User reviews

It is likely that when you scroll through the reviews you will find people completely loving this movie and some completely bashing it.

I know, I know - nothing new in what I'm saying...but hold on...

When I watched this movie, I loved it for a different take on how the Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella story flows. It starts off very similar but soon it deviates from the conventional plot we all know.

Half way down the movie, this turns into a completely different story. It sort of turns into an investigative courtroom drama, which some might appreciate and some won't.

As the story progresses into the final phase and the truth is revealed it is likely that your mind might like the movie, but your heart might not.

If you like experimental movies where you are willing to see your beloved characters in a different light, you will love it.

On the other hand, if you are a purist and prefer the traditional plot, this is going to be a bad experience.

This one is a twisted take on Cinderella and Red Riding Hood fairytales, with a detective true crime story.

It is quite a weird one I must say, full of these deadpan attempts to be funny and ending up not being funny at all- but it's still enjoyable for no good reason.

One huge plus though, the creativity in this is immense. The COSTUMES, let me tell you, those costumes are STUNNING, and the color of the movie is just a feast to the eyes!

I would say to watch this one if you have nothing better to do, but want to watch something easy and comfortable. No search for deeper meanings, no explosion- just comfort and lightness. But isn't that something we all need once in a while?

I admitted that I didn't finish the movie. There might be some interesting plot twists waiting ahead, but I felt from the beginning that it looks like fantasy that looks like a farce in costume, or a comedy that isn't even funny. The voice and action of the witch character was extremely annoying. Cinderella and red-hood girl exchanged some boring scripts. Then another annoying character popped up, looking like an angel or something. I couldn't stand watching it anymore. It's boring and isn't funny or interesting in anyway. The costume looks fancy alright but that doesn't enough to get me through. So I just write my experience and opinion as being from someone who couldn't manage to watch this movie to the end.

I am a huge fan of Japanese TV and cinema and when I saw the trailer for this I was really excited by the concept and the actors who I had seen in other very good productions (example: from Today It's My Turn). Unfortunately it turned out to be a big disappointment and we stopped watching after about 45 minutes and it was tough making it even that far. The writing is just terrible and NOT FUNNY. Such a great concept and a great cast as well but the bottom line is none of that can overcome a terribly written script with stilted dialog and jokes that all fall flat. I don't think I laughed even once. When my daughter said to me, "this isn't doing it for me" I was relieved and we turned it off. THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD PAY YOUR WRITERS WELL! Nothing overcomes bad writing.

Oh my god, it's poorly executed. Not entertained at all, even though the actors tried to make it funny. The scriptwriting is JUST SO POOR. I knew from the trailer that it was gonna be a crime-solving story, and expected something intense or an intriguing story, but nothing from the movie could do it. The plot was terrible, so many dialogues, the acting was okay but not great. Really disappointed. Maybe some would say they didn't see the plot twist coming at the end and claimed the movie good. Still nah for me. The movie was recommeneded by my sister and while watching this together, I couldn't help but say, "I'm so disappointed in ur rec." Not my sister to be blamed tho lol

Just don't waste your time on this pls.

Little Red Riding Hood (Kanna Hashimoto), an adventurous and inquisitive girl, sets off on a journey to enrich her life. She meets a bedraggled girl who introduces herself as Cinderella (Yûko Araki). Little Red Riding Hood goes to the ball with her. She also helps authorities uncover a mystery or two.

Those who think this is just another take on an oft-repeated tale, think again. The story is very daring, turning as beloved a fairytale as Cinderella on its head. I bet you would not expect what happens in the end. Question every scene and see if you can find clues along the way.

I actually liked it. Mysteries and twists always entertain when they are plausible. And the story makes them so.

This movie has a great thought out story, real emotions and otherwise do not take itself too seriously. If you like Gintama and other similar anime, then you will probably enjoy this movie a lot. It has good quality in all aspects in my opinion.

But if you want a traditional Hollywood style movie, then this is definitely not it. People who has never seen anime will probably be very confused about this movie lol, and thus the low score ?

Also better with the original audio and not the dub (in my opinion at least).

This movie might not be for the majority of people (especially if you do not like anime), but will be a fun watch if it is your nisch (basically like anime and fairy tales I guess). It is a really good movie for what it is meant to be.

I'm sorry it just felt like I was watching a cheap porn parody of Cinderella minus the nude scenes. I was expecting more creativity since it's a Japanese movie but there was none. The acting was also horrible, it just reminded me of school play acting. The cinematography felt like it was done by kids in high school trying to make their very first home made movie. I can't even believe I still had the appetite to finish the whole movie, maybe it was just out of curiosity on how the story would turn out since I had no idea what the plot was. All I can think of is how and why Netflix approved this movie to be made and released.

TLDR: Its basically a japanese murder mystery drama told through a lot of narrative, with a fairy tale backdrop.

I love the name "Once upon a crime" so I had to dive in. While I'm not generally a fan of grim/fairy tales in general (even if told is some edgy new-age way), I gave this one a chance because honestly, I had nothing else to watch.

I was pleasantly surprise the spin they took on the 'Cinderella' story. The ending genuinely surprised me. You have your expectations of how these stories will end (both the fairy tale and the murder mystery), but this one had a decently good twist to it. Definitely something to watch if you're into Japanese type murder drama. Probably not something that would fly too well with American audiences.

Its fun, its whimsical, its different. Its okay.

It only gets 2 out of 10 because the set, costumes, and VFX were great.

The story, however, was trash.

I get that they were trying to subvert the classic narrative (which is fine if it had been written to make sense) and I'm not even mad at the Sherlock Holmes-esque super intelligence they gave Little Red or the obvious "beggar" being someone important, but the way they tried to make it all make sense at the end was just poor writing and storytelling and made everyone (especially the magical beings!) before the reveal seem like idiots. Also some of the writing was just weird leaps of logic that, again, only made everyone seem stupid.

In the end, I didn't care about the dead guy because he was terrible person with a history of attacking/coercing women and the medal should've gone to the killer.

If you have time to waste, and honestly nothing else to rewatch, go ahead and watch this but don't expect to be entertained.

This is... wild. 'Once Upon A Crime (2023)' is a spin on the classic Cinderella tale that asks the age old question: "what if Red Riding Hood was in this and she was a detective who became involved in uncovering the truth behind the murder of a royal hairdresser?". Just a classic "what if?" situation, really. What starts out feeling like it's for five-year-old children soon takes a bit of a (seemingly unintentional) turn as it tosses a dead body into the mix and just keeps getting more sinister from there. It's not as if it ever switches gears entirely into grown-up territory, but it definitely starts to veer away from what initially seems to be its target audience (while, at the same time, kind of playing exclusively to it).

The whodunnit is a colourful, camp pantomime that lacks any real semblance of cinema and feels as though it belongs on a cheap kids channel but is also kind of weirdly awesome in its own way. It's essentially the wildest case Phoenix Wright never took on, feeling like a JRPG in the best ways possible. Honestly, I kind of like a lot of it. It's never exactly good in any real sense of the word, but it undeniably has this strangely compelling quality that keeps you floating in the space between bemusement and boredom for its majority. If you take it for what it is, there's some genuine - if slight - enjoyment to be had.

And then there's the ending. I don't really want to spoil anything - well I do, but I don't think I should - so all I'll say is that it wraps up in an incredibly frustrating way and treats a particular like absolute dirt even as it establishes that they didn't really do anything wrong (mistakes were made, sure, but the lack of sympathy here is appalling) and that they're every bit as poorly treated yet genuinely lovely as they first appear to be (even though they did something bad, they clearly aren't a bad person). It just leaves an awful taste in your mouth because you can tell the movie itself doesn't think it's doing anyone a disservice, which further reinforces the implication that the story's classist messaging isn't exactly an accident (even if its meek final moments seem to be an effort to prove that it's actually against the classist attitudes its characters hold). The ending drops the ball so badly that it actively affects how I rate the overall movie.

Ultimately, although there is some fun to be had here and there, this is a bizarre and generally quite bad picture that totally botches its ending. I must say, though, that its fairy tale costuming is absolutely heavenly.

I don't know why a lot of people hated it. I think it's funny and enjoyable.

Of course it's not your common disney cinderella/red riding hood story, it's combined with crime and mystery genre, so it's gonna be a different story. So for a fanatic fan of cinderella/red riding hood, i bet they hated it.

For me it's enjoyable, they cgi and costume and vfx is amazing, im amazed the whole show, and of course all the girls are very kawaii, and at the end there's a lot of plot twist that shocks me.

Of course it's not all that great, there's some minus too, like they drag the story too long in the middle trying to find the murder even though i think the detective already know who the murderer is, and at the end I think the murderer isn't at fault, of course she murder someone, but it was a self defense.

Every reason behind the story is quite stupid . I feel like i waste 2 hours for nothing . Each character seem nonsense. I don't buy any reason behind the crime seen . Most of characters's characteristic are so cringe and weird . The production and costume seem nice but the story really bring it to hell. I keep watching because I expect it to become make sense in the end but after it end . I just have the feeling that why this even on the netflix. If you kinda want to waste you time you can watch it but if not I think you can spend time do something more entertaining. This review requires too long character.

ONCE UPON A CRIME is an extremely low budget Netflix movie that hails from Japan. The cast is no-name but the main actress appears to be going places with her role in the new SPIRITED AWAY stage production. The backdrop is the fairy tale, with both Red Riding Hood and Cinderella freely adapted, while the genre is crime, as our heroines have to solve a murder en route. It sounds fresh and creative, but it turns out to be cheaply done and poorly written, with OTT acting and amateurish writing throughout. The first half consists of characters chatting in the woods and the second is just endless dialogue in a budget palace, with a few cheap CGI FX mixed in for good measure.

First of all the actors were all great. They were trying so hard to sell it, especially the older ones going ham on their roles trying to turn it into a cartoon/anime.

The wardrobe deserves a shout out, everything on screen was beautiful and unique.

Then you have the actual plot and execution. This... this is insulting even at a child's level, it's beyond just bad. Execution wise there is way too much dead space in the shots that the movie feels empty most of the time. Shots linger far too long on the actors doing nothing that it just comes off as awkward.

The twist at the end was a fun one. It just didn't makes sense within context.

It had potential, I like the cartoonish sense of humor, but it needed better writing and a decent editor.