Faceless 2024
Kaburagi (Ryusei Yokohama) was arrested as a suspect in a brutal murder case, but he escapes. He continues to hide and move all around Japan. During this time, he meets Sayaka (Riho Yoshioka), Kazuya (Shintaro Morimoto) and Mai (Anna Yamada). Detective Matanuki (Takayuki Yamada) is on the trail to capture Kaburagi. He interrogates the people who met Kaburagi, but they all describe Kaburagi differently from each other. Kaburagi has been missing for 488 days. Who really is Kaburagi? What is his plan?
Cast
Riho Yoshioka, Gouki Maeda, Tetsushi Tanaka, Ryusei Yokohama, Shintaro Morimoto, Hideko Hara, Yutaka Matsushige, Shohei Uno, Anna Yamada, Naomi Nishida, Takayuki Yamada, Hana Kino, Taro Suruga, Takashi Yamanaka
Review
“Faceless” is an engrossing thriller that thrives on ambiguity. It presents a world where truth is a matter of perspective, and identity is as fluid as the stories people tell. The film follows Kaburagi, an 18-year-old who finds himself at the center of a murder investigation. With the law closing in on him, he makes the desperate choice to flee, setting off a cat-and-mouse chase across Japan. As he weaves through cities, mountains, and countryside, he encounters strangers who shape his journey in unexpected ways. Some offer him kindness, others suspect, and all leave with a different version of who they believe he is. Meanwhile, Detective Matanuki, relentless and methodical, pieces together these fragmented descriptions in pursuit of a fugitive who never looks the same twice.
The strength of the film lies in how it plays with perception. No two people seem to see Kaburagi in the same way, and as a result, the audience is left questioning who he truly is. Is he an innocent man running from injustice, or a manipulative liar playing the role that best suits him in the moment? The film refuses to give easy answers, making every interaction feel like another piece of an incomplete puzzle. Each new person he meets sees him through their own biases, and as the narrative unfolds, the lines between reality and assumption blur. This is a film that keeps slipping through the fingers, never allowing its audience to hold onto a single truth for too long.
