Misery and mystery are close companions in the fictions of Kanae Minato. Her 2008 debut novel, “Confessions” — memorably adapted by filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima — was a prime example of what’s known in Japanese as iyamisu, a portmanteau combining the words for unpleasant (iya) and mystery, the author’s genre of choice.
It’s a formula that Minato has returned to frequently. 2018’s “Mirai” (“Future”) employed a typical constellation of calamity, including child abuse, forced prostitution and incest. However, it was also the author’s first book to feature an afterword, in which she stressed that her story was intended to raise awareness of real-world problems, rather than just offer vicarious thrills.
That distinction seems to have been lost on Takahisa Zeze, whose adaptation of “Mirai” (retitled “Cry Out” for the international market) has turned the novel into a lurid, overwrought melodrama where the suffering seems to be the entire point.
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