ATARU The First Love & The Last Kill (2013)

"A mystery unfolds with a woman named Madoka, who is a killer, and Ataru. The woman possesses the same extraordinary memory and deductive reasoning abilities as Ataru." -- That's the blurb on the movie but, sadly, it really doesn't convey the sheer wonder that this movie holds.

Ataru is an autistic savant with the deduction and reasoning skills even Sherlock Holmes would envy. His fate is tied to Madoka's in a fundamental way. Autistic people have feelings even if they can't always relate to them properly, and Ataru certainly has his AND his own unique way of expressing them (which does have some comical moments as well as sad ones).

Nakai Masahiro truly NAILED the autistic characterisations, he also made Ataru such a complicated character but so lovable at the same time. He's a truly gifted actor to play an austic savant so FLAWLESSLY and it's why I gave this film a 10 on the acting scale.

I would love to see a series with Nakai Masahiro reprising his role as Ataru, and witness how he deals with everything from the this point onwards - his life was never easy; trying to live in a world he didn't understand, populated by people he couldn't really comprehend. But now it's even more complicated and lonely - so I'd like to see not only how his friendship with Maiko and Shunichi progresses, but also how he now relates to Larry....the latter would be the MOST interesting one to witness.

The movie has it's funny moments, it's sad moments and some pretty weird ones. But it's a truly wonderful movie and one I KNOW I will definitely watch over and over again. It has a twist at the end that is one of those 'NONONO!!' moments and if you don't shed a single tear then you have no soul. Me? I cried a veritable river of them..... T-T

Trust me, not only will I be watching this one again; if KissAsian get the others I will DEFINITELY be signing up to those too. I found this movie by accident - so, SO glad I did. Watch it - you won't regret it. I'll definitely give it 9.5/10.

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