(details will be left as a spoiler comment below) A high budget production with a great and well-acted cast and fantastic cinematography. The film is shot beautifully, a far cry from a network television budget, and as someone has mentioned before, really plays up the darkness and vengefulness in Reiko. Tonally, the film is much more grim, and the conclusion complements that. I thoroughly enjoyed the Strawberry Night SP and the series, and although I enjoyed this movie as a standalone, I felt that it offered no closure to any of the character arcs. I understand that it's a film and that the story's supposed to be tightly woven. I also understand that there's another SP after this that I've yet to see, so maybe the film isn't even supposed to be the end. Perhaps others may feel differently, but I wasn't very happy with the outcomes in the film because of their inconsistencies with the series. Things came to end but I felt as though nothing was resolved, which is why it works as its own movie but I would rate it much lower as a sequel. Anyway, that being said, I did enjoy the movie. It had great action sequences and it was well paced. I do agree that the timeline was a bit out of whack but I was engaged throughout and didn't feel that anything was excessively contrived.