Calling a movie ¡°problematic¡± isn¡¯t exactly a compliment in the Anglosphere, but the equivalent term in Japanese ¡ª mondaisaku ¡ª is a popular marketing buzzword. The late producer Mitsunobu Kawamura had a knack for such fare. In the years leading up to his death in 2022, he was responsible for provocative dramas including Michihito Fujii¡¯s ¡°The Journalist¡± and Keisuke Yoshida¡¯s ¡°Intolerance,¡± as well as a string of politician-bating documentaries.
¡°The Moon¡± is being touted as Kawamura¡¯s final bequest ¡ª a dai-mondaisaku (work of great controversy), no less. Though it¡¯s a wonky and often frustrating film, it should at least succeed in getting people talking, which is doubtless what he would have wanted.
Adapted with a surfeit of flair by writer and director Yuya Ishii from a 2017 novel by Yo Hemmi, it¡¯s a plucked-from-the-headlines affair. The story is based on a 2016 knife attack at a care facility in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, in which a former employee fatally stabbed 19 people with mental disabilities, claiming they were mercy killings.
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