Himitsu: Top Secret (2016) review
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| Okada Masaki as the disturbed Clark Kent, I mean, Aoki Ikko |
There are many things I love about Okada Masaki. His acting, his friendliness, his goofiness, his smile, his laughter, his hair (yeah, even his perm)… but most of all, I love his optimism and pure, utter sincerity. I posted earlier that Masaki’s name consists of two characters: 将 Masa (leader, future) and 生 Ki (life, pure). Together, 'Masaki' 将生 denotes 'prosperity'. While I’m of course glad that he prospers throughout the years, I’m more than happy to see that he still has that purity in him (as per the other meaning of 生), albeit all the attentions and success he receives. If I were him, I don’t think I could be that sincere. I will try to be sincere, but Masaki seems to just exudes that sincerity organically.
His sincere and optimistic personality is made more pronounced after watching two of Masaki’s latest production: “Chiisana Kyojin (Little Giants)” and “Himitsu: Top Secret”. None of them are yet subtitled, but gratefully I can still understand the majority of the storyline. I love Chiisana Kyojin and I
If I have to put it in one sentence about Himitsu, here it is: I’m glad Masaki participated in this movie, but I won’t see the movie again. Well, if I can download the movie, I will jump-scene to Masaki-scenes when it’s not the really the murder/horror part. For the rest of the scenes in this movie are filled with suspense, horror and murder that I actually felt a bit sick after watching it.
(Update: I watched it here, but now I have downloaded the subtitle and the movie so I can understand the storyline better).
Okada Masaki paired up with Ikuta Toma, his old friend from the Hana Kimi time. I don’t remember if Masaki ever played with Toma again after Hana Kimi, but IIRC, Himitsu would be the second time they paired up together. That was a jump of almost a decade years… for in Hana Kimi they were but a teenager and a young adult (Masaki 17, Toma 20). In Himitsu, both boys have grown into gorgeous, talented actors (Masaki 25, Toma 28) and they played their challenging roles admirably.
I won’t summarise Himitsu too much. Here’s what AsianWiki says:
Set in the late 21st century, an MRI scanner is introduced at the National Research Institute of Police Science's 9th Forensics Laboratory. The machine is able to scan the memories from even the deceased. As ethical questions arise over the machine's use, the 9th Forensics Laboratory members, including rookie Ikko Aoki and Chief Tsuyoshi Maki, struggle to solve cases.
Masaki played as Aoki Ikko, while Tomasu (that’s how Toma is called) played Chief Maki Tsuyoshi. Maki is a scary and scarred person, his good friend Suzuki died after probing too much into the mind of a murderer. I’m amazed that Toma played him well; Toma was scary as Maki (but he has very good English!).
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| Aoki getting more disturbed as he listened to the horror stories during investigation |
Masaki’s Aoki (who looks very much like Clark Kent without Clark’s goofiness) had the integrity and idealism of a young police officer, yet he soon learned the bitterness of mind-probing in some of the worst ways. (I need Masaki to play a role where he speaks English more; he has to practice his pronunciation more, although his command in English is commendable)
And Aoki is a black belt judoka!
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| Video source of the GIF |
About 20 min or so into the movie, it reveals a most disturbing fact: the murderer that the Japanese government had sentenced to death (they still have death sentence in Japan) was actually not a murderer. This person pretended to murder his wife and daughter because he was protecting his other daughter who was the real murderer. This daughter (Kinoko) was a sexually-charged young woman who enjoyed killing men after she made love with them. She also eventually killed her family, and her father had to step in to prevent her from being sentenced to death.
Seriously disturbing scenes. I need some meditation sessions and reiki and relaxation music to get rid of those scenes from my head.
And if those scenes disturbed my mind… what do they do if people could really re-live those scenes? No wonder Maki’s colleague threatened to commit suicide (Maki had to shoot Suzuki as a self-defense). To Aoki, the scene disturbed him at a sexual level, for he started to have dreams about Kinoko seducing him.
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| Aoki's wild dream |
Here I have to declare that Masaki looked HOT in that dream scene! Seriously. I know it was a “wrong” scene, for Kinoko was a murderer, but Aoki’s internal conflicts made him even hotter. Since Masaki is already in his late 20s, I feel less like a cougar now (though I technically still am). I also think Masaki should play in an MA-17 rated film, but not if sex is just a spice there. It should be integrated into the story, instead of just for fun. He’s so good in those roles (have you seen the Gogo Boys trailer?... Don’t.).
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| ...then he woke up to receive another call about another murder |
Anyway, as the movie reached its climax, Maki made peace with his past about Suzuki (for some reasons, Maki had to probe into Suzuki’s mind although the latter had been dead for sometimes – they just hibernated him). At the same time, Manabe (a local detective) and Aoki found another murder victim that led back to Kinoko. Enraged, Manabe confronted Kinoko and almost shot her. Aoki tried to prevent Manabe from shooting Kinoko (for Kinoko was playing an excellent victim by the time Aoki arrived at the scene). Manabe and Aoki shot each other; Aoki shot Manabe on the shoulder while Manabe injured Aoki’s hip.
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| Aoki trying to prevent Manabe from shooting the real murderess |
Only then Kinoko shed her mask and revealed her true lunatic self. Aoki was shocked to learn that Kinoko was indeed the person who murdered her family. Manabe somehow committed suicide by shooting himself in front of Aoki.
Later, Kinoko called Maki to meet her and fetch Aoki. Fuming, Maki arrived at the scene to find Aoki barely alive. What I don’t get later is that the police squad came and Kinoko played victim again, and the other policemen believed her!
What was that about?!
Maki didn’t come alone, he came with another policeman who saw Kinoko’s lunatic behaviour. Yet Kinoko was released… and went back home safely. What was that about?! She even had time to visit the injured Aoki in the hospital. Kinoko said to Aoki that one day she'd die and he'd learn what happened inside her brain. She then kissed him saucily and walked away. Aoki frantically tried to prevent the murderess from escaping (he couldn’t, though, for the gunshot had made him unable to walk for a while). Aoki then asked the nurse for a mobile phone, for he just realised there was one brain that had to be examined as well.
The brain was that of the dog of the last victim. Maki scanned the brain and found out the evidence that Kinoko did kill the last victim. Maki confronted Kinoko, but she burned herself to death. I think Maki was able to retrieve her brain unscathed, otherwise he wouldn't be able to see the truth.
Maki remained in the Lab as the head honcho. Aoki underwent a rehab to be able to walk again. I felt pain to see Aoki trying to walk again, but he did it (and when you see those scenes, you might feel the same way as I do: that it wasn’t Masaki who was there in the rehab center. It was definitely the injured Aoki. Oh and his shoulders are square... just enough built without overpowering like some body-builders... ahem!).
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| Aoki during rehab (and he still looked hot despite being in pain) |
After he was released from the rehab centre, leaning on his crutch, Aoki reported for the last time to Maki. At the same time, Aoki resigned from the Corp, because he felt he didn’t have the qualification. Truth be told though, I think he had enough of probing into people’s mind… particularly those of the murderers’. Maki didn’t say anything. He just nodded, accepted the resignation letter, and gave Aoki a flash disk.
Back at home, Aoki watched the disk and was visibly disturbed. He then walked to the next room to find his father (Aoki’s father was always in bed due to his illness, and Aoki was there to take care of him). Yet, his father just passed away peacefully. Aoki cried.
By the way, the disk Maki gave Aoki apparently contained a fragment of memories from Kinoko’s mind before she became a murderer. Specifically, when she was but a little girl, beloved by everyone.
What a terrible thing that someone could turn into a mass murderer like that.
As I said: Himitsu Top Secret is likely to leave you disturbed. Watch it at your own risk, and I totally am suggesting that teenagers should be accompanied during viewing and discussions to alleviate anxieties should be conducted afterwards. Or if you are into meditations, do that after watching.
A totally twisted movie. If that’s what they wanted, they got it.
Which made me grateful again how innocent and pure Masaki is in real life. Far from being the disturbed Aoki Ikko, the evil Nijimura Keichō or the conflicted Yamada Haruhiko, the real Okada Masaki is a beautiful person with pure heart. And by the Gods, I hope he stays that way, even just to teach me that there’s always hope and kindness in people.
… Nevertheless, although of course I shouldn’t end this post with this, I cannot resist: Really, I think an MA-17 movie with Okada Masaki as the main actor is totally called for now. That scene of him as Aoki with his wet hair trying to resist Kinoko’s kisses was just… disturbing in a good way.
