bloodlust, and you're in the ballpark.
NOTE: Remember to check the backgrounds for ghosts, they don't hit you over the head with them, but they're there for those with a sharp eye.
3.5 out of 5 (Based on a Mike scale of 1 to 5)

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Art not only imitates life, it grinds it's organs into paint.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not his best, but watchable nonetheless., March 16, 2011

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Detective Story (DVD)

Detective Story (Takashi Miike, 2007)

As an American filmgoer, I discovered Takashi Miike in the same way every other American filmgoer did: Audition, one of the most original, audacious, and surprising films of the decade. Then came Ichi the Killer, and I knew there was something worth watching about this guy. Then, back to back, we got Gozu and Sabu, and I was in love. I went back and discovered the Black Society trilogy and The Bird People in China and knew I was dealing with one of the world's best directors. And yet somehow, I got off the Miike carousel somewhere along the way (to this day I still haven't seen his remake of Izo, for example), and now there's a whole backlog of stuff he made over the past six years I realized a week or so ago that I need to sit down and watch. And while everyone I know who digs Miike tells me I should start with Sukiyaki Western Django, I grabbed another flick from the same year: Detective Story, notable not only for being exactly what the title says it is, but for not starring a single member of the tried-and-true Miike stable (there's no Sho Aikawa, no Riki Takeuchi, no Ryo Ishibashi, not even Shinya Tsukamoto makes an appearance). And while it's not a bad little film at all, it seems to lack both the acting punch supplied by the best guys he traditionally works with and the exquisite directorial tics that make a movie like The Bird People in China or Ley Lines such a work of art. (As a side note: while I haven't seen it, I can find no evidence this movie is in any way a remake, or otherwise related, to the 1983 Tantei Monogatari directed by Nikishi.)

Raita Takashima (Brother's Kurodo Maki, who it seems is on loan from the stable of Takeshi Kitano regulars) is an IT guy. Raita Kazama (Izo's Kazya Nakayama) is a private detective. We open with Kazama moving into a new apartment, which it turns out is next to Takashima's. With both of them named Raita, the inevitable "hey, we have something in common!" gradually turns them into drinking buddies, though Takashima originally comes on as prickly and off-putting. When Kazama is warned away from a murder case by the cops and complains about it to Takashima, the latter offers to see what he can dig up, and the two of them soon form an uneasy partnership. Kazama also has another resource, Yuki, an insane ex-cop he put away fifteen years previous who's now confined in a mental hospital (all the reviews will tell you Hannibal Lecter, but there's a step in between--this guy is a direct line of descent from Kunio Mamiya, the nameless drifter in Kurosawa's Cure) who offers some insight into the killer's psyche. As the number of victims increases, the two Raitas, with Yuki's assistance (which always comes with a price), close in--but the killer is doing a very good job of making it look as if Kazama himself is behind the killings. (Or is he?)

It's got a really good hook, it's quite well-scripted (by first-timer Tsutomu Shirado), and while there's no one here with the ability of an Ishibashi or an Aikawa, the cast is pretty good. Some of the visuals here are awesome, in that Miike way. And yet there's something missing from this that you find in Miike's best work, but to be extra-frustrating, I can't exactly tell you what that something is; it's what makes The Happiness of the Katakuris, to use an example I haven't already beaten to death in this review, so much more of a visually satisfying experience than, say, Andromedia, or Sabu (even as a made-for-TV movie!) so much more sumptuous than White Collar Worker Kintaro. I've seen a couple of reviewers refer to this as "rushed", and I think they sense the same thing I do and are putting it in different terms. And I add that were this done by anyone other than one of the top echelon of Japanese directors, I'd probably be giving it a higher rating, but I know Miike can do better than this (and has, in this same arena). ***