"For those in tune with his deliberate methods, Kurosawa--holding a quiet shot a bit longer than anticipated, keeping the camera far enough away from his characters that we can fully absorb every dark corner of their surroundings, or focused away from what we want to see--effectively subverts genre expectations. The affect is off-kilter, adding to our growing unease... The film generates scares, and empathy for its increasingly unhinged protagonist, but its impact goes deeper than that. Kurosawa offers a compelling detective story, but those expecting linearity or pat answers will be disappointed, because the real questions he is asking are philosophical. At its core, this unsettling work is less about Yoshioka's (Yakusho) guilt than it is about our own." - Josh Ralske, AllMovie.com