No Longer Human was originally a Novel written by famed author Osamu Dazai in 1948. The novel was considered to be his best work because of it's dark humanistic nature and he took his life shortly after the novel was released. Over the years the novel has been reprinted many times. There's also been anime adaptions as well as other series that take influences from Dazai's work such as Bungo Stray Dogs or the Junji Ito manga retelling from another perspective. Then the film was remade in 2019 directed by Mika Ninagawa and written by Kaeko Hayafune, starring Shun Oguri, retired actress Erika Sawajiri, Fumi Nikaido, Rie Miyazawa, Koji Seto, and Kengo Kora. We pretty much have an all star cast here if you know anything about Japanese cinema. The film opened at fourth place in the Japanese box office last year.
A famous author runs from women to women to cure his writer's block. One of the women includes his own wife. He must write the perfect novel that will leave an impact on all who read it....
On Longer Human's trailer will make not think too much of this film to be honest. I thought the director was going more for a comedy film. Since I know a little about Dazai's original novel,(only because I ready Junji Ito's version) to see that they took a dark depression story and made it into a playboy's experience didn't do too much for me. However, I still got my hands on the film because this will probably be Erika Sawjiri's last film so I had to check it out. This new version ended up giving me over two hours of a man playing games on three women. At least the events are kept interesting by the characters as the plot very much feeds on human turmoil. Even the lack there of..... That's what happens when being around toxic people normalizes your pain you experience from those same people. I had witness to a bunch of people swirling in a spiral for two hours with one man in the middle controlling it all. There isn't anything funny unlike hoe the trailer might want you to believe. You get more of a sexual physiological plot that won't make you feel any way about what unfolds. Especially if you know the faith of Dazai already. I enjoyed the effort that was taken in keeping No Longer Human alive. Of course, information was left out about Dazai's youth, that caused him to look at life the way that he did but you can still enjoy this film without knowing anything about Dazai's novel.
Shun does an amazing Job as Dazai only because he took the bad boy persona he has portrayed in other roles over the years and slapped it into his version of the character. He plays an awful person that actually knows he's an awful person. Every other character that's involved with him are pigeon brains who should have had stupid written on all their foreheads. I didn't like any of the characters at all which might be the beauty of this film. You don't like anyone but you still keep watching. I wanted to feel sorry for his wife. Then you realize that you can't because she allowed the cheating to go on. Rie's performance really stuck with me toward the end when she seemed like a wife who finally had weight taken off her shoulders. All the cast played stupid character's controlled by Dazai very well. My only complaint is I would have liked a boiling point when the conflict boiled over into a fight or a slap in the face. That never happens though.
The cinematography was very well color coordinated. Dazai's kimono always matched the Azura blue paint job on the walls of his study. The color is such a pretty blue that caught my eye. Capturing the structure inside older Japanese traditional houses in dim lighting is hard to do. Still, the filming on location looks great in each scene. Including the different art designs on the sliding screen doors.
No Longer Human does what it set out to do: retell Dazai's story in a reformatted method for new generation viewers. This version doesn't mess up the prestige that the original novel already created. You will on the other hand, finish this film with questions about the mystery of Osamau Dazai himself.
