Aru Tozasareta Yuki no Sanso de (2024)

Enjoyable performances, but a mish-mash of ideas.

The setup for this movie is great, 7 young actors gather in a villa in the mountains to act out a play that their acting coach/theatre director will be watching on livestream. The goal being to be cast as the lead in the next production.

The play they are meant to act is unfortunately non-descript, and we don't really get much exposition or explanation as to how the play ties in to the story. Outside of an initial scene at the beginning of the movie where they find 7 copies of the same book to read, and then a reference to that book nearing the end of the film.

It turns out that there are some 'real' murders taking place, and the remaining cast are slowly discovering that this might not actually be a play but the real thing. The main character is an outsider to the others and is slowly introduced to the backgrounds of the other actors relationships, and we find out why some of the actors are so tense around each other.

The reveal(s) at the end are not at all unpredictable, which on it's own is fine, but the main character all of a sudden connects all these dots together that we as the audience were completely unaware of and it feels very ham-fisted and convenient.

I like that at the end it is revealed to us that these turn of events had been turned into a play, and we are watching a performance of said play in front of a live audience. I thought it was done very well, and it was a very pleasing transition from 'actual events' to the stage-play itself at the end.

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