Review of Shinku

Story
Akiba Kako, a primary school student on a school excursion, is called out by her form teacher, Ihara where she tells Kako that something has happened to her family. The two of them then take a taxi to the hospital where it is revealed that Kako's parents and younger brothers were brutally murdered by Tsuzuki Norio. Due to the suddency of this tragedy, Kako loses her memories of the 4 hours when she heard the news from Ihara until she sees her family's bodies where she will experience blankness in her mind for an undetermined period.

8 years later, Kako happens to hear from freelance reporter, Shiina who is still investigating the case, that Norio has been sentenced to death recently. Kako expresses her wish to meet the murderer's daughter, Miho. Kako gets close to Miho after knowing her at the bar where the latter works but hides her identity. However, Miho trusts Kako enough to tell her about her father being a convict on death sentence.

Miho's husband, Akira abuses her physically and Kako suggests killing him. When Miho suffers a miscarriage due to Akira's blows, this is the final straw for her who finally makes up her mind to kill him. In addition, she asks Kako for help to be her alibi.

However, on the day when Miho is due to kill Akira, Souko experiences the 4-hr blankness syndrome and this affects the progress of the act...

Cast
Uchiyama Rina as Akiba Kako
Mizukawa Asami as Tochiku Miho
Kohinata Fumio as Akiba Yukihiko (Souko's father)
Ogata Naoto as Tochiku Norio (Miho's father)
Uchida Asahi as Nakagaki Akira (Miho's husband)
Tsukamoto Takashi as Watanabe Takumi (Souko's boyfriend)
Hirata Michiru as Shiina Koichi (freelance reporter)
Minamino Yoko as Ihara Miko (Souko's primary school teacher)
Horikita Maki as Akiba Souko (primary school student)
Shimada Yoko as Tanaka-sensei (Souko's psychologist)
Tanaka Yoshiko as Saito Yoshiyo (Souko's aunt)

Theme song: Lights by Shinkyo Eri
Image song: Alice by Kitade Nana

Review
This movie didn't turn out to be as good as I thought because I expected much from a Nozawa Hisashi script and this was his last before he commited suicide. The suspense factor was sorely lacking and I thought more could have been done to make the pace faster.

As for the acting, Mizukawa Asami was much more natural than Uchiyama Rina thus she left a stronger impression on me. Somehow, when Uchiyama takes on leading roles, I always find this problem of her not having a commanding presence on screen to take charge of the situation and it gives me the feeling that she's being led around by her co-stars instead.

One particular person to mention is Horikita Maki who plays a primary school student although she's already a senior high student. As such, it was hard to get rid of the nagging thought that she wasn't acting her age but her baby face made it a little easier to adapt to the setting. Besides, she did quite well in the earlier part of the movie before Uchiyama moved in to sour the whole thing.

On the whole, I'll give this 6 out of 10 because the first half of the movie (excluding the part when Horikita Maki was around) nearly made me fall asleep.