Synopsis
When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.
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Cast
- Koji YakushoAkikazu Fujishima
- Nana KomatsuKanako Fujishima
- Satoshi TsumabukiDetective Asai
- Hiroya ShimizuI / Narrator
- Fumi NikaidoNami Endo
- Ai HashimotoMorishita
- Jun KunimuraDr. Tsujimura
- Asuka KurosawaKiriko Fujishima
- Munetaka AokiSakiyama
- Joe OdagiriDetective Aikawa
Recommendations
- 78
Austin Chronicle
This time out, Nakashima plays it fast, loose, and seriously fucked-up with a father-daughter tale of Tokyo woe that makes Paul Schrader’s "Hardcore" look like a picnic. - 70
Village Voice
Yakusho's breathless, riveting performance grounds The World of Kanako even as it threatens to devolve into an unbearable series of nihilistic plot twists and gory set pieces. - 63
RogerEbert.com
It’s a film that’s tempting to dismiss because of its bleak, misanthropic viewpoint on the world, but that would be discounting the quality of the filmmaking and the riveting performance at its center. - 40
The New York Times
Mr. Nakashima, it must be said, does have a knack for composition. But the torrential, if glossy, violence — he adores juxtaposing innocuous pop ditties with gruesome set pieces — grows tiresome. - 40
Variety
While there’s something compelling about an antihero whose obsession is poised on the razor’s edge between love and hate, The World of Kanako buries it in grinding, agitated repetition.
