Missing (2024)

This is a miserable movie, and it will make you miserable.

Superior acting from the leads Ishihara Satomi, and Aoki Munetaka. It is no exaggeration that Ishihara spends about half the screen time crying or breaking down in tears. I can't imagine what it took to be that emotionally exhausted for the filming period. I can't imagine what it would be like to have your child go missing, but I imagine it leaves you searching for your sanity in a way that closely resembles what Ishihara portrays in her role as the mother.

There is very little, if any, levity to be had in this movie. Despair grows and continues throughout the movie and I found myself being emotionally taxed by the end of it. It's just setback after setback for the couple who are trying desperately to cling to any shred of hope that might come their way. It just always ends in more despair.

There is no happy ending here and the movie wraps up with no conclusion, a reflection of reality when a child goes missing.

(I'd love to just be able to ignore the rewatch value metric here. I don't think this is a movie you would want to watch more than once because it's A LOT, but giving it a low score also feels unfair).

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