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

 

 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 as I took 128 screenshots(!!!!) for this one hundred minute movie, no way I could fit everything into one post. At one time used to do a fair amount of reviews for Japanese movies but have really slowed down on them and it's probably because of watching so many drama, this is the first film post this year. This movie came out about 1 1/2 years ago but was just subbed which was a pleasant surprise. Of course the main(only?) reason for wanting to view this is because of Haruka who to me just may be the most attractive Japanese woman around these days. Hard not to think that when you look at these screenshots or end up watching he film.

 But besides her perfect looks this turned out to be a superb movie and it's one I think that will get better with repeat viewings. Unlike all of my other reviews will be using the last names as those were the only names used by the main characters. Haruka plays a serial killer and though there are too many murders to count it's kind of lighthearted in an odd way. There's a few gory scenes but it wasn't overly violent and in a way did set itself up for a sequel. Enough of the intro and let's get to the action, opening scene featured the Hikkomori Kurosu in his dingy apartment musing on whether he should live or die?

 And Kurosu's decision was death, he could find no reason to keep on living. For close to two years Kurosu had been living in a very small apartment which looked like a pig sty, he had no computer, phone, lights(!) or a TV as he was too poor to get any of them. Never was mentioned but have to presume his parents were paying the rent as Kurosu didn't work either as he rarely left his pad. Reason for his 'exit' from life was that he had failed his entrance exams to college and also had quit his prep school to study for the exams. So to Kurosu the only option left was to take his life and he couldn't even do that properly. He set up a lame noose, not on the ceiling but attached it to a wall just three feet from the floor. There's no way he could kill himself that way which is of course what happened but in the process a small chunk of wall tore away which created a peephole into the next apartment.

 To Kurosu's amazement such an attractive woman around his age(21) lived next door which he noticed through the peephole, how had he never seen her before? You'd think with a peephole Kurosu would have seen her scantly clad or coming out of the shower on occasion though that never took place but he had been praying it would! Few days later Kurosu went outside of his place which was a rarity, he lived on the second floor. Below he saw a young woman outside of an apartment who had been knocking but getting no response. She left a bag of chicken nuggets and a drink there, when Kurosu saw that he dashed down and quickly scarfed that food down as he was too poor to pay for any. Noticing that incident was his neighbor Miyaichi, seemed like she took pity on Kurosu so invited him over for lunch. Bit of a dream come true for Kurosu who couldn't stop eating, Miyaichi thought  it was kind of cute and instantly he's fallen for her.

 Them eating together would become a ritual and it usually took place at her apartment. That's because Kusoru's place was too messy plus he couldn't afford to buy food. This had been going on for a few days and Miyaichi had no clue about that peephole though she will soon. One reason for her not noticing is that Kurosu had no lights in his place plus the hole was next to some books. One evening everything changed about the conceptions Kurosu had about Miyaichi who by day was a university student. By night she was.... a serial killer(!) and Kurosu couldn't believe his eyes. He witnessed Miyaichi with an older man in her apartment which shocked him but not nearly as much as what came next. Miyaichi quickly performed some martial arts moves on the man and slit his throat spraying blood everywhere. Kurosu couldn't believe his eyes and thought he was seeing things so quickly went to sleep. When he arose the following morning Kurosu of course took a look through the peephole. There was no body nor blood all over the walls, with a sigh of relief Kurosu realized he dreamt the entire event.

 Wishful thinking as it wasn't a dream, the following night Kurosu witnessed another nightmare killing! Unlike the first time witnessing a murder this time Kurosu quietly screamed to himself. Not too quietly as through the peephole Miyaichi heard her neighbor and even jammed her knife through the small hole. As far as her killings go Miyaichi always has the same routine. She's somehow an expert at martial arts and can whip around a person in somewhat of a dance maneuver. That leaves her victim's neck exposed and slicing through it is the easiest way to stab someone to death quickly. Miyaichi also wears a see-through raincoat for her killings to prevent her clothes from getting drenched with blood though her face always does. Realizing Kurosu may run to the police Miyaichi dashed to his apartment but just a tad too late as he was sprinting down the street though she was soon in hot pursuit.

 There was no way Kurosu was going to outrun Miyaichi who soon trapped him on a building's roof. He confessed to seeing her kill two men and presumed he was going to be next, Kurosu wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing as after all he had tried killing himself. Seems Miyaichi has kind of connected with him and decided to spare Kurosu's life, at least for now she told him. To top it off she added in the pair should start dating though it's definitely not a normal relationship. Miyaichi's idea of dating was having Kurosu watch her do even more killing(!) and she was growing quite brazen. Many of her new killings were taking place outside and in broad daylight, to Kurosu's wonderment she's never come close to being captured. But this 'relationship' has given Kurosu some reasons to live, hard dating a serial killer but he seemingly doesn't mind but that will soon be changing.

 Kurosu has finally cleaned his apartment and to top it off has even gotten a job at a convenience store, his first job ever it appeared. While at work he would scan the papers looking for info on all of Miyaichi's killings but never once found anything about the victims, how would that be? There's a good reason for that and will wait until part two to discuss that, this should be the final paragraph for this post. Kurosu has also began opening up in a way and has even met the man who lives below him, it was the place where he stole that bag of food in the beginning. His name is Kawasaki, he's a few years older and is a lover of cats as he feeds all of the strays in the neighborhood. Kurosu has also become a bit friendly with his younger sister Haruko who is getting worried about her brother who has become such a shut in. Some nights later Kurosu received a note from Miyaichi when he got home, she said to watch through the peephole at 10:00 pm.

 Okay, one more short paragraph. At that time Kurosu watched Miyaichi drag in a tied up Kawasaki! To Kurosu's horror she wasted no time and quickly slashed the man's throat, WHY(?) screamed Kurosu. He dashed over to confront Miyaichi who wasn't there but a mysterious woman with a cleaning crew was, she's in the bottom screenshots. Will talk about who this woman is in the next recap as this one is long enough, these screenshots are of all the action that's taken place up to this point.