Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Blistering performances.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

In Tokyo, Detective Sekiya (Ren Ôsugi) investigates the death of two suicides with Detective Wakamiya (Masanobu Ando) and the rookie Detective Keiko Kirishima (Hitomi). Both victims were stabbed while sleeping and the skeptical and experienced Sekiya concludes that they have committed suicide. However, Wakamiya discovers that both victims had dialed "0" on their cell-phones before their death and they recorded a weird message. The police officers believe that someone is inducing potential suicidal persons to kill themselves, but the chief of police decides to split the team and assigns Keiko to find a medium to help the police in the investigation. She meets Kyoichi Kagenuma (Ryuhei Matsuda), who is also a suicidal man with the ability to enter in the dreams, and tries to force the reluctant man to help her."Akumu Tantei", a.k.a. "Nightmare Detective", is a stylish thriller with a character that recalls Freddy Krueger since he attacks his victims in their dreams. The sexy Hitomi performs a detective that in a certain moment fights to stay awake, recalling for example, Kristen Parker in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise. Despite having a wonderful cinematography, the unoriginal screenplay is very confused and I expected much more from a movie directed by Shinya Tsukamoto. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Caçador de Pesadelos" ("Nightmare Hunter")

First of all, I've never seen a Shinya Tsukamoto movie before this. I read reviews commenting on how this is his most unoriginal work, and I really can't confirm or deny that. As a standalone piece, however, I can say this is completely unlike any other detective movie I've ever seen—and it does so without cheese. On a technical level, does that make it original? Not necessarily, but it certainly isn't unoriginal either. Either way, it's very entertaining and interesting, and as I just said, lacks the cheese that the majority of supernatural horror films have lately.The reason it lacks cheese is because Nightmare Detective builds up layers of gritty reality through mainly being a comic (but not comical) detective mystery. This gives a lot more weight to the supernatural elements, and creates a lot cooler tone. I've seen people bash the detective elements of the story, but I personally thought they were genius. The idea of having two detectives, one a police detective and the other a dream detective working together was very cool. Like I said, the idea isn't wholesale original, but it's certainly different and very well done.Shinya Tsukamoto's camera-work and cinematography left me in awe more than once. The man knows how to direct. The entire movie has the best production value I've ever seen in an Asian movie, and I've seen a lot of Asian movies. The detail is crisp, and sometimes with color washout that completed the gritty, dirty comic book tone. The dream sequences are not all-out surrealism as would be cliché, but have subtle nods at surrealism while being otherwise realistic. Once again, genius.I've read reviews that trash this movie for not being scary. Simply put: what movie IS scary anymore? I've seen hundreds of horror movies, and I can count the ones that were honestly scary on one hand. I can't compare this to Shinya Tsukamoto's other works, as I said, but from what I take, this is a step down on the level of terror. Fine. Why is that bad? A movie that exists only to be scary is just like a movie that exists just to be gory—it's hallow. The Exorcist is quoted as "the scariest movie of all time", but when I watched it I wasn't scared once. The thing is, the level of terror in a movie is mainly relative. Is Nightmare Detective scary? Some will think so. Did I? To an extent, yes.As far as the acting goes, I didn't notice it being good or bad. As for the level of boredom, it isn't very fast paced but it will keep your interest until the end, which is something I can't say about many movies. Dialogue is standard, and never too excessive, which is another plus. The music is unoffensive and unnoticeable, except where Shinya Tsukamoto uses some really cool mellow songs to underline the mood, and it works very well.Overall, it's very much worth a watch, especially if you're a fan of mystery graphic novels, because it carries the same feel and flow. I'd even go as far as to say it's worth a buy. It did what it wanted to accomplish, and even if Shinya Tsukamoto's other works are better than this, I don't see how anyone would be disappointed.4/10

NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE, like much of what Shinya Tsukamoto has done, has its readily apparent roots in manga/anime. (Manganime?) While it'll never be confused with the likes of TETSUO, BODY HAMMER or TOKYO FIST (it's clearly more like HIROKU THE GOBLIN and GEMINI), NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE more than holds its own as live-action manganime. Like some of the slower and more thoughtful anime (like GILGAMESH or WOLF'S RAIN or suchlike), it's the overall mood that is most important here. Tsukamoto says that this is the first of a proposed series of movies to feature his NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE. If so, we've got something more to look forward to.

Tsukamoto Shinya is one of a small group of influential Japanese directors who formed the vanguard of Japan's "New Wave" cinema during the late 80s (along with animation director Otomo Katsuhiro and splatter horror director Ikeda Toshiharu). His dark and creepy "Tetsuro: The Iron Man" paved the way for such future unconventional directors like Miike Takashi (Koroshi No Ichi), Fukui Shozin (964 Pinocchio), Shu Lea Cheang (I.K.U.) and Nakata Hideo (Ring).Like his American contemporaries David Lynch and David Cronenberg, Tsukamoto's movies delved into the realm of bizarre nightmare fantasies often involving human metamorphosis, the melding of man and machine, abnormal human anatomy/psychology and degenerative disease.While in recent years, Tsukamoto has been more involved in front of the camera as an actor, his latest film "Akumu Tantei AKA Nightmare Detective" is an attempt to return to the type of film making that made him a cult favorite."Akumei Tantei" revolves around the exploits of a mysterious dark cloaked stranger, Kagenuma Kyoichi portrayed with gloomy indifference by Matsuda Ryuhei (Renai Shashin, Nana) who somehow has the supernatural ability to enter into other people's dreams (more often nightmares) in order to help the individual make sense of the dream. While not a true "detective" per se, he often reluctantly offers out his unique investigative skills to others. An unfortunate side effect of his abilities is that he is able to hear the subconscious voices of those in his immediate vicinity and also sometimes brings his own nightmares into the real world (which at points drives him suicidal). His services soon come to the attention of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's homicide division who are investigating a bizarre series of murder/suicides and recruit Kagenuma in the hopes that he may be able to use his abilities to uncover clues to the identity of the killer.Unfortunately, Kagenuma and beautiful detective Kirishima Keiko (played by sensual J-Pop idol singer "hitomi") soon discover that the killer shares Kagenuma's ability to enter people's dreams and uses this ability to manipulate his victims into killing themselves. Can Kagenuma and Kirishima stop this killer before he strikes again?As others have mentioned, "Akumei Tantei" is one part "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Dreamscape" and one part "Ghost Whisperer" with elements of the recent "Paprika" thrown in for good measure.Surprisingly, "Akumu Tantei" isn't as bloody as I was expecting. While there is plenty of gore and blood to be sure, it is nowhere near as bad as some of the recent Hollywood "torture porn" films that have come out. The movie was rather conventional and did not really have any moments where I was shocked or scared. Whether this is a sign of Tsukamoto "mellowing out" I can't say but I did find myself questioning if this movie was from the same man who gave us such unforgettable films such as "Tokyo Fist" and "Tetsuro".While "hitomi" (real name Furuya Hitomi) is certainly easy on the eyes and makes for a sexy heroine, she seems hopelessly miscast as the stoic and straight laced police detective, Kirishima. Her radiant beauty actually works against her as viewers will be hard pressed to believe her to be the character she portrays.The same could also be said of Matsuda Ryuhei who is a bit too much of a "pretty boy" to be the reclusive and brooding "Nightmare Detective". Matsuda's portrayal seems to follow the Japanese film trend of having "Emo" protagonists be one note characters who are all brooding, self-absorbed, loners, social outcasts and misfits. It is hard to identify with these heroes as they don't project any type of likability and instead expect audiences to "feel their pain". In addition to directing the movie, Tsukamoto also stars in the film as the central villain character. He doesn't say much but his flamboyant and intense acting is both scary and humorous.Compared to his groundbreaking "Tetsuro" and "Tokyo Fist", "Akumu Tantei" is a bit of a disappointment, sharing none of the visual flair, unconventional style or edgy story of those films. While an enjoyable film with beautiful leads, the story won't win any new admirers. I kind of felt underwhelmed by the movie and kind of hoped Tsukamoto would give us something new to talk about rather than long for the inventiveness of his past works.