Stolen Identity (3 Stars)

This is a psychological thriller directed by Hideo Nakata, who's best known for making "The Ring". It contains some good ideas and soul-searching questions, but it's bogged down by too many subplots.

In today's society our lives revolve around mobile phones. They're used for much more than phone calls. They also take photographs, and they're our portal to social media. Because of this, if our phones are lost or stolen, we're immediately cut off from our friends and our work.

Tomita has a girlfriend called Asami. He accidently leaves his phone in a taxi after talking to her. The person who finds the phone rings Asami and tells her he's left it in a cafe for her to collect it. After that, many things happen in parallel, some of them more relevant to the plot than others. Asami begins to use Facebook regularly. She accepts friend requests from people she barely knows. One of Tomita's colleagues is constantly sending her messages asking her out on a date. Someone is sending both her and Tomita photos, trying to break them up. There's a serial killer in the city who's murdering women with long black hair. The chief detective is being assisted by a young detective who has extensive computer knowledge.

But it's all about mobile phones. Tomita's phone was hacked before it was returned, and the hacker has also found his way into Asami's Facebook account.

For me the film went through three stages. At the beginning there were comedic scenes so ridiculous that I felt tempted not to watch any more. Then the film became serious, and I enjoyed it, despite the plot becoming ever more complex. Towards the end there were plot twists that were so extreme that I threw my hands up in the air in desperation. "Now that as well? What next?"

This is the film in the online film festival that I was most interested in seeing. It didn't live up to my expectations.