There are things you can only find in Japan and I would count Puzzle to them. Surprisingly this whole affair is based on a book by Yûsuke Yamada who also sees a different novel adaptation of his this year by Noboru Iguchi (which I sadly missed) and already had some in the past like "When I Kill Myself" which apparently no one watched... Speaking of things no one watched, the director Eisuke Naitô's previous film with the eye-catching title "Let's-Make-the-Teacher-Have-a-Miscarriage Club"! You bet your ass that this is going to be relevant here. The movie can be put into the "death game" genre as some students wearing super cute sunflower masks terrorize their school with morbid games. The scenarios are all darkly comic ranging from snatching puzzle pieces from RC cars to collecting bicycle bells to extend the timer on a ticking bomb. The one device on the poster is an obvious spoof of the first Saw but does have it's use despite looking cheesy. As mentioned before it is rather dark sometimes and even a bit misogynistic but it's playful and weird side help to make it lighter. Before anyone thinks "sick Japanese", the American representative of the genre - Saw - is in the same boat but tries to play everything straight. It should be really easy to judge from the trailer if it's for you. I certainly got my money's worth. I wasn't a big fan of the ending though but you can attribute some of that to crazies. Since the lead actress is also an idol you also get some odd free dance scene at the end with a confrontation to an iguana (or some reptile) which is about a fitting closing scene...
Review by sp1tiVIP OG 13BlockedParent2014-07-09T19:51:23Z
There are things you can only find in Japan and I would count Puzzle to them.
Surprisingly this whole affair is based on a book by Yûsuke Yamada who also sees a different novel adaptation of his this year by Noboru Iguchi (which I sadly missed) and already had some in the past like "When I Kill Myself" which apparently no one watched... Speaking of things no one watched, the director Eisuke Naitô's previous film with the eye-catching title "Let's-Make-the-Teacher-Have-a-Miscarriage Club"! You bet your ass that this is going to be relevant here.
The movie can be put into the "death game" genre as some students wearing super cute sunflower masks terrorize their school with morbid games. The scenarios are all darkly comic ranging from snatching puzzle pieces from RC cars to collecting bicycle bells to extend the timer on a ticking bomb. The one device on the poster is an obvious spoof of the first Saw but does have it's use despite looking cheesy.
As mentioned before it is rather dark sometimes and even a bit misogynistic but it's playful and weird side help to make it lighter. Before anyone thinks "sick Japanese", the American representative of the genre - Saw - is in the same boat but tries to play everything straight.
It should be really easy to judge from the trailer if it's for you. I certainly got my money's worth. I wasn't a big fan of the ending though but you can attribute some of that to crazies. Since the lead actress is also an idol you also get some odd free dance scene at the end with a confrontation to an iguana (or some reptile) which is about a fitting closing scene...