2 out of 5

Directed by: Eisuke Naitô

We open on the awed looking Shigeo (Shûhei Nomura), staring up at a blurred, heavenly-ish apparition while hopeful music plays.  The number 0 appears.  Fade out and in, and we’re told its 44 days earlier.  We’re back on Shigeo, looking much less awed as he hides in a school bathroom stall, only to be chased out – we get the impression he’s the runt of the pack, here – and forced to participate in the completion of a dandelion statue, which elicits much applause from the gathered school folk.  Interrupted by an emergency.  All run outside to see a girl – whom we later find out is Azusa (Kaho) – perched on the roof, ready to jump.  She does.  Fade out and in.

And so it goes for 90 minutes, the story randomly bopping to different points earlier than that number 0 moment, sometimes for story purposes – we see a result, then flashback to the cause – and sometimes for cheap manipulative purposes: showing something, flash back “ten minutes ago,” or seconds ago or some such so we can close our eyes or grit our teeth over the expected cataclysm of whatever that flash just established.  Overall, though, the sequencing just seems to be cluttered, and we can be favorable and attribute this to the film’s title, and how it ties into the unspoken theme of the senselessness of life, or we can be cynical and call this the offering of a filmmaker who’s grown up in a world of Saw movies (commonly referenced regarding this film) and Tarantino flicks and the many Tarantino imitators.  Because I’m not completely sold on Naitô’s “message” in Puzzle, I’m leaning toward the latter.

More directly, of course, the title simply refers to a conceit of the sections of the film between 0 and 44 days ago: Starting 24 days ago, some masked youths show up in that school after hours and sequester some teachers, threatening death to one unless the others complete a task to retrieve puzzle pieces.  This event ends up causing a media sensation thanks to its conclusion, as well as tossing another wrench into the process via a copper who’s investigating the case on his own time.  And soon enough, other puzzles with similar stakes occur.

We do get a surface explanation of the reason for this orchestration, but not so much an explanation or exploration of the motivations of those involved.  Naitô, instead, seems to use his characters to represent concepts; the lack of grounding is enhanced by the obliviously cheery music and the childlike look the puzzles.  The film is most certainly not meant to be viewed literally, but again, I’m not sure its construction was the most effective way to bleat its ideals.  That being said, for what was apparently a low budget production, the film looks confident, and the sets / “puzzles” feel concrete, despite their surrealistic design.

The slogan of the film is “No one deserves to live in this world.”  During the course of events, it sticks to this, with some reaching one-liners that are maybe supposed to be gut-punching wisdoms but come across as the ignorant rebellious yells of youth.  The nihilism isn’t outside of my belief system; “Puzzle,” though, is uneven in how it dispenses its justice, giving us reasons sometimes and excuses at other times.  Buried beneath the twisted sequencing and finger-pointing, there’s a worthwhile exploration of how the viewer wants to assign blame, and I do suspect that Naitô had some hopes of subverting the exploitation genre a tad to get at that.  But his movie simply isn’t up to the task.  It’s not smart enough.  It gets lost behind some artistry – which makes for a good looking / sounding film, admittedly – and the need to “prove” its point.  Which, alas, ends up making it exploitative itself.