Nightmare Detective by Tsukamoto Shinya, the fourth film in competition of the Cinema2006 section and the latest by the Japanese director, had its world premiere at the festival. The film is in keeping with the creative journey of Tsukamoto, creator of post-modern nightmares and visions and the contamination between flesh and metal. A journey that has established him as the point of reference of the collective cyberpunk imagination, thanks to films such as Tetsuo, Tetsuo II, Tokyo Fist and Bullet Ballet.

Akumu tantei – Nightmare Detective shifts its scope to horror and ‘detection’ (a direction that Japanese cinema has taken of late, starting with the films of Takashi Miike and Takashi Shimizu) without, however, abandoning some of the director’s favourite themes. The story of Keiko Kirishima, who is helped by Ryuhei Matsuda (the “nightmare detective” of the title) to flush out the assassin “0” who kills people in their sleep, is a foray into the world of nightmares.

“I must admit that this is my first time watching one of my films together with the audience, which scared me in a certain sense”, said the director. “I had this project in mind since Tetsuo, I was just waiting for the right moment to make it. I’m interested in tackling a subject such as nightmares because it reminds me of my childhood, when falling asleep as a child scared me because I was terrified of having bad dreams. Fear is still a strong emotion, it’s like going on a roller coaster: fear immediately turns into joy. Usually, when I make a film I truly study the situations and settings, [for example] the world of boxing for Tokyo Fist or of hospitals for Vital,” he continued. “In this case, I looked at books by Freud and Jung but noticed that they were beyond my possibilities. So I delved into my childhood memories instead”.

Tsukamoto’s character in the film is killer who sucks his victims’ blood, a role that refers to his work as a director.
“It was my wish to play the murderer who persecutes his victims, the opposite would have been difficult”.

On the relationship between Asian films and the world of animation, he commented: “I don’t think that Japanese cinema is becoming like a manga, even aesthetically. Animated films are still popular, but I see reality like in the cartoons, every so often the line between the two worlds disappears entirely”. Just like the line between life and death in the film. “With Nightmare Detective, I’ve gone back to the themes of my previous films, such as the relationship between the metropolis and human beings, even though I thought I’d finished with that after A Snake of June and Vital”.