In Love & Deep Water review: Aoi Miyazaki, Ryo Yoshizawa’s film is a disturbingly disturbing mystery
About love and deep water
A rom-com or a murder mystery?
It’s set on a luxury cruiser and appears to have been filmed in the ocean, where, unfortunately, all intelligence and logic are mired in confusion.
At the beginning of Journey of the Dark One, the character is reminiscent of Milan Kundera’s classic novel on existentialism, The Unbearable Light of Being. I thought it was a clever joke in a movie that had nothing to do with anything intelligent. Tragically, as a massively OTT time-lapse template, the humor and sense of mischief is drowned out by the blue ocean that appears every time the characters are docked. The booths are obviously in the studio.
The story centers on butler Suguru (Ryo Yoshizawa), who embodies a conscientious zealot who dutifully attends to the every call of the rich and famous on board.
The only likable moments in the messy mystery are the conversations between Suguru and a solemn little boy, Kanto (Yunho), who is on board as a companion to a rich little girl whose family is soon to be murdered. The boy sensibly questions Suguro’s unquestioning servility and sympathizes with Suguro’s lifelong obsession with the task.
Unfortunately, the boy has little to do later, as the tycoon is struck by his shrewd daughter, whom he disinherited. She drowns him in the cruiser’s swimming pool. As they say, where there is a will, there is a disgruntled relative.
It’s a murder mystery…well, not really a mystery; We know whodunit.
Then there’s the love story between Suguro and a chirpy borderline obnoxious girl named Chizuru (Aoi Miyazaki). What ties Suguro and Chizuro together is that they were both dumped by their partners. The trenches now see each other.
Final verdict
I see neither humor in romance nor intrigue in murder. All I can see is that in an attempt at murderous romance, In Love & Deep Water is none of that. The plays ban the male play and the child is exasperatingly hammy. Japanese cinema is known to explore emotional subjects with great sensitivity. It reads like let’s have fun. It’s like seeing Sooraj Barjatia in a bar trying to be young and being. It just doesn’t happen.
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