Without a doubt, one of the worst days of your life must be when you realize you are F’d-up in every side of your life,  but it must be even worse when you realize that everything around you had been rotten for a long time, and you never saw it until that exact moment. Former (and as the cliche dictates «disgraced») detective Akikazu get a gradual but still cruel reality check when his estranged ex-wife contacts him to find their daughter Kanako, who he has not seen in a long time and has been missing for days in the new film by Tetsuya Nakashima, “The World Of Kanako” which will be released on select theaters and VOD on December 4th.

After trying in vain to find clues about his daughter’s whereabouts with her friends, Akikazu gets not only a glimpse of a side of Kanako that he never knew existed, but also the feeling that he might not have known her own daughter at all. Akikazu’s investigation gets a grim turn when some shady characters also looking for Kanako, (but clearly with not so good intentions) get in his way, after following a very violent trial and some complicated clues, the ex-detective discovers a secret world filled with drugs, violence, prostitution and more, all delivered in a sureal story that will make us think twice about who we got to root for, because in the end, it could be not a matter of  «Who is the good guy» but «Who is the less rotten».

The film has a very solid script with character development and several scenes of action and violence, but I got to warn you that the story is not linear, so get ready to keep a lot of mental notes and pieces to complete the puzzle at the end (I’m sure the fans of Quentin Tarantino won’t have any problems with this) The film also brings an interesting selection of themes in the soundtrack, which makes the action sequences even more enjoyable and that are bound to end up on my playlist. ( My beloved Yoko Kanno’s “Free Fall” was one of my favorites, hands down).

“The World Of Kanako” is a great tale of flawed characters (and I am not talking only about Akikazu’s descent into he virtual hell) dropped in a violent and cruel world that was always there unnoticed, and how they react after their «rude awakening». The film also leaves us wondering about how cruel a person can be,  just by having the opportunity to do so, and when there is no one to oppose him/her, not to mention that is a warning about how the smile that saves you from hell, could be just leading you to something worse.

But maybe the biggest shock the film can leave us with is not the world that presents us, but the realization that such horrors can be in front of our eyes everyday and we can’t (or won’t dare to) notice them, and how you might never fully know a person (or his/her lowest desires) no matter how much time  you spend with him/her … Definitely something that can be easily translated to the western culture and even more in a world where the parents have less and less control over their children.

Do yourself a favor and check this film when it gets released, without going for the shock factor in order to be noticed, this movie has something for everybody and is already on my «Must buy» list.

Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima and with a cast that includes Kôji Yakusho (13 Assassins), Nana Komatsu (Bakuman) Fumi Nikaido (Why Don’t you Play In Hell?, Lessons Of The Evil) and Jun Kunimura (Too many filme to list!! ), “The World Of Kanako” will be released on select theaters and VOD on December 4th.