Zero no shoten

Little known in this country, director Yoshitaro Nomura adapted no fewer than five novels by Seicho Matsumoto, Japan’s most prominent crime writer. ZERO NO SHOTEN occupies a special place within their creative collaboration, not least because of the film’s two multifaceted female protagonists: Teiko (Yoshiko Kuga), who sets out to find her husband after he vanishes without trace just a few days after their wedding, and Sachiko Murota (Hizuru Takachiho), the inscrutable wife of a former business partner. Kuga’s matter-of-fact voiceover guides the audience into and through the film, which features all the elements of a classic film noir, including shady characters, double identities, flashbacks and fast-paced plot developments, Yet ZERO NO SHOTEN is also a portrait of postwar Japanese society beyond the Tokyo comfort zone. (mg)