is a 2000

2000 in film

The year 2000 in film involved some significant events.The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor ....

 Japanese

Cinema of Japan

The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...

 mystery

Mystery film

Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.The...

-thriller film, directed by Hideo Nakata

Hideo Nakata

Hideo Nakata is a Japanese filmmaker.-Life and career:Nakata was born in Okayama, Japan. He is most familiar to Western audiences for his work on Japanese horror films such as Ring , Ring 2 and Dark Water...

. It stars Miki Nakatani and Masato Hagiwara

Masato Hagiwara

is a Japanese actor. He is employed by Alpha Agency.-Live-Action Roles:*Change!*Onmyoji as Imperial Prince Sawara Shinno-Anime roles:*Akagi as Shigeru Akagi*Blade as Kykyo Mikage...

. It is based on Shōgo Utano's novel .

Plot synopsis

A handyman

Handyman

A handyman is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "odd jobs", "fix-up tasks", and include light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet...

 (Masato Hagiwara

Masato Hagiwara

is a Japanese actor. He is employed by Alpha Agency.-Live-Action Roles:*Change!*Onmyoji as Imperial Prince Sawara Shinno-Anime roles:*Akagi as Shigeru Akagi*Blade as Kykyo Mikage...

) gets involved in a kidnapping scheme with the wife of a wealthy businessman. She lets herself be tied up and confined in his house while he sends the ransom demand. When he returns home that night, however, he finds her lying dead on the floor. In a panic, he buries her body deep in the woods and tries to return to his ordinary life. One day, he thinks he spots her walking down the street. Is his mind playing tricks on him, or has she somehow returned from the grave?

Cast

• Masato Hagiwara
  Masato Hagiwara
  is a Japanese actor. He is employed by Alpha Agency.-Live-Action Roles:*Change!*Onmyoji as Imperial Prince Sawara Shinno-Anime roles:*Akagi as Shigeru Akagi*Blade as Kykyo Mikage...
  
   - Handyman/Gorō Kuroda
• Miki Nakatani - Satomi Tsushima
• Ken Mitsuishi - Takayuki Komiyama
• Jun Kunimura - Police Inspector Hamaguchi
• Yuuna Natsuo

Critical reception

The film received favourable reviews, garnering a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

, certifying it as "fresh." and a 63 out of 100 grade on Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which means "generally favorable reviews."