There is a moment roughly halfway through Shinzô Katayama’s exquisite new film Missing (2022) when a character offers up the line “I don’t like girls who move.” This is in response to an old man, who has up to this point seemed gentle and pure, revealing a whole room dedicated to his twisted and extensive porn collection. It is one in a stream of standout sequences in Missing that embody Katayama’s enviable ability to fragment humanity in unsettling yet darkly humorous ways. The experience of watching Missing is one of constant reconsideration, of thinking you know what is going on only to discover some new twisted secret. What more can you expect from a director who learned from Nobuhiro Yamashita and Bong Joon-Ho?
Missing plays out in contemporary Japan. Middle-schooler Kaeda (Aoi Ito) contends with her depressed and debt-ridden father Santoshi (Jiro Sato) who has spiraled out since his wife died. Spurned on by a massive reward, Santoshi tells Kaeda that he will hunt down the mysterious serial killer “No Name” (Hiroya Shimizu) whom he believes he saw on a train earlier in the day. Kaeda does not take him seriously until he disappears without a trace. Worried that he may have found “No Name” and been out of his depth, Kaeda embarks on a quest to figure out where her father is. With a story equal parts crime thriller, father-daughter drama, and black-as-night comedy, Missing careens through its two-hour runtime.
From the opening scene, Katayama rips off stunning and memorable images at an astounding pace. He opens Missing with a slow-motion zoom-in on Santoshi practicing attack mode with a hammer, set to a fittingly melodramatic classical number. It is an apt palette starter because Missing is aesthetically defined by Katayama and DP Naoya Ikeda’s kinetic camerawork. Just as the narrative never lets the characters get too comfortable, Katayama’s directorial approach constantly jolts the audience. With a penchant for whip-pans and handheld tracking shots that erupt in between more delicately staged frames, Katayama ensures that Missing brims with energy. In this way, he succeeds in balancing the tender beauty of Kaeda and Santoshi’s quieter moments with thrilling set-pieces like a foot chase through streets and alleyways. Katayama and Ikeda churn out stunning work in every frame.
A narratively tight and thematically rich script match that tone and tenor. Katayama penned the story with Ryo Takada and Kazuhisa Kotera. For much of the first hour, Missing plays out in traditional story structure. Daughter and father struggle. Father disappears. Daughter searches for father. Yet, right after a major plot turn, the writers smash the brakes and jump months back in time. The decision is brilliant and speaks to a writing team completely in control of their craft. Their structural decisions deepen the mysteries around “No Name” and Santoshi’s disappearance while also answering key questions about how each of these people ended up where they are. It also allows for stirring passages of character study, such as when we spend a stretch with Santoshi as he cares for his dying wife who suffers from ALS. Every contortion feeds back to the central mystery while providing moving context.
Katayama and team also benefit from a miraculous trio of central performances. Ito and Sato are perfect as daughter and father. Toying with genre expectations, the first third of Missing foregrounds Ito’s performance, centering on this intrepid adolescent who has to work through the still raw grief from her mother’s death and track down her mess of a dad. Together, the two move gracefully between quipping at each other and ruminating in deeply tender passages. An early scene sees Ito chew Sato out before the two seamlessly transition into a contest to try and make the other laugh. Rounding out the trio, Shimizu is chilling as the killer. He really lives the aforementioned line “I don’t like girls who move.” Shimizu crafts “No Name” into a black hole devoid of empathy. Anything that gets close is simply devoured by his perverse passions.
I have, admittedly, remained somewhat vague about the plot specifics in Missing, and that is entirely on purpose. While Missing delivers on its premise’s promise of a girl looking for her father, it also rapidly spins out so many plot twists that mutate it into a multi-pronged beast exploring humanity’s vile impulses and well-meaning desperations. Missing is an astounding film, and one that should not be missed.
Missing had its US Premiere in the Official Competition section of Fantastic Fest 2022.
Director: Shinzô Katayama
Writer: Shinzô Katayama, Kazuhisa Kotera, Ryô Takada
Rated: NR
Runtime: 124 mins
Shinzô Katayama’s sophomore feature 'Missing' (2022) is an enthralling thriller that doubles as a moving character study.
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GVN Rating 9
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Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.