as “journey under the midnight sun”, the book this film was based on, is one of my favourite books, maybe my review is a bit biased.

the movie wasn’t bad at all, and i’m sure far more enjoyable for those who haven’t read the original story. the story stays quite true to keigo higashino’s, which i’m glad about. they did switch a few things up but that’s understandable. nothing too big.

one of my biggest issues with this film was the confusing timeline and that it felt rushed.
the story starts with the second murder, jumps back to the first murder and then back to the second again—for a while, it didn’t even register what was going on. just as they started out of the blue, these storylines were also abruptly ended, with not much explanation. why did they stop investigating the first murder? while i know the answer, it wasn’t given in the film. i found the beginning very sloppy.

besides the timeline, i found the pace just as confusing. i think the original book is difficult to convert to a film because it’s so very detailed that it’s impossible to put it all in just two hours and make it make sense. yet like i mentioned before, they switched between events and some were over before they even started. maybe if they hadn’t mixed the present and the past, it would’ve been easier to begin and finish every part of the storyline.

another complaint i have is that there wasn’t no much mystery at all, to my surprise. again, my judgment might be clouded by the original: where the affiliation between the main characters wasn’t quite obvious until much later, where they weren’t even suspected until later. in this film, it’s really easy to figure out the people involved. it takes away a lot of the mystery it’s supposed to have. i wasn’t watching on the edge of my seat all the time, and sometimes i felt certain things were a bit anti-climax. they had build up and had me in suspense, yet dropped the ball.

there’s also some parts of the story that, while they were in the book as well, i felt in this film were lacking wnd insignificant and i personally would have left them out. they were started but i have no idea why or what the motive of this event was; it just happened and was never brought up again, like the story of the missing detective and the missing investigator. quite disappointing i must say. instead i would’ve left these out and instead put more details in the main story.

however, i loved the overall feeling of the film. it felt dark and melancholic. the cast also mostly did a beautiful job. go soo’s portrayal of yohan (ryoji) was far more desperate than the book’s counter, but it was a good twist that made sense. i’m quite sad they didn’t dive a little deeper into yohan, he could’ve been even better in my opinion.

son ye jin also showed good performance. she looked innocent and perfect, to the point where it felt eerie, yet in particular scenes she made miho look as cunning as she were in reality.

i don’t actually have much of a complaint about any of the cast, but i did feel that detective han’s desperation was at times lacking. overall i think they did a great job with this cast.

although i think the song of choice is beautiful, i did feel it was repeated far too often. halfway through the movie it didn’t even give me any particular feelings anymore, it was just kind of there as white noise.

i don’t think i would rewatch this, but i do recommend it for people who have not read the book. as long as you don’t have any expectations or knowledge of the storyline, i think this is a very decent and enjoyable, but dark and heavy film.

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