M

Without M, it is said that Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and Se7en would not have been as successful as they are today.

M was directed by German director Fritz Lang, who also directed Metropolis (1927), which influenced all sci-fi films of the time, and M also influenced crime drama thrillers, so Lang’s ability to present a film since the silent era is amazing. Lang’s film career was full of films that are considered the best, but Lang once said that M was the most accurate.

Children in a city are disappearing and being killed one by one. Parents are watching their children in horror. The problem has become so serious that the Secretary of State calls the police commissioner to complain.

The police are searching every suspicious place, and the public is also arresting and handing over suspicious people on the street. The last bad guys, the police, and the hotels were searched every night, which was hurting their business, so the bad guys tried to catch the bad guy. When the whole city was desperately searching for this man, it was like finding fresh water in the ocean, and they couldn’t find the culprit.

Lang portrayed this using elements that seemed to be slightly influenced by Konindou. Even before the culprit was found, the story was quite interesting, and everything from the way the culprit was found to the reactions of the culprit was a crime thriller masterpiece.

What M really broadened my perspective was that there is nothing new in this world, from art to science, and it is true to a large extent. In the thriller genre, we see techniques that we have seen in some movies that are different and new from the usual movies.

At least the kind of thriller presentation that I see as the highest level of Kurosawa’s work, like this year’s Chime, is woven into M’s story. In a world where nothing is new, honesty is perhaps the most important thing for creation.

M [1931]

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