The Gun

Film description

On a rainy night Toru Nishikawa finds a dead man on the river bank with a gun beside him. He decides to keep the pistol. He likes his new possession which gives him the feeling of power and changes his relations with the people around, raising even his confidence with girls. Gradually the boy falls into obsession, he fantasizes about killing someone, just anyone, or even committing suicide. The situation gets more complicated as an obtrusive police detective keeps visiting him more and more often – he suspects that Nishikawa had something to do with the missing gun. The atmosphere grows dense…

This psychologically intense thriller is an adaptation of a novel by Fuminori Nakamura. Build of Hiromitsu Nishimura’s uncommon contrastive black and white takes, the film recalls the style of new wave filmmakers. As to the theme, there seems to be a clear inspiration from Dostoevsky’s "Crime and Punishment". The director reaches the dark regions in the psychic of the young man, brilliantly played by experienced Nijiro Murakami.

Marcin Krasnowolski