Haruka Fukuhara: "Love and Murder of Sheep and Wolf" movie review part two

 

 Release date: November 29, 2019  Director: Kayoko Asakura, based on a manga by Rahson

 This film has two other titles, one is My Girlfriend is a Serial Killer while the Japanese title for the movie is Hitsuji to Okami no Koi to Satsujin  Subs by Coolsub.

 Two video links, one for the trailer and the other for it's premiere: Trailer .... Premiere

 Main Cast: Very small cast and the top two characters were in every scene, usually together.

Haruka Fukuhara as Rio Miyaichi.... Ultra kawaii 21 year old university student. She has one very dark secret that was discovered by her neighbor Kurosu.... Miyaichi may be the biggest serial killer in Japan. But she still leads a quiet life and does have certain 'rules' about killing. Her orders on what victim is next are handed down to her by Reina who is the head of a secret government organization.

Yosuke Sugino as Etsuro Kurosu.... Also about 21 in age and Kurosu is a Hikkomori though not your normal one as he doesn't have a computer, phone, lights(!) or a TV. He's Miyaichi's neighbor who by peeking through a small hole ina wall found out about her killing as he viewed one. That was the first of many he viewed though Kurosu never once helped her kill anyone.

Noriko Eguchi as Reina Enmeiji.... Leader of the secret organization that tells Miyaichi who needs to be killed next. This team she leads goes to the scene after the deed is done and gets rid of any evidence plus keeps the victim's deaths from the newspapers.

Manami Enosawa as Haruko Kawasaki.... She's also a student and the sister of the below man. Haruko struck up a friendship with Kurosu which had made Miyaichi quite jealous, he's been helping her look for her brother but it's a lost cause.

Sho Kasamatsu as Kawasaki.... A lost cause as at about the fifty minute mark he was killed by Miyaichi. At first Kurosu was quite upset as he liked Kawasaki(no first name) but it came out later he had killed hundreds of neighborhood cats though did he deserve to die?

 Part one had 64 screenshots, this one has the same amount and don't think I've ever taken that many for a movie. Have seen Haruka in seven dramas, hopefully an eighth if the second season of "Yuru Camp" gets subbed. But this is just the second film I've seen her in and it's also been her last one. Let's get back to the action and will pick right up from where we left off. That's of Kurosu rushing over to Miyaichi's apartment to find out why she had killed their neighbor Kawasaki but she was nowhere to be found but a mysterious woman and her crew were. These first three screenshots ended off the last post so there will be 67 this time around.

 Above as you can see is that mysterious woman whose name is Reina. She's the head of this very secret organization and I wondered if it possibly was run by the government? Reina is Miyaichi's handler and assigns her the persons that need to be killed though on occasion Miyaichi does a bit of killing on her own! These victims are mainly criminals or other lowlifes who the law can't prosecute, that was what she explained to Kurosu about Kawasaki. Animal cruelty is a crime but he would have got mainly a slap on the wrist for the thousand or so cats he killed, she even showed Kurosu the elaborate lab Kawasaki had set up in the basement. After Miyaichi does her 'duty' Reina's team swoops in and cleans all evidence of the killing away, even going as far as replacing lights, paintings and the like. It appears the victim's bodies are then dismembered and probably burnt after that so no one knows about what took place and why Kurosu hasn't seen anything about the murders in the news.

 Reina and Kurosu do meet up briefly twice more, both times she warned him him it's better to stay away from Miyaichi. That went in one ear and out the other as Kurosu is now totally smitten by her but has grown weary of her killing, will she ever stop? Miyaichi's response was a negative one and over the years has really come to love her 'profession', it was never revealed how she got hooked up with Reina  but Miyaichi seems to be the ace of her 'elimination team'. After Kawasaki's murder his sister Haruko had started to become a bit closer to Kurosu, he went from having zero ladies in his life to two! Haruko needs help locating her brother and wants Kurosu to help which he said yes to though of course he knew Kawasaki would never be found. Reina's team really covers their tracks as Haruko received a postcard from her brother who said he was in Thailand(!), obviously that was sent by Reina. As the pair grew a bit closer it didn't escape the attention of Miyaichi and that may not be a good thing if you want to live a long life!

 At one point the trio ended up at Kurosu's apartment, Haruko thought Miyaichi may be able to shed some light on her brother's disappearance but she was there for another reason. Haruko soon passed out, after she said it was because of being tired but I got the impression Miyaichi spiked her drink. That's because she soon reappeared in her killing outfit(raincoat) and had all intentions of killing Haruko. But for the first time ever Miyaichi couldn't bring herself to going through with an order, she has said there are certain rules she wants to follow and it appears killing innocent people is one as Haruko has never done anything bad. Reina ordered the killing and think it was because she was getting too close to Kurosu, when Reina arrived at his apartment to 'clean up' she was furious Haruko was still alive. After that the pair did go out on some coffee dates, nothing became of that potential relationship even though Haruko confessed her love to Kurosu who is just too in love with Miyaichi.

 Halfway through this second post and the final 25 minutes mainly deal with one case. The beginning of it is right above, Kurosu had noticed Miyaichi one night outside with that man and later witnessed through the peephole her murdering him, came out later his name was Kuu. But for the first time Miyaichi had made a major mistake as she was seen escorting the man home by one of his gang mates. Their name was never mentioned but they're a group of about twenty whose HQ is in a small club. Their leader Atsuto contacted Miyaichi and told her to visit the club which she did. There Atsuto told her he knew of what Miyaichi did to Kuu, if she won't cooperate he's heading to the police. What he wanted Miyaichi to do is to become a killer for him too which she refused on the spot though said she may think about it to buy some time. But the following day that gang kidnapped Kurosu and told him all about their plans of turning Miyaichi in if she won't work with them, as her 'boyfriend' isn't there anything he can do? There wasn't he replied and they soon released him, is this the end of Miyaichi?

 Kurosu wasn't beaten during that 'kidnapping' though his face was slashed by a knife. Of course Miyaichi noticed that and Kurosu confessed on what had taken place with the gang. They had their longest talk ever and it was mainly with Kurosu still pleading with Miyaichi to give up that life of killing which she just can't do but assured Kurosu she won't work with Atsuto's gang. But it appeared to Kurosu that Miyaichi has lied to him as two nights later he witnessed through the peephole her killing another man and Kurosu thought it was from a rival gang. So naturally he presumed Atsuto ordered the murder and rushed to the gang's HQ to somehow talk their leader out of using Miyaichi any more. That was one huge mistake on Kurosu's part as he was no match for the gang. A bigger mistake was pulling a knife on them which led the group to start beating him senselessly. One last boo-boo was that the man Miyaichi killed was from Atsuto's gang which Kurosu thought was from a rival gang.

 That's the leader Atsuto above holding a knife to Kurosu's throat and was about to slice it when a 'Queen in shining armor' arrived! Of course that was Miyaichi and her plan had been to eliminate the gang after they threatened her, may also have been a order from Reina. Miyaichi has always just used a knife in her killings, this time she had two but what match could she be against twenty goons? Actually the question should be what chance do the twenty have against Miyaichi?! Not much of a chance as she is such a marvel with those martial arts maneuvers and seemed within 2-3 minutes she had killed all of the gang save for one. She had also thrown a smoke bomb when she first arrived to disorientate everyone. That final person was the leader Atsuto and  think Miyaichi saved him for last. Even though he knocked both of her knives away she grabbed his and Atsuto became her 20th victim in four minutes. But will there be a 21st as it appeared she may finally have her eyes set on killing Kurosu.

 He was badly hurt but should live, for the first time it appeared the couple would kiss. But that was just to get Kurosu closer to her, when he looked down Miyaichi had stabbed him in the stomach! That of course shocked him to no end and from what Miyaichi was saying it appeared she would leave her boyfriend to die. I thought he had perished and quickly Reina's team came in to do their cleaning job. Two minutes to go in the film and we saw Miyaichi with Reina some days later. Seems Miyaichi has finally had enough of the assassin life and has resigned from that secret organization. To my surprise appearing soon after that on crutches was Kurosu who was alive and well, Miyaichi's stab was in a body location that wouldn't kill him. So as the film ended with the pair heading off into the sunset to live happily ever after(?) but the ending did set up the potential for a sequel.

 Did leave a few minor details out from that final killing scene in the club. Probably better to view what took place plus this review was getting a bit too lengthy. All in all this was a film I truly enjoyed, if you're a Haruka fan would highly recommend it, even if you're not it's definitely worth a view. My grade for this movie will be an 8.8/10, not a perfect film but I had zero complaints which is rare. This is the kind of movie that needs to be viewed a few times, know I'll be doing that and bet the grade may rise to a nine then. Plenty of screenshots of course to end off with, they follow this post's action..