I do like inheritance films; the way they feel like accidentally walking into someone else’s family reunion and realising within five minutes that pretty much all the family has beef going back generations, And of course you stay because vibes are so fascinatingly off and they’re about to read a will so you know there will be drama.And this one plays out as an atmospheric puzzle; part gothic melodrama, part procedural mystery, part dark comedy. All controlled, but playful enough to have moments of absurdity punctuate the tension without undermining it. Rolling out in a way where it moves along at its own pace, quietly tightening its grip until you realise you’ve been completely absorbed.There’s disguises, secret identities, manufacturing conspiracies, affairs, bad parenting, beautiful lakes, old letters and, obviously, murders. And then into this we get Kōji Ishizaka’s detective Kindaichi, the perfect counterweight to all the high-key family goings on, wandering through the chaos with this rumpled, unbothered, dandruff-y crime solving energy. I am glad the me of two and a half hours ago decided to write down the family tree explained at the start of this though. I know how bad I am with names and faces, so it saved me from being confused a few times when people were talking about whatever was going on or the buried family secrets. But if you’re not as oblivious to other folks as me, I don’t think you’d have problems keeping up even as the plotting gets satisfyingly complex.Somehow its elegant and formal but also a little deranged and off kilter, So, yes, I really enjoyed it. To the point where I didn’t even notice the mammoth run time passing. That’s quite the compliment from me.
