I know they say that the sorts of folks who do this horrendous shit also tend to be incredibly well-liked and charismatic, but this is just WILD. It's true that the whole family comes across as almost impossibly naïve, but to their credit, none of us have any idea how much rizz this dude actually had.
Also, this helped to reaffirm for me that I too was DEFINITELY groomed by an adult man as a teenager, which feels like a terrifying prerequisite for growing up AFAB.
Missing persons documentaries make me so emotional, and this was no exception. It can be frustrating to learn about all of the many times when people could have intervened or tried to intervene to no avail. It's infuriating to know that there are people out there doing horrific things to other, more vulnerable people and getting away with it for years and decades. But what really shines through in so many cases like this is the perseverance of memory and love.
The ONLY thing this film has going for it (and this is being a tad generous) is taking on the POV of the daruma. Outside of that, this is just some crisis of masculinity "is it magic or is it madness" bullshit. Apparently the writers didn't even know what a daruma was until AFTER writing the script and then decided to incorporate it. Unfortunately, they clearly still don't know what a daruma is or how it works and that's painfully apparent throughout the film. I'd skip this shitty misappropriation of Japanese culture if I were you.
Again, such a fascinating premise. Unfortunately, this was made for the "mama bear" crowd and that will never be me.
My favorite scene was when she popped her back cyst, pulled out a plug of hair, and just shrugged like, "Huh. Okay." Needed more of that.
Take it from this unwanted child (and I cannot emphasize this enough), just don't have kids. You are not required to have kids.
