Re : Mind, Japanese live action, Netflix Original

 

I just watched this Japanese ” series ” of 12 episodes on Netflix.  The title is Re: Mind, a story created by Tokyo TV and advertised as a Netflix Original.

 

The story is about 12 high school friends and classmates,  all girls, eleven of whom find themselves imprisoned in a medieval -looking dining room,  their feet  shackled to the floor to prevent escape. .   They’re seated at the table with 12 chairs, though one chair  is free.  They are missing one classmate , whose name is Miho, and who seems to be the central character in the story.

 

In First episode, we see 11 girls seated in  chairs around a dining table, asleep, with a red , silk hood covering their heads.  One by one, starting with Mirei, they wake up,  find themselves  in this horrifying  situation…….. henceforth, terror begins.

 

Each one tries to figure out who has done this to them , how and why. They have all been close friends and classmates, after all.  After some discussions,  they begin to suspect Miho is behind all this, because she  is the head of their elite ( clique ) group , the only child of a powerful politician father,   a  doctor as well , who  owns the largest general hospital in their city , and also  a shipping company, and therefore the only one who has the means to accomplish  all that’s happening to them.  The irony is, at some point, they all manage to turn their backs on her, and not only that,  to bully her when her father loses political power.  This is the reason why they all suspect this is revenge on them.

 

Meanwhile, Mirei sees a book titled ” I guess everything reminds you of something. ”  They figure out it might be a clue as to what they can do to escape.  Confess . The first to remember that the seating arrangement at the dining table is exactly the same  as the one in the photo taken with Miho in the picture, is Mao… and she disappears. Then they remember it’s actually Mao who started  bullying Miho. Miho, by the way, is not present here, because she has disappeared before this event.

 

There are so many twists and turns in the story, with each character having  a story , secret or a lie to confess , and each one being  inter-related to Miho’s ” accident ” (  that made her unable  to walk ) and disappearance 3 months prior to this final event.

 

Needless to say, I cannot give the ending of the story. This is a new addition to Netflix’s Originals list. All I can give are my thoughts…. do I like it ? Do I recommend it ?

 

Yes, I like it and I recommend that you watch it.  I do have a few things that I think  the story fails to clarify.

a)  The timeline .    When exactly did the ball first start rolling ? What triggered it ?  Was it the ” accidental ” death of Miho’s best friend  at her father’s hospital ? Was it her father’s  fall from political power ?  Or was it her fiancé’s cheating ?

 

b)   It’s anime sense.  The punishment doesn’t fit the crime, AT ALL.  In fact, we find it is merely perceived bullying,  not a real, physical or verbal  bullying.  For example…. one of the group  opened a window when Miho entered the classroom.  After that, the rest of the class started calling her Stinky Girl.  The classmate/friend didn’t  intentionally open  the window to make the class think Miho was smelly. ( although one of them did black out Miho’s books….. that was mean and cruel….. but not enough to kill her.  Two of them, Mirei and Kumi didn’t even bully her, although they didn’t do anything to stop it.

 

c)  How did the culprit make each girl vanish from the scene during a 15 second blackout, with the shackles  in place, and still  tightly locked?

 

The scene is too elaborately staged for a simple revenge act.  The plotline is implausible and I cannot be convinced that a high school girl (  even with the help of maybe one aggrieved person ) can successfully pull this off.   Take note….. this is a plot to commit murder of 11 human beings. Who can she get to plot a massacre , and get away with it ?

 

You need to watch this to understand  what I’m talking about.

 

Although I liked it, and the story captivated my attention for 12 episodes of 30 minutes per episode , all in one day ( from evening til the wee hours of the morning ) I don’t think I can give it a high rating.  …. a generous 6/10 is enough.