If this starting point sounds familiar, that is because An Obsession (1997) uses Akira Kurosawa's noir Stray Dog as a reference point. Aside from a few little sly connections, An Obsession is an altogether different film. While Stray Dog used the cop with a missing gun as a device to explore Japan in the era of post-war reconstruction, Shinji Aoyama's An Obsession is looking at a post-Aum Shinriku cult gas attack Japan and, in general, one man trying to fill a void he has found in his existence.

Saga wakes up in the hospital and finds that he is missing a lung, a gun, and a wife. The lung was due to his shooting. The gun due to the thief. The wife left because they were estranged anyway- Saga always cared more for work- and his injury opened the door further for his wife to leave their dispassionate marriage. Though Saga resigns from the force and reassess his marriage, it may be too little too late, and he soon finds himself focusing his energy into tracking down the man who stole his gun.

Again, much like Shinji Aoyama's Wild Life there are several moments, bits of acting choices and neat directorial moves, that I really like, unfortunately the film as a whole feels a little flat. Aside from a couple of instances, the film is just a tiresome, moping story with main characters that are withering souls stuck on dwelling in their disasters. Not that the subject matter should be upbeat. I love downbeat films and my library is full of bleak existential fare. But just because you like the cold doesnt mean you want to get frostbite. An Obsession lacked, for me, any involving spark and became tedious.

The real faltering point is when the film gets into the character who stole the gun. It is a terminal cancer patient named Shimano, who was involved in an affair with a woman, the two promising to kill each other, a double suicide pact of love. Semi-explained in a metaphorical haze, Shimano is somehow proving his love by shooting random people and security guards when he robs hospitals of morphine that he takes to curb his cancer pains. The film just seemed to stop dead in tracks when it focused on Shimano and his lover's winsome plight. The characters were probably supposed to be reflective of young Japanese, but they played like characters whose emotional state was akin to OD'ing on Lithium.

Some Aum Shinryku allusions are made when the film shows small groups of bio hazard clad soldiers zooming around the city in jeeps shooting people (cult members?). Much like Hirokazu Kore-eda's Distance, while the film tries its best to explore the psychological state of mind of those left in the aftermath of a tragedy (stilted emotions and a paranoid perception), the approach has a more chilly detachment rather than a deeply emotional connection.

The DVD: Artsmagic

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. Soft is the key word pertaining to this transfer. This one suffers from the fate of many 90's Japanese films finding their way onto DVD. The overall definition in the transfer is lacking. The film does have an intentionally cold color pallette so the hues are subdued. Some compression issues are going to make this one a real nightmare on higher end systems where the shimmer and general murkiness will really stand out.

Sound: 5.1 Surround or 2.0 Stereo, Japanese language with optional English subtitles. Both tracks are quite good. The film doesn't exactly have much in terms of dynamics, but the 5.1 does a decent job in adding a little more body to the atmospheric fx and score.

Extras: Cast and Crew bio/Filmographies.— Interview with director Shinji Aoyama (19:00). Aoyama is a great interview subject. I found him talking about the film was more interesting than the film itself.— Commentary by Midnight Eye contributor Jasper Sharp. Sharp is now a veteran of Aoyama commentaries. He does a good, if dry, job of delving into the film and Aoyama's body of work, as well as all the little tidbits one expects from a critic-based commentary.

Conclusion: Well, I'm thankful for Artsmagic as they continue to delve into Shinji Aoyama's back catalog. He is definitely a very interesting film maker and, while still keeping his idiosyncratic voice, each film he makes seems to be an altogether different animal. The DVD presentation is middling, and the film is mostly rental-worthy.