Teiko (Yoshiko Kuga- Yasujiro Ozu’s Good Morning and Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Assertion of Youth) is a newlywed to ad agent Kenichi (Koji Nabara), a man she barely knows. But, Kenichi seems warm and gentlemanly enough. He also has a heartening future as a rising star at his ad agency. Kenichi is being moved from Kanazawa to the particular establishment in Tokyo. He leaves his unfledged bride so he can tidy up his affairs in Kanazawa. His report date comes and goes. Kenichi doesn’t become an actuality.

What unfolds in Zero Focus (1961) is what I would call a feminine mystery, that is, it is not so much about a hard-boiled detective tracking some gritty secret driven by violence or greed (or both). Instead, while there is violence and murder in the story, you won’t find an intimidating Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre waiting in the shadows. The motives and the mystery are much more about emotions, shameful reputations, and hidden pasts. I guess what I’m saying is, it is a bit more subtle and the mystery, like its investigator, is a delicate one.

Teiko, accompanied by one of the agency members, travels to Kanazawa and tries to track down her husbands whereabouts. Eventually, a spotty trail of his whereabouts is uncovered and abruptly ends. The police are called in, morgues are visited, and more questions are raised. The focus the title alludes to is Teiko’s process of trying to find him while also putting together the pieces of who Kenichi actually is.

This has to be one of the more interesting mysteries I’ve run across due to Teiko’s lack of emotional investment. Teiko and Kenichi were not together enough to form any deep love. She barely knew Kenichi when they got married. His disappearance is intriguing to her because, not only does she want, first and foremost, to find him, more importantly, she wants to know him. So, this puts an interesting perspective on the film because when we do find our potential murderers (and I’ve been scant with the details so I wont ruin anything) they had more investment and emotional connections (sympathetic ones) to Kenichi than our heroine.

This film was one of many adaptations of mystery novelist Seicho Matsumoto’s books by director Yoshitaro Nomura, a pairing that would materialize for several films including Stakeout, Demon, Bad Sorts, Suspicion and The Castle of Sand.
The film goes from the urban bustle of Tokyo, to the snow covered landscape of Kawazawa, and finally to the windswept seaside cliffs of Noto. The predominantly chilly locations help evoke a great mood for the mystery. The thread that lies beneath Kenichi’s disappearance is one of regretful and ruinous past, specifically regarding the struggles in Japan’s post WW2 environment. The narrative is quick and precise, effectively juggling flashbacks, dropping bits of info here and there, culminating in a final third that is told Rashomon-style with characters painting differing views on just what happened.