A socially inert, icy detective, Keiko Kirishima(Hitomi)working on her first assignment, recently, by request, sent to the streets after working at a desk, finds the task of finding the mystery behind a rash of mysterious suicides quite demanding. It seems that those who commit suicide, in such a gruesome manner with whatever sharp object is available to them, are in a state of nightmarish sleep influenced by another to enact destruction upon themselves. Seeing that these aren't ordinary investigations, Keiko and partner Wakamiya(Masanobu Ando)are to find a psychic of some sort who can aid them in uncovering the predator who preys on victims with a suicidal desire to end their sad, seemingly unimportant lives in a crappy world. It seems that the dead victims, under suspicious means, communicated with someone merely identifying himself as O(..director Shinya Tsukamoto, in another one of his many strange supporting roles). O, it seems, somehow hypnotically controls those on the opposite end of the phone and Keiko decides that she'll need the help of an infamous "nightmare detective"(Ryuhei Matsuda)who can enter dreams to assist those under duress by whatever is plaguing the restless sleep of victims. Keiko will voluntarily call O in a desperate attempt to stop his murderous reign, facing the horrifying consequences as he exposes her own mental/emotional problems. Despite a reluctant resistance & fear, the nightmare detective will assist Keiko in trying to find and stop O.
Part police procedural, part psychological thriller, with a little Nightmare on Elm Street mixed in, leave it to director Tsukamoto to make it all come together. Like the best psychological thrillers, we get an understanding as to why the killer is committing such evil deeds, and the frailties of those whose job it is to catch them. Through the killer, the emotionally fragile detective(..and our nightmare detective)faces the inner demons that haunt her. In other words, through the ordeal of this killer invading her vulnerable dream state, she must find strength with the help of her telepathic avenger, the only one who can truly stop the madman, to face the knife-wielding hunk of monstrous flesh which briskly moves at it's victims. We also see through the eyes of our nightmare detective..the inner thoughts of others which yield ugly revelations, the dream of a catatonic he's supposed to save, how he "travels" into the dreams of others, and how he indeed can alter the path of the killer(..first stopping it momentarily from attacking Wakamiya who calls O with tragic results, and how he assists Keiko whose seemingly trapped in an enclosed room with little wiggle-room to move)with possible harm/death to himself. We also see what happens to several victims who communicate with O and the nightmarish plane for which he operates and the grisly, bloody results. And, indeed we get a showdown between the nightmare detective and the killer as we learn what may've formed them into the men they've become. My only real complaint was the camera work which is the newly adopted steady-cam style where everything's always moving frantically. AS with most of Tsukamoto's work, this could be a bit difficult and challenging for many viewers. I think the most present theme in the film is the will to live when life seems the most empty, and the terrain explored of why we are the way we are and the certain situations from the past that have shaped us into the human beings we have become. The three main leads, the emotionally vacant Keiko, the numb & sad nightmare detective tired of a gift which has been more of a burden, and the killer whose hunger for human flesh(..the monster that represents him in the nightmares that entreat upon victims, "assisting" them in an act they supposedly desired to commit)derives from a desire to at first die by his own hand due to a horrifying traumatic experience as a child(..seeing this in a flashback when the nightmare detective "opens" his mind, which also answers the mysterious girl's voice asking for help)leads to the deaths of many who were to kill themselves with him in a suicide pact across the phone.
SPOILER:This could very well be the first time I've seen a killer actually murder others with a cell phone in a catatonic state
