The Black House (1999)

Profile

• Movie: The Black House
• Romaji: Kuroi ie
• Japanese: 黒い家

• Director: Yoshimitsu Morita
• Assistant Director: Yasukazu Sugiyama
• Writer: Yusuke Kishi (novel), Sumio Omori
• Executive Producer: Tsuguhiko Kadokawa
• Producer: Kazuko Misawa, Yasushi Tsuge, Tsutomu Yamamoto
• Cinematography: Nobuyasu Kita
• Release Date: November 13, 1999
• Runtime: 118 min.
• Production Company: Asmik Ace Entertainment, Kuroi Ie Seisaku Iinkai
• Distributor: Shochiku
• Language: Japanese
• Country: Japan

Plot

A meek insurance adjuster named Wakatusuki (Seiyo Uchino) at the Showa Life Insurance company in Kanazawa, receives a phone call from a customer (Shinobu Ootake) who asks whether his company pays on a life insurance policy if the cause of death is suicide. Wakatusuki is then called to the home of a client named Shigenori. When he looks around Shigenori’s home, he discovers a body hanging from the ceiling in an apparent suicide. The body belongs Shigenori’s teenage son. Furthermore, Wakatusuki discovers that Shigenori has taken out an insurance policy on his wife … who happens to be the person that called him asking about the payout related to suicides.