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williamrich-80401
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1,000,000 yen no Onnatachi (2017)
Million Yen Women is wicked pleasure
Shin Mishima is a quiet, polite young man who lives alone in a large house. He writes novels for a living but has not seen much commercial success. He doesn't own a computer or a cell phone. His most modern electronic device is a vintage fax machine that whistles, squeaks and whirs as it prints its daily missive of malicious epithets and death threats.
One day Shin enters his house and finds a strange woman waiting for him. She shows him a formally printed invitation that instructs her to rent a room in his house. As he has no idea what this is about, Shin objects. He relents when she tells him that the terms of the invitation require her to pay him one million Japanese yen (US$7,000) a month as rent. By day's end four more women show up at his door bearing identical engraved invitations.
The invitations include rules for Shin and the five women. He must cook and clean for them. The six of them must eat all their meals together. He is not allowed to enter their rooms and he is forbidden to ask them any questions.
Shin knows nothing about these women. They know nothing about Shin or about each other.
The youngest, Midori, is in high school. Each day she puts on her school uniform, gathers her books, and goes to class. Why was a 17 year-old chosen to receive one of the invitations? Why did she accept? Where are her parents? Where does she get the money to pay the rent?
The oldest is the charismatic 30 year-old Minari. Tall and willowy, she gracefully walks about the house dressed in nothing but a cigarette.
Each of the women is a bundle of enigmas for both Shin and for each other. Conversation always returns to the central questions. Who sent the invitations and why?
The story unfolds in twelve tightly wound 24-minute segments. As the episodes pile up and learn more about Shin and the women, the answers still elude us. The pace quickens, the tension builds, the plot thickens and the story shifts from being a mystery to a being a mystery and a thriller.
We, along with the six housemates, want to know who is behind it all. Is it Shin's agent? Is it his literary rival? Is it the obnoxious critic? Is it one of the women? Is it Shin himself?
This is a wickedly smart story. The anticlimax is climactic. The climax is wickedly delicious. Once you have seen Million Yen Women will be thinking about it for a long time. WICKED!