Anata no Ban Desu: Gekijoban, internationally known as Your Turn to Kill, is inspired by a drama series of the same title and presents a different timeline and set of events. This film tells the story of newlyweds Tezuka Nana and Tezuku Shota who invite numerous neighbours, friends and family members upon a small cruise ship to celebrate the event. Soon enough however, several passengers start to die under mysterious circumstances. Since nobody can leave the cruise ship, local police investigators and the newlywed couple start investigating before more passengers could die.
This movie offers a vibrant mixture of family drama, investigative thriller and situation comedy. This quirky combination is certainly rather creative but also leads to some bumpy, confusing and exaggerated transitions. This film certainly is an acquired taste to be appreciated by anyone who favours such courageous genre fusions while being dreaded by anyone looking for a coherent story from start to finish.
On the positive side, the film's plot comes around with a few surprises, the chosen settings on the cruise ship blend in very well and several acting performances are quite convincing while leading to a gripping finale.
However, this movie is also roughly twenty to thirty minutes too long and especially its middle section drags on for far too long. This film also struggles to introduce a multitude of characters that could have obviously been more developed in a regular series. Some of the movie's situation comedy feels distracting, exaggerated and stiff as it's at times overused and doesn't blend in very well with the film's overall serious undertone.
If you are intrigued by this movie, make sure to check out Japanese movie The After-Dinner Mysteries that was released almost exactly a decade earlier. Both movies are very similar in their characters, settings and stories to a point that I appreciate both on the same level. If fluid genre combinations intrigue you, then you might even have two very good on your watchlist now.
