Category: Film

Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Film Festival for 2016 started on July 14th and is running through July 24th. My thoughts on last year’s festival can be read starting here.

My thoughts on Bitter Honey and Lowlife Love can be read here.

 

Nagasaki: Memories of My Son

“Of course I’m not ok. I’m dead.”

Nagasaki: Memories of My Son is the story of those left behind after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It’s a tightly focused, personal tale centered on the mother and fiance of a medical student killed in the attack and their daily lives three years after his death.

The skill on display in every aspect of the film’s construction and the seamlessness with which they come together is phenomenal. From the striking opening scenes alternating between the cockpit of the bomber and the son staring his day and going to class, to clever techniques surrounding Kazunari Ninomiya’s status as a ghost and use of flashbacks, to an absolutely haunting score and  breathtaking performances, it’s all amazing. The composer of the exquisite music featured in the film gave a nice introduction for the screening.

Incredibly beautifully shot and acted, the film provides a powerful and touching personal story while giving an ongoing glimpse of life during and after the war that all feels natural and real. Universal themes of loss and moving on are explored both in general and with specific ties to the bombing, and difficult subjects like survivor’s guilt and jealousy are handled with a deft and genuine feel. Numerous scenes are absolutely devastating in their emotional impact, yet the love underlying all the feelings of loss is given equal weight and woven throughout the movie perfectly. I wanted something slightly different from the ending, but it was extremely fitting as it was none the less.

Though completely different approaches to the material, the film was somewhat reminiscent of the equally incredible manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms. Both are powerful examinations of the effect of the atomic bomb on everyday people’s lives.

Though a period tale of the ripples of a specific horrific event, the themes and story are impressively timeless. Simultaneously heart breaking and heart warming, I’ve never been so content to cry so much. Nagasaki: Memories of My Son lives in the shadow on tragedy, but contains an inextinguishable light at its core. Highest possible recommendation.

Bakuman

The live action movie adaptation of a manga about making manga.

Featuring two high school students who decide to team up with the goal of getting published in the premiere manga magazine in Japan, Bakuman using innovative filmmaking techniques and expert touches of comedy to provide a wonderful adaptation of the story of their quest while giving great insight into the industry the characters love. The focus on the often overlooked difficulties of both making art and turning it into something commercially viable, shining a light on the creative aspects and associated hard work and harsh realities on competition in entertainment fields as well as on the editorial process, is fascinating.

The visual style and feel of the movie is phenomenal, with a multitude of imaginative ways of representing the writing and drawing processes in striking, engaging ways which are further enhanced by pitch perfect comedic acting that makes it impossible not to get pulled in for the ride. Though overused, the phrase “love letter to the industry” exactly describes how this film represents the creation of manga, though it pulls no punches with the hardships involved.

There are key dramatic moments, and the general tone is so light and breezy they hit like a tons of bricks and their impact is felt throughout the film. The romance aspect felt short changed and it needed more time devoted for the developments to play out properly, but everything else came together strongly and overall this was an amazingly high quality not only as an adaptation, but as a film in general.

The director made a surprise appearance and his short Q&A after the screening was extremely interesting, talking about the changes made in changing mediums, some of the nods and references to other manga, and the impressive amount of work the actors put into being able to do the drawing scenes.

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Fantastic stuff. Will be back with more reviews as Japan Cuts continues. 🙂

Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Film Festival for 2016 started on July 14th and is running through July 24th. My thoughts on last year’s festival can be read starting here.

My first viewings this year were the two films shown on Friday July 15th.

Bitter Honey

So here we have a love story of sorts featuring an aging writer, a goldfish come to life as a young woman, and a ghost. Yet the superb acting and careful mix of comedy and drama make the absurd premise work and present an engaging narrative to follow along with.

Fumi Nikaido’s Akako pops right off the screen with an energy that’s contagious. Her playfulness gives the movie its heart and gratefully lightens its heavy themes. The movie’s wardrobe and background visuals enhance the focus on her, with her vibrant red dresses standing out as much as her infectious personality against the more subdued world around her. The rest of the cast is equally impressive, capturing the emotion behind the depicted events and conveying even the most ridiculous elements with total commitment and conviction.

I’m not sure everything came together quite perfectly, as certain aspects could have been better addressed/explained and I’m positive I didn’t catch nearly all of the symbolism and significance of some scenes (mostly those involving the mysterious upper floor of the author’s home). The author is intentionally unlikable in numerous ways, which could have been softened a little to better effect. I understand his characterization was an important part of the movie, but a couple of things could have been scaled back without losing that element and at the same time adding some extra empathy to the events that unfold. That said there’s just enough about him to sympathize with to keep the audience engaged.

As a side note, I also feel the often quoted movie summary (which was also paraphrased for us during the screening’s introduction) explaining that the ghost of the writer’s former lover “helps Akako realize her own desires, activating her agency and frustrating the one-sided male fantasy the writer is so keen to continue” over simplifies things a bit too much and somewhat shortchanges the ghost’s (played by Yoko Maki) nuanced role and intentions as well as the way the themes arise in the movie.  I won’t go into detail to avoid major spoilers, but while the statement isn’t wrong per se the movie I saw didn’t quite feel fairly described by it.

Bitter Honey is an extremely odd movie where a strong center and phenomenal acting beneath the surreal elements and absurd premise make it all work splendidly. Despite a few imperfections I really enjoyed this and it leaves the viewer with a lot of interesting things to think about. And even with a great supporting cast and a strong narrative as draws, I have to agree with other reviewers that Fumi Nikaido’s performance alone was easily worth the price of admission.

Lowlife Love

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the playfulness of Bitter Honey is an extremely dark tale about a bunch of lowlifes who dream of success in the film industry. This is the story of horrible people trying to survive in/break into a horrible industry, yet is played for comedy about half the time.

Lowlife Love is definitely not a bad movie. Far from it. It’s extremely well shot and acted, to the point where it’s very easy to get caught up in everything at an emotional level. This makes certain scenes incredibly powerful, to the point where I felt like I had been gut punched a few times and was extremely angry at what was happening during others. Any film that can evoke those kind of reactions is impressive. But there was nothing to counter it. The audience is deprived even the slightest glimmers of hope. This was brutally hard to watch in parts and the valve was never released, as the attempted humor was as relentlessly bleak as everything else and felt out of place and uncomfortable rather than lightening the mood to any lasting effect.

The film has a misogynist edge to its female characters, and I was pleased when the moderator asked the director/writer about the portrayal of women during the Q&A. He explained it not as a conscious choice that he was going to approach the female characters that way, but that he was illustrating the harsh realities of the film industry in Japan. I understand this to an extent, but if this was meant to be an expose of sorts then certain tonal aspects and plot points are quite incongruous to that. Also the explanation rings a little hollow considering one female character exists in the film simply to repeatedly remind us how much of an ass the main character is, and another solely for sex related jokes who is later revealed to be underage.

I understand that these are not supposed to be good people and we are supposed to cheer for their success despite that, and the film does manage to infuse that feeling overall. But there are things that undermine that aspect too, and the single character that remains likable and uncorrupted is given practically no spotlight or story throughout the film.

Again Lowlife Love is well done on a technical level and there are stories worth telling and things worth thinking about here, but they fall short of their potential in the execution and the movie is just so depressing I can’t possibly recommend it. It deserved to be screened, but I can’t say I liked it.

 

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Will be back with more reviews as Japan Cuts continues. 🙂