I am not a big fan of Japanese movies, anime being my least favourite— for some unknown reasons, I don’t find interest in watching the 2D sketches walking, talking, fighting, and sometimes fuc*ing in an absurd way. Exceptions available, but for the majority, it’s a no from me. This time, A Fugitive from the Past has to be added to the list of a few Japanese movies that I admire. And it’s a lengthy one, 3 hours straight— reminds me of The Lord of the Rings and The Godfather series.
This crime thriller was released in 1965, so, obviously, it’s B&W. Imagine watching a Japanese movie in b&w for a long 3 hours who rarely admires the country of origin— but the high ratings and interesting reviews convinced me to go for it. And to summarise, yeah, I enjoyed the story, its development, comprehensiveness, cinematography, and of course, the investigative nature portrayed.
Oh, another reason I decided to watch this in the first place is the genre it belongs to. Crime thriller, especially Korean production, is my favourite genre, even placed above any DC/Marvel series. We’ll talk about it some other day.
So, the movie starts with the essence of an already committed crime— something like jailbreak which turned out to be murder and theft later. That’s a long story. However, the central character is portrayed as strong, compassionate, and to some extent, a dumb individual who struggled in the early ages but gained wealth and fortune favoured him to climb the ladder of richness.
As the name suggests, he is the fugitive from the past, hiding in disguise but not for long— for that truth shall reveal. Also, when you are blinded by the greed of wealth, the beast inside awakens. It’s obvious and history has shown us countless examples of men turning into a mess once they are drowned in money and fortune.
Thematically, the movie is spread over three significant parts, the earlier stage develops the story, gives the audience vivid imagery of the actions that bind our hero and heroine together, and a background of the struggling life of the central characters. Then in the second part, it’s all about the rise of the female lead, and the start of a suspected crime. However, it didn’t go well as heavy industrialisation put barriers between evidence and suspects. In the third part, the actual twist begins. As the mystery unfolds, the characters meet their demise.
Although it belongs to crime genre, there is no gruesome scene, surprisingly. Also, the movie ended with the criminal being remorseful. His sympathetic side shows us the brighter inside of the accused criminal, something that we do not see in typical modern-day movies. However, a mystery the movie is surrounded with, the first crime committed in the early stage of the movie remains unsolved, at least I don’t find a concrete conclusion from the claim and findings of the involved vs investigative parties.
Given that, there are flaws in the movie. Some scenes are hurried rather than extensively described. You might find some logical aspects corrupted, still, you will spend a good 3 hours sitting in front of your laptop, PC, or whatever you use.
