Obayashi #12

~his films ranked~

The Motive is a stunning piece--stunning in how it is all broken down, presented, and then experienced--the entire ordeal becomes exactly as if Ôbayashi has manipulated a police procedural with a mile-long character list that keeps you curious. Yet all the eeriness and all the presentation becomes overkill around the halfway mark. The final 40 minutes holds a seriously good redemptive structure that almost makes one forget about the large level of mush that was compiled in order to make it that far. What wallops you upside the head is a piece of emotional baggage that had been building since the very first scene. Altogether, The Motive captivates. Point off for the interesting character line delivery method as well, since the facts and tidbits of procedural...