ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

okami_ito It's amazing how easily some so-called "cineasts" can be fooled. Since Tsukamoto made his entry with his manga-goes-experimental-trash epic Tetsuo his admirers are always eager to describe his amateurish and boring outings as "challenging" and "visionary". The only thing really astonishing about this so-called director is that in his work there is no bottom-line in sight. Who would have thought that he could come up with anything worse than the terrible pretentious "Haze"? And yet we have "Nightmare Detective" a black hole of a movie that negates any form of talent for everyone involved. Despite the actual idea that someone can enter the dreams of others, there is absolutely nothing original to be found here.But yeah! i forgot - of course i just don't get it because this stuff is so "challengening" for the average viewer. In my eyes the "average viewer" is more than used to wooden performances, bad lightning and shaky hand-cameras, you can watch it on cheap TV-Shows every day. Dreams in movies have a very long history and it's really embarrassing how the subject is treated here. There is no effort made whatsoever to visualize an actual dream-sequence. Instead we get a shaky camera and pools of blood. The actors sometimes give the impression of being actually forced to participate in this mess. I guess they felt a little "challenged" too much by Tsukamotos total lack of ideas.And hey - if you really don't want to believe that this is trash, just wait for the cheap Eric Satie-Rip-Off in the soundtrack. Just awful.

poe426 NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE, like much of what Shinya Tsukamoto has done, has its readily apparent roots in manga/anime. (Manganime?) While it'll never be confused with the likes of TETSUO, BODY HAMMER or TOKYO FIST (it's clearly more like HIROKU THE GOBLIN and GEMINI), NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE more than holds its own as live-action manganime. Like some of the slower and more thoughtful anime (like GILGAMESH or WOLF'S RAIN or suchlike), it's the overall mood that is most important here. Tsukamoto says that this is the first of a proposed series of movies to feature his NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE. If so, we've got something more to look forward to.

theNomad Rookie female police officer Keiko played by wonderful eye candy Hitomi as one tough 1st case, a suicide which is seemingly too brutal to be suicide, quickly followed by another savage suicide. The key to both (is the now well worn plot) of a phone call to a mysterious Mr O (wickedly played by Shinya Tsukamoto himself)whom helps the suicidie by saying he's going to join in and kill himself while they are. Only he goes that little bit further and actually goes into their sleep and does the gory work himself. The police turn to man who's talent is going into peoples dreams, ala the Nightmare Detective of the title played by the great Matsuda Ryuhei). First attempt goes badly and O manages to kill a male police officer. Not being able to live with this Keiko now tries aided by by the nightmare detective who goes into O's own dream, revealing the reason for his actions.Plot is basically Suicide Club meets Nightmare on Elm St 3 Dream Warriors by way of Radioheads How to Disappear Completely, visually pleasing which we've come to expect by headf'ck cinema master Shinya Tsukamoto, and should have enough blood to please most gore hounds. Flaws really come in the script, pacing and that feeling you've seen it all before. Still gets a 7/10 by me as of yet the best Asian horror film I've seen in 2007.

kosmasp Visually this movie is really good. I was able to watch it at a theatre in Stuttgart as part of the "Fantasy Filmfest Nights" that take place every year in the spring (for a few years now) for quite some time now.While this movie tries to mix paranormal and normal things together it does not achieve this goal entirely. This movie does have a few good scares (and it is bloody violent too, so be prepared for that), but you're never really emotionally attached to the main characters. The problem here lies within the characterization. You do see people get hurt here, but it's not like you get to know them to really care. Even if they are "only" in danger (you have to see the movie to see if there any false scares here, although if you have watched some horror movies, you will be able to foresee a few things), you're not really worried about them. You just wait for a shock to happen ...When all is said and done (the end of the movie), you might be left with the feeling that there could've been more ... been done with the material (idea)!