JAPAN CUTS 2011 screening: "Into the White Night"

A Dickensian murder mystery drama about the deadly, worldly ambition of a detached, ice-cold beauty, with a Twin Peaks edge and a Balzacian panorama of Japanese society from slums to salons that spans two decades, Into the White Night is the latest adaptation of top mystery novelist Keigo Higashino’s novel (a highly regarded 11-episode TBS TV drama from 2006, and a slick 2009 South Korean movie by Park Shin-woo, with Son Ye-jin, Go Su and Han Seok-gyu). A pawn shop owner in Osaka is murdered, but due to a lack of conclusive evidence the police lists the man’s death as a suicide. Detective Sasagaki, who investigated the case, can’t forget the dark eyes of the main suspect’s daughter Yukiho (Maki Horikita) and the pawn shop owner’s son Ryouji.