Once Upon a Crime (2023)

A fun retelling

I clicked on this movie for two reasons: 1) The Netflix algorithm knows me pretty well and 2) I was bored and didn't have the energy to start a whole new show so I thought a movie was perfect.

And boy, was it. This isn't just a re-imagining of Red Riding Hood and Cinderella's stories, it's basically fanfiction just using the characters and giving them entirely different stories (but still using key plot points in a clever way). And I mean that in a good way. As the other reviewer said, Hashimoto Kanna played Red Riding Hood really well. I loved that they turned her into a detective that has flashes of inspiration - though I'm going to be honest that even now I'm not sure if they're visions or her mind just connecting dots. But even not knowing that, it was really cool to watch.

Everything about this re-imagining - from having two witches instead of a fairy godmother to the murder Red Riding Hood solves - made these classic stories feel fresh and new. And our prejudices of what we expect to happen in this story is clearly expected by the writers since they play on that in a fun way.

But it's not all solving murder and fairy-tale magic - there's love and humor and wit, too. I wouldn't call this movie a masterpiece, but it was really good in a lot of ways, and one I'd enjoy rewatching for sure.

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A Fairy Tale Murder Mystery That Casts a Magical Spell

"Once Upon a Crime" is a delightful comedy-mystery movie that keeps you entertained from start to finish with its quirky charm. This inventive twist on the classic Cinderella story elevates it from a simple fantasy tale to a captivating murder mystery.

The film's narrative revolves around the familiar Cinderella, a young girl mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters. However, in this imaginative rendition, she encounters our protagonist, Little Red Riding Hood, who possesses a unique power of deduction. When Cinderella's carriage accidentally strikes the royal hairdresser, she, along with Red Riding Hood, conceals the body and continues on her way to the ball. At the royal event, where she catches the prince's eye, things take a dramatic turn when the dead body is discovered. This is where Red Riding Hood steps in as the detective to unravel the mystery behind the hairdresser's demise.

What truly sets this movie apart is its ingenious blend of a murder mystery with a beloved fairy tale. Amid the enchanting backdrop of Cinderella's story, we find another iconic fantasy character, Little Red Riding Hood, playing a Sherlock Holmes-like role. The seamless integration of the murder mystery into the well-known fairy tale is a commendable feat. It never detracts from the fantasy elements of Cinderella's world. The intricate plot surrounding the hairdresser's murder and the eventual revelation of the culprit are handled with finesse.

Hashimoto Kanna, portraying Little Red Riding Hood, steals the spotlight with her exceptional acting, while Araki Yuko, as Cinderella, breathes life into her character. Iwata Takanori, in the role of the Prince, delivers an outstanding performance, and Sato Jiro's presence never fails to entertain. I was surprised to see Inukai Atsuhiro as one of the guardsmen and was hoping he had more screentime.

In conclusion, "Once Upon a Crime" masterfully blends humor and mystery within the enchanting realms of fantasy and magic. This film offers a unique cinematic experience, where the age-old fairy tale takes an unexpected and thrilling turn. Whether you're a fan of mysteries or simply love imaginative storytelling, this movie is sure to cast a magical spell on you.

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Once upon a (badly executed) crime

It's a good movie if you want to pass some time and have nothing better to do.

It starts out very slow and it picks up the pace around 30 min mark.

It's a classic Cinderella story with a twist, instead of a love story, we get a murder story and Red Hood is a detective.

When they were discussing who is the murderer at the ball, it was so funny. He is the murderer because of that. She is the murderer because of that. One solid evidence and you are done even if you didn't do it. And at the end, the King just let them all go home even though they didn't catch the murderer.

What's the point of the story? Well, the story relies on this one plot twist at the end to carry the whole story. It's a good plot twist but something was lacking. The ending felt incomplete. Cinderella was bullied her whole life and then when she trusted one person, it turned out to be a creepy dude. I'm not saying what she did is not wrong but it should have been wrapped up differently. There was no message at the end, just a plot twist.

Beauty is not everything? If they wanted that to be a message, they did a really bad job.

Bum, plot twist, be surprised. They did decent with that.

Overall, it has some fun and interesting moments and the costumes are pretty.

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Curious concept and cute fantasy costumes are the only good thing here

To be honest most of my rating went down because of the ending, had they dealt with that differently this would have been a passable 5 surprisingly. It would have been one of those bad movies that are still surprisingly entertaining with its many flaws.

I went with very low expectations and only started watching it to kill some time, only by the preview I already thought it was going to be cringy and bad, and I was generally not wrong, but surprisingly I did find it more entertaining than expected because of the plot.
The whole vibe this was giving me was school play, flashy costumes, everything clean and staged, exaggerated acting or amateur acting and so on, even the premise is kind of weird since it's mostly Cinderella but Red Riding Hood is there just because. It's fine, I could get at some points not even themselves were taking it too seriously, especially towards the beginning. They didn't seem to have high expectations and nor did I have them, so I just chilled and watched.

Plot became interesting with the crime and the changes to the different characters compared with the most known story version of Cinderella but then they just went with a classic detective Conan move of revealing everything at the end instead of taking us with them for the ride. I enjoyed Conan when I was a kid but it would get repetitive and boring after a while because he would only solve everything in the last two minutes bringing evidence that no one, not even the spectator, knew about. This was very similar in that respect and I could still have given it a general pass if it wasn't for that victim blaming right there.
Sure, Cinderella shouldn't have done what she did (especially with her sister), BUT the guy was assaulting her plus everyone else knew that guy had been doing it for a while to other women as well... sure, he was powerful but considering he was not in good terms with the prince either you would think that power would be deminished by that single fact and she would get a sentence based on the nuance of the situation. Either way, I'm going here on details when the movie didn't care much for them at all, what makes that ending as bad as it is. Moral of the story is don't defend yourself when a guy is physically assaulting you I guess.
Although moral of the story is don't judge people by their physical appearance according to them, but they all had thick makeup on (maybe just me but especially the prince, wow, it was not subtle at all), hair with a tone of hairspray and pristine clothing, including Red Riding Hood eventhough she wasn't even a local. I guess at the end we got the message that we shouldn't discriminate against people with face scars and freckles, what is already an achievement considering many people in Japan think freckles are ugly.

I'm only giving it a two because the concept wasn't that bad even with the whole cringe fest of everything, but that ending and its morality deserves a zero.

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Well made, but ending is not satisfactory

The overall plot is simple - as shown in trailer. Red Riding Hood plays the role of a detective traveling though a forest, when she comes across Cinderella. Finding something odd about her, Red Riding Hood decides to become part of her adventure for the ball night, en route to which the magic pumpkin carriage runs over a dead man, who turns out to be the royal hairdresser. Once King's security discovers the dead man, a search is initiated to find the murderer. The majority of movie is spent on turning the ballroom night into a closed room murder mystery.

Everything was good. Plot, costumes, cinematography, VFX - everything fit well with the fantasy genre. I just didn't like the ending. I really think Cinderella could have been pardoned by the Prince, or given relatively reduce punishment, for essentially defending herself from a creepy psycho trying to assault her. I didn't get the moral or ethical worldview the movie was trying to pursue.

Apart from the murder mystery, there is little extra content in the plot, except recycled characters from well known stories. Maybe they were trying to go for "true love does not care for external beauty" but it didn't come across well.

It is a decent movie that blends fantasy + mystery. Still unhappy about the ending though.

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Great Start, Disappointing Ending - Major Spoilers Below

This movie is bonkers. It's over the top. It's wacky. And I don't hate it.

I unironically love the witch Barbara, and Red Riding Hood is great as the Only Sane One. The attention to detail was great. I love that the prince was in love with someone who has freckles, and loves her even with a big ass scar on her face (that they actually made look pretty bad, not just a tiny thing).

I hate how it treats Cinderella.

Let's be honest, if this movie took place in real life, the hairdresser wouldn't be a guy who 'cuts women's hair off against their will.' He would be a serial rapist. He assaulted all those women and kept their hair as trophies (like a mass murderer). So this guy finds a woman who has been emotionally, verbally, and even possibly physically abused her entire life and convinces her to come back to his house by making her think he can help her. Then he assaults her. She defends herself and accidentally kills him.

Is she wrong for trying to pin the murder on someone else? Sure. But the person she tried to pin it on had, again, abused her her whole life and had, just that morning, killed the only friend she had (the pigeon). She wanted some form of justice. So was Cinderella in the wrong? Absolutely. Give her a punishment, sure. Put her in jail, even. But the movie shows her zero sympathy and she's painted as the only one in the wrong. Even her step-mother and step-sisters aren't treated as poorly and they were her abusers and, in Margot's case, animal killers. Because the bird ate a scone she dropped on the grass. The HAIRDRESSER isn't painted as poorly!

So I didn't hate the movie. If Red Riding Hood hadn't been there and Cinderella made the deductions and found the killer (maybe Anne or Margot really did do it?), even keeping that the prince is in love with someone else, I would have loved it. I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the movie, honestly. But I dislike what happened in that last 1/4 so much that I can't rate it higher than a 6. Sorry, not sorry.

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Lovely. This is why I support the "Public Domain" movement (and CC-BY and CC-BY-SA as well), it gives writers the freedom to create new stories based on characters we are already familiar with. It gives us the "legal right" to present the "what-ifs" and let other people enjoy the adaptations.

A must watch if you are a fan of fairy tales and curious about the what-ifs of these stories. Recommended for family watching, especially with the coming holidays. It may be a modern adaptation but it still have moral lessons in it just like the originals.

Now, when are we going to see the sequels?

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Lack a point of view, too middle-of-the-road screenwriting making it rather bland despite the topic

This movie is kind of an adaptation of Cinderella fairy's tale but involving Little Riding Hood and centred around the resolution of a crime mystery...I unfortunately did not enjoy this film but it might be just a case of "it's me...not you".

In terms of fairy tales adapations, I think it is lacking a strong point of view. It is sweet but not much else. I wish they went darker but the scenario went for a middle-of-the-road tone that I found a bit boring. There are too much comedy / overacting to take anything seriously, so the ending with the "life lesson" felt totally flat to me. At the same time, they are adding grim touches with the crime itself and some of the elements relating to the characters, but it is done superficially and it never get even midly frightening...

I was not impressed by the acting but the production value was alright. Special effects were overall well executed and costumes were really pretty. The music was not memorable at all but fitted well with the movie.

I would not recommend this movie if you are looking for a darker take on fairy tales. It is really a matter of taste and expectations. Personally, I enjoy a lot Kaori Yuki mangas where she often revisit in a very dark and grim way various fairy tales...I would have wished the movie to take a similar approach. Here, it is more a family movie with a mystery for which I found the resolution pretty clumsy as well.

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Amazing production and visuals but lacklustre and somewhat disappointing story

First of all, the production value and visuals of this film are amazing!! It is definitely on par with that of a Hollywood movie of its calibre like ‘Mirror Mirror’. The costumes and props were also equally well done and executed. Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.

In terms of the story itself, I’m pretty conflicted but I think I have to say it felt meh overall to me. I’m not sure if it’s because it impedes on the typical fairy tale tropes so dear and well-known to my heart or if it’s truly because the execution was poor. The concept in itself is pretty fresh and interesting. I think it just didn’t seem to execute it as well as it could have while keeping the well-known tropes we all know and love. I did find myself getting, not necessarily bored, but disengaged at some parts throughout the film. I did like the whole Sherlock Holmes type of aspect to it and the whole crime solving was definitely very interesting. I think where it lost me was having Cinderella revealed as the murderer. While yes, choosing her did make it to be a big unexpected shock for a plot twist because of what we know of this iconic fairy tale character already, this same reasoning acts to weaken the story’s appeal. When dealing with such iconic and well-known characters, there has to be a level of consideration for the viewer’s preconceived perceptions and opinions for that character. Especially with a character like Cinderella, this is unavoidable. For this reason, having Cinderella be the murderer left a bad taste in my mouth for this movie overall. I, as the viewer, know Cinderella in many forms of media to be a heroine and a likeable character and I know her backstory very well (which this film didn’t delve too much into presumably because they know we know her character). I, as the viewer, know that her character has a history of severe mistreatment from those around her and being wronged, so having her character end up like that seems like a huge injustice to me because of my preconceptions. Further injustice is felt by the own world that they have constructed to place her in, where the kingdom disregards people like her because she is ‘ugly’ and poor. Additionally, the dude she murdered was a literal creep and bad person, so technically she acted in self-defence. This was literally not even acknowledged like free my girl right now purrr ???

Overall, the film's visuals were very high quality and well produced, but it fell short with its story. The story's execution is quite disappointing because the concept in itself is very interesting. In trying to be bold and shocking in its crime mystery, it neglects the viewers’ preconceived opinions of classic fairy tale characters. The film did have its moments where it was fun and campy, so I will give it that.

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Real old fashioned pantomime

We thoroughly enoyeded this, finding it by looking out for things featuring the fabulous Maya Miki, who doesn't feature very much but it was still very good. It has much of the flavour of a real old fashioned British stage pantomime, which often had a lot of fairytale characters mixed together, It was indeed very 'stagey' which was fine for us but seems to have disappointed people who wanted more opened-out action. It was funny - laughed out loud a couple of times - and the plot was intricate enough to be a surprise without being confusing. Perfect Xmas holiday viewing. (There are a lot of negative reviews on IMDB, mostly people complaining about this film not being something that it didn't set out to be. ) Good to see Hashimoto Kanna in something other than schoolgirl killer mode (loved ANIMAL SQUAD!) and would definately want to see more of this Red Riding Hood's adventures.

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..AND SHE LIVES (UN)HAPPILY EVER AFTER..

..well not as always a happy ending - sadly for one of the main cast..
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..the story is seems like an isekai-themed where two popular character on children's story meet..
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..from the title itself, yes, a crime genre story too..
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..love the casting and the flow of the story - easy to follow once the alibi and the evidence appears one by one..
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..but the latter part is somehow a shocking for me - didn't expect that the reason why the Prince met Cinderella - a shoe that will step as an strongest evidence for her..
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..in the end, the whole story is just so amazing for me, a genius one..

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