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SCANNER

By Shusuke KANEKO

TOEI COMPANY, LTD. - as SALES All rights, World

Thriller - Completed 2016

Sengoku, who used to be a once-famous comedian, has a special ability to read one’s residual thoughts. One day, a girl requests him to find her missing piano teacher Yukie. He was reluctant to help her at first, but Yukie's left-behind nail file makes him read Yukie’s residual thoughts unexpectedly.

- Year of production
- 2016
- Genres
- Thriller, Crime
- Countries
- JAPAN
- Languages
- JAPANESE
- Budget
- 3 - 5 M$
- Duration
- 109 mn
- Director(s)
- Shusuke KANEKO
- Writer(s)
- Ryota KOSAWA
- Cast
- Mansai NOMURA, Hiroyuki MIYASAKO, Shota YASUDA, Hana SUGISAKI, Fumino KIMURA
- Synopsis
- “Charlotte, you mustn’t eat Andrew’s share. Michelangelo, did you head-butt Stephanie again? Why are you so...”
  
  Kazuhiko Sengoku (Mansai Nomura) indulges in one-way conversations such as this with his tropical fish, sitting alone in a darkened room. You would never guess that he also possesses the paranormal ability to “scan” psychic residue - memories and emotions that linger in places and objects.
  
  In the past, this power brought him to the attention of Kumiko Toge (Atsuko Takahata), president of talent agency Toge Productions, who subsequently made him form a comedy duo called Mighties with Ryuji Maruyama (Hiroyuki Miyasako), a self-destructive performer whose flaws tend to get in the way of his talents. His gift of gab and Sengoku’s extrasensory talent set them on a course for stardom, but the latter’s unwanted ability to see the dark side of people only worsens his pessimistic view of humanity.
  
  Years later, Sengoku works as a custodian at an apartment complex, avoiding human contact at all costs. Meanwhile, Maruyama has reverted to his pre-Mighties state as an down-on-his-luck funnyman for hire. They never got along in the first place, so any chance of them getting back together was non-existent...until now.
  
  “I need the Mighties’ help. I want you to find someone for me.”
  
  One day, a high school student named Ami Akiyama (Hana Sugisaki) suddenly turns up at Toge Productions with a strange request. She wants the duo to search for Yukie Sawamura (Fumino Kimura), the piano teacher she has looked up to since she was a little girl.
  
  Maruyama and Ami visit Sengoku’s apartment, but he is still his old unsociable self. Their reunion ends in the worst possible way.
  
  However, that night, Sengoku unintentionally touches a nail file owned by Yukie that Ami had brought to him, and has a vision of the teacher:
  “You have a special power. Hang in there. I know you can do it.”
  
  And so, the three of them begin to search for Yukie. Unfortunately, the physical and psychological burden that Sengoku’s power places on him is severe, and he often ends up detecting psychic residue that has no relevance to their case. Even so, he manages to pick up on some useful images from the place where Yukie was kidnapped, which show that the culprit seems to be a woman, who used some kind of syringe and bundled Yukie into a white van!
  When Sengoku finally sees into the heart of the matter, he witnesses the startlingly cruel and beautiful truth.
  
  The powerful emotion of showing compassion for someone other than yourself creates a heart-warming yet heart-rending miracle.