Drama

The Reverse Diaries

リバースダイアリー

Directed by: Shin Sonoda
2018 / 99 minutes / Unclassified 15+ Contains violence and suicide attempt

Is revenge ever the right answer?

Rihito Shiraishi (Gen Ogawa) has found an unhappy niche as a talented ghostwriter, but though he desperately aspires to be a novelist under his own name, he has yet to find the courage to move out from under others’ shadows. Then, Saki Honda (Iku Arai), an eccentric, whirlwind of a woman enters his life and begs Rihito to pretend to be her boyfriend to get a stalker off her back. Taken by surprise, Rihito agrees to help her out and the pretend relationship becomes real very quickly, bringing light and laughter into Rihito’s monotonous life. However, things aren’t always so happy-go-lucky for Saki, and one day she attempts suicide.

Upset and confused, Rihito starts to investigate why she decided to take her life when she always seemed so upbeat around him. When he stumbles across her diary, he starts to realise that there’s more to Saki than meets the eye, and perhaps their chance encounter wasn’t just a lucky coincidence.

Director, writer and producer Shin Sonoda takes a light-hearted rom-com about being true to oneself and twists it into a genre-bending suspenseful thriller of desperation, manipulation and revenge.

[More Satellite cities to come.]