Japanese commercial thrillers ought to come with this disclaimer: "No fictional characters were harmed in the making of this movie." Despite plots that involve kidnappings (as in "Bayside Shakedown"/ "Odoru Daisosasen,"1998), murders ("Bayside Shakedown 2," 2003) or bomb threats ("Bayside Shakedown 3," 2010), their on-screen body count is often as close to zero as possible — or impossible.

As the above examples indicate, the popular "Bayside Shakedown" series, with its comic jabs at cop bureaucracy and its bloodless action, led the way for many later thrillers. Made more for the local TV audience than for foreign fans who expect thrillers to, well, thrill, they typically feature puzzle plots as far removed from current criminal/terrorist realities as the cases of Sherlock Holmes. To fill the time before the inevitable rescue or arrest, they busy themselves with over-caffeinated comedy and melodrama familiar from countless domestic TV drama series.

All of the above applies to Teruyuki Yoshida's "The Rondo of the Squall," a thriller revolving around the theft of a secret biological weapon called K-55 from a medical research lab. Based on a 2013 novel by Keigo Higashino, whose best-sellers are turned into movies and TV dramas with clock-like regularity, the film quickly devolves into farce, though gags are not its main aim. This is fortunate for broadcaster Kansai Telecasting and other members of the film's "production committee" (seisaku iinkai), since laughs are few.