Introduction

One could argue that the experience that Norichika Oba cumulated as a freelance assistant director led to the creation of his crime-drama Cyclops (2018), but that would ignore the success he had with his first feature film Nora (2010) so many years ago and his well-received adaptation of Shinichiro Hagihara’s post-humous published Tanka collection, Runway (2020). All these elements point to the fact that Oba is a director with enough skill and talent. Does he show off his talent to with Cyclops?

Review

One day, sergeant Kazunari Matsuo (Kozo Sato) approaches Yosuke Shinohara (Mansaku Ikeuchi), a former convict, to give him the case-file of the palace hotel murder case. Wrongly accused of and incarcerated for his murder of his wife, Akiko (-), Matsuo hopes that he will utilize this document to find and punish the real murderer. 

The next day, Matsuo informs him that the murderer of his wife is Kenji Zaizen (Hikohiko Sugiyama), the leader of the Inaba gang, and that his true target was Kenichi Tezuka (-), a city council member who was, at that time, together with Akiko. He, furthermore, introduces Shinohara to Nishi (-), an informant, who, if he wishes so, will help him get his justice. 

Oda’s Cyclops plays with the idea that one often needs to search justice outside the usual means, i.e. the judicial system, because the Other of the law is poisoned by acts of deception and a thirst for manipulation. The many twists and turns in the exquisite finale do not only expose the rot that is present within the Other and puts the answer to the question of Akiko’s murderer’s identity radically into question (Narra-note 1).    

It is not that Cyclops aims to illustrate that the Japanese legal system fails as such, but that it, as an institution with an important function within the symbolic field, resists correction. This resistance is, in our view, because the justice system protects, first and foremost, the letter of the law. A verdict that ends up being faulty does not merely cast a shadow of doubt on the law as such, but also on the very way it structures the societal Other. Moreover, the centrality of the cold letter of the law causes the system to put more importance on swiftly dishing out of convictions in accordance with the law than uncovering of the very truth of the crime. In other words, the protection of the facade of a functional justice system is more important that uncovering the root of criminal evil and corruption that veins through the societal field.  

The extreme difficulty to overturn the given symbolic punishment by the judicial Other is the main reason why the sergeant Kazunari Matsuo goes out of his way to sneakily give the imprisoned Shinohara a picture of the real killer, but also by the ease by which he obtains a copy of the case-file. Both acts imply that ‘justice’ cannot be expected from the court system anymore.

Cyclops, but also explores the subjective turmoil that marks Shinohara – i.e. the unanchored anger/frustration that is ever ready to lash out. This anger, that has no other aim than pushing the Other away, is not merely caused by the weight of being wrongly accused, but also by the guilt of having contributed to her untimely death. The cynical flavour of his signifiers, the verbal fights that he readily seeks, betray that he has not come to terms with the death of his wife – the lack that empties him out as subject – and cannot accept the Other as poisoned by injustice and its self-serving reflex to protects its superficial but deceptive harmony.

Yet, within all these tensive and volatile relationships, the resemblance of the mama of the bar to his deceased wife Akiko allows Shinohara to find a minimal anchor point within the societal field and offers him a chance to phantasmatically enact what he could not do – i.e. protect and safe his wife (Narra-note 2). This resemblance, by echoing the absence of his Real loss, enables him to somewhat restrain his boiling anger and subdue the tension that troubles his relationship with the o/Other (Narra-note 3).  

While dynamic moments are present within Oba’s composition, the key-signifiers or acts that structure and guide the unfolding of the narrative are introduced via simple concatenations of static shots. Of course, that does not mean that dynamism has only a decorative function within his composition. Early in the narrative, Oba utilizes shaky framing and zoom-in movement to evoke the subjective importance of the pictures within the case-file and highlight the emotional connection he had with the female murder-victim. Moreover, by echoing his subjective pain through visual decorations, Oba elegantly invites the spectator to identify with the main character and invest in his subjective trajectory.     

Besides utilizing dynamic moments to echo something of Shinohara‘s subjective position, Oba also dynamically and evocatively blends imagery together to grant the spectator a dream-like insight into the very absence that marks our character and guides his acts and signifiers. Shaky framing is furthermore utilized to heighten the sense of tension in certain sequences.  

What makes Cyclops, thus, so satisfying is not the way the story unfolds per se, but Oda’s ability to frame important narrative moments in a way that makes his imagery impact the spectator and linger within the spectator’s mind long after the sequence has passed (Cine-note 1). The impact of these shots, however, is not merely due to the elegant way they are composed, but due to the fact that these moments offer a glance at Shinohara’s subjective position – compositional tensions are utilized to emphasize ‘narrative’ tensions (e.g. the fear to kill that speaks through his failure at his first shooting practice, the anger that fuels his punches in Haru’s bar).  

Cyclops is a very engaging and visually effective crime-drama. What makes Oba’s narrative so satisfying is that he combines a composition that emphasizes the troubled subjectivity of the main character with a narrative that highlights the rot within the Other of the law. The interaction of both strengthens the twist-rich finale and will leave spectator deeply satisfied.   

Notes

Narra-note 1: The rot in the Other of the law is function of a subject taking hold of the law and act as if he fully embodies this law.

Narra-note 2: The twists Oda throws our way do not change this truth and the fact that it fundamentally drives its main character.

Narra-note 3: The painting of the cyclops Polyphemos and the nymph Galatea in the bar is elegantly utilized to echo the subjective position of the woman resembling Akiko as well as Shinohara.

Cine-note 1: The impact of these moments is enhanced by the gritty visual feel of the composition – a visual feel function of the faded colours and the somewhat darkish lighting-design.