NONHOSONNO

Argento listens to his fans who have been calling for him to return to his old days; black gloves, bloody knife murders, bravura camera work, and even Goblin music can all be found in his latest. so can plot holes and lapses of logic, but who cares about that anyway.

Max Von Sydow is retired detective Morretti. he worked on a series of murders that occured 16 years ago, and seem to be starting again. Morretti made a promise to Giacomo, the son of one of the murder victims, that he would find the killer. he thought he did in the form of a dwarf giallo author (oh that Argento) but he now thinks he could have been mistaken.

the film starts with a skangly nekkid beyatch, who's just gotta be a man baby. she's a prostitute tuning a trick for a quivering freak who's hiding under the blankets. she gets weirded out and tries to leave. as she does, she trips over a box and finds a cache of knives ala Bird With The Crystal Plumage. she gathers up her books that she spilled when she fell, and makes it to the train station. once on the train she realizes she mistakenly grabbed a blue file. she goes through it and finds polaroids and news clippings of the murders.

the john managed to make it onto the train (just suspend your belief) and quite very gruesomely hacks the shemale to bits. well he does if you're watching the Italian version, in the America video he just stabs the wall. already we got some classic Argento, shiny knives, whispering psychos, and BLOOOOD.

speaking of blood, there's some downright NASTY gore in here-teeth bashed in, fingers chopped off, and a masterpeice of gory creativity-a woman repeatedly stabbed in the face with a French horn!

discussing the plot of an Argento film kind of defeats the purpose, but actually, Nonhosonno is one of the more linear and believable in the directors repitoire. filled with the usual red herrings, but nothing that insults your intelligence. Argento mixes in some local folklore about the murders to spice things up a bit, but when the killer(s) is revealed it all does make some sense.

all the early reviews i've read on this film state the acting as a major flaw, but i'd have to disagree. Max Von Sydow is excellent in his role as the old school cop trying to catch up with technology, and Stefano Dioniso does a good job as the bewildered protagonist. the acting is a hell of a lot better than Opera, that's for sure.

Argento answered the calls for him to return to his roots, and he did it surprisingly well. i like to see Argento try new things, Stendahl Syndrome is among my favorites, but it's nice to see classic Argento.



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