Although I didn’t find the time to check out Suzuki=Bakudan (retitled Bomb for North America) during Japan Cuts, I’m glad to have caught it at Fantasia Film Festival 2026. Usually, crime thrillers aren’t my thing, but with Jirō Satō getting a lot of buzz, I had to see what the fuss was about. He plays psychic manipulator Tagosaku Suzuki, and he knows how to get under anyone’s skin.
Yes, those comparisons to the Joker from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight are justified. Though he doesn’t sport a grin, what he presents is closer to Jack Nicholson’s performance in The Shining, before madness took its toll on that poor soul’s mind. Because of the way he taunts the police, nobody’s sure if his psychic predictions are real. Unfortunately, those moments claim lives, and while the tragic scenes play out quickly enough to get the point across, the gruesome truth concerns what else he knows.
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