Probably the most conventional film Shinya Tsukamoto has directed. Really, it would only take a couple of tiny clichés for that to happen, since every other film he has made is so utterly unconventional. Nightmare Detective is sort of a police procedural. Detectives are investigating two apparent suicides that seem to have killed themselves while dreaming. It turns out both of these people had called the same number shortly before they died, and the detectives believe that the owner of this number, known as 0 (zero), may have had something to do with the deaths. The detectives, through some huge logical jumps, also seek out a man known as the nightmare detective (Ryuhei Matsuda of Taboo), who has the power to enter dreams. The killer (Shinya Tsukamoto) also has this power. The major cliché that bothers me most is that of the hot, young female detective, played by a relative newcomer known only as Hitomi, who has to prove herself to her male co-workers. It's very boring, and, as cute as she is, Hitomi isn't a very good actress, at least not here. My educated guess is that Ms. Hitomi started her career as a model, and was later drafted into acting. There's also the whole cell phone angle, which has already been done by Miike in One Last Call. I admit I have skipped out on that one even though Miike is one of my favorite directors. It's just corny. It also doesn't help that both the hot detective and the cell phone-inspired deaths instantly bring to mind the recent comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which used both of these themes to provide major laughs. And I'm sure no one who made that movie had ever seen Nightmare Detective. Still, even having written a mediocre script, Tsukamoto could never lose his talent for direction. And the direction is very Tsukamoto. When Tsukamoto attacks in the nightmares, he appears as a deformed monster that is only half-seen. The visuals are eerily beautiful and I really liked the music, too. All in all, it's a pretty good horror flick. It's the first part of a trilogy, the second of which should be released in Japan later this year. Hitomi is not a part of it, so I'll keep my hopes up.