Movies in Brief: 'Late Bloomer'

Gô Shibata's "Late Bloomer," which opens Friday at the Pioneer Theater, is a curious story of a serial killer who is severely disabled. The film initially seems like a documentary because the protagonist has the same name as the actor who plays him, Masakiyo Sumida. Although the film leaves Sumida's ailment unexplained, it depicts him getting around in a motorized wheelchair and communicating through a keyboard-operated speech aid. The film documents his laborious daily routines, heavy beer consumption, and fondness for gum-ball machines, but it soon unmasks itself as a fictional construct when Sumida develops a hopeless crush on his caregiver Nobuko (Mari Torii), a college student researching for a paper. "Late Bloomer" is a huge departure from the atmospheric, supernatural material prevalent in the Japanese horror genre.... [read full story]