Is there a chance for the Japanese movie industry to change? Here are are five films that answer yes to this question
1. Lowlife Love (Eiji Uchida, 2015)
Tetsuo is a
film director who had mild success with a film he shot some years ago, but has
not produced anything from that point on and his life is in shambles. He is 39
years old, he still lives with his parents and sister in a small house, and has
a constant lack of money. His miniscule income comes from some overpriced
acting lessons he gives to a number of students he has promised to include in
his next film, and from shooting AV videos that he sells to some Yakuza via his
assistant, Yoshihiko.
Eventually,
hope appears in front of him in the faces of two new students: Minami, a timid
and naive girl who wants to be an actress, and Ken, a scriptwriter. Both of
them appear to be extremely talented and Tetsuo believes he will be finally
able to shoot a film in the way he wants. Around those characters roams Kida, a
suspicious producer and former director; Kyoko, a ruthless aspiring actress;
Kano, a former indie director who has become commercially successful; and
Kaede, a girl obsessed with Tetsuo.
Eiji Uchida
centers his film on the two words of the title. The first one actually
describes the various characters appearing in the film, not one of whom appears
to be decent or unselfish. The one on the top, however, is definitely Tetsuo,
played in a suitably awful fashion by Kiyohiko Shibukawa. His character is
immature, lazy, devious, and in constant readiness to exploit everyone around
him to achieve his goals of shooting a moneymaking film and having sex.
The overall
depiction of the no-budget industry is gruesome, especially for actresses, who
are presented as prey for the male filmmakers, particularly because they are
intent on shagging their way into movies. The approach the director takes
towards them borders on misogyny, although he stresses the fact that since the
directors are not even slightly better humans than them, sex is actually their
only way to make it.
In that
fashion, Uchida presents another pessimistic message, that of total
hopelessness in the industry for them all, a notion that becomes even more
evident in the ending scene.
However,
somewhere in all of this, Uchida managed to include some humor, chiefly through
the behaviour of Tetsuo, Kida, and Kaede. One of the most hilarious scenes of
the film takes place in Kaede’s room, where she keeps a picture of Tetsuo’s
head on the wall, occasionally writing her opinion of him on it.
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“Anti-Porn”
is quite difficult to describe, since the borders between fantasy and reality,
and past and present, are almost non-existent. In that fashion, the film starts
with Kyoko, a famous novelist and artist, who wakes up in a studio bursting
with a yellow color, except the toilet, which is vividly red. There is
obviously something wrong with her, as she starts to rave about anything that
comes to her mind, without actually making sense, like when she shouts “I am a
virgin and a whore.”
Things
become even more frantic when her assistant, Noriko, enters the studio. She
seems to be utterly subservient to Kyoko, who treats her as harshly as
possible, both psychologically and physically. A little later, an editor and a
photographer arrive along with their three assistants, all of whom are
extravagantly dressed, not to mention that two of the assistants are wearing
strap-ons.
A little
later, it is revealed that the whole setting was part of a film shoot, and that
the actual star is Noriko, who treats Kyoko in reality as she in the film. The
rest of the movie shows Kyoko’s past and the reasons that led her to the porn
industry, in a highly surrealistic fashion.
Sion Sono
directs a film that looks more like a theatre play than an actual movie, at
least for its largest part, as it unfolds inside a single set. Apart from that,
Sono seems to be in his element, as the total artistic freedom he was offered
allowed him to let his extreme artistry run amok.
In that
fashion, the film includes lesbian sex, plenty of abuse, the protagonist
throwing up every time she is about to have an orgasm, and women running around
naked for no apparent reason. That is when he is not being completely
blasphemous, as the film also shows, a number of times, Kyoko’s parents having
sex and her watching, when she was a teenager.
Apart from
the evident shocking element, though, Sono makes a clear comment regarding the
porn industry, exhibiting how futile and hypocritical it is. Furthermore, he
extends the same comment to the world of art, which is being portrayed as even
more futile and hypocritical, but also utterly pretentious.
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3. Hime Anole (Keisuke Yoshida, 2016)
3. Hime Anole (Keisuke Yoshida, 2016)
Based on
the homonymous manga series by Minoru Furuya (I know, but this is too great a film to pass and it actually has nothing to do with the majority of the other manga adaptations, like the ones Miike is shooting at the moment), the film starts as a
comedy-drama, from the plethora that comes out of Japan. In that fashion, the
central heroes are two awkward individuals, Susumu Okada and Yuji Ando, who
work for a cleaning company. Yuji talks like a robot and seems to lack any kind
of social skills, and Susumu is an unambitious youth who is troubled by the fact
that his life seems to have no meaning whatsoever.
Eventually,
Yuji tells Susumu that he is in love with a waitress at a cafe, Yuka Abe, and
asks his help to get to know her. The first time they come to the shop, Yuji
points out another man who seems to be constantly there, also having an
interest in Yuka. This man, Shoichi Morita, proves to be Susumu’s former
classmate. Soon, Yuka informs them that Morita is stalking her, and they decide
to “protect” her. Furthermore, the girl seems to have a crush on Susumu,
bringing him into an awkward position.
The second
part, however, changes the focus to Morita, and with that comes a total change
in the film itself. Morita proves to be a psychopathic criminal, and starts a
killing and raping spree against anyone that gets in his way. His final
targets, though, are Yuka and Susumu. Two characters that also appear in the
first part, another classmate and his girlfriend, prove to be the ones that
instigate this mania.
Keisuke
Yoshida manages to elaborately merge two films into one, as the transition
between the two parts is utterly smooth, despite their many differences. The
fact that the second part, containing violence, gore, and sex, comes after the
first one (which could be rated PG-13), is a very unusual tactic, but Yoshida
made the most of it.
The same
applies to the messages he presents, as the first part shows the lives of the
people living on the borders of society and where that can lead them, while the
second highlights the consequences of bullying and violence in general.
This
transition between the two parts is portrayed through an intricate and very
impressive scene. As Susumu and Yuka have sex, Morita tortures and kills a
woman, as the setting switches a number of times and the moves of each “couple”
mirror each other in the most unsettling fashion.
The scene
exemplifies the direction, the camera work, the editing, the sound, and the
special effects of the film, whose prowess becomes evident, particularly in the
violent scenes of the second part. Some of them are truly grotesque,
particularly the ones that involve rape, as the movie fills up with
exploitation elements.
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4. At The Terrace (Kenji Yamauchi, 2016)
The film is
based on Kenji Yamauchi’s own stage play, titled Trois Grotesque, which was the
winner of the 59th Kishida Drama Award.
Set as a
stage play, the film takes place solely on a terrace of an aristocratic house,
as the party held there by the Soejimas is coming to an end. The remaining
guests, most of whom are already half-drunk, start gathering at the terrace:
Haruko Saito, a woman with very white skin and hands that every man present
seems to admire. Kazumi Soejima, the hostess, who seems to be a little jealous
of Haruko. Tanoura, a young engineer working for Toyota, who seems to admire
more than Haruko’s hands. Taro Saito, Haruko’s husband, a very elegant man. Mr
Soejima, the host, who also seems to like Haruko. Masato Saito, a man who used
to be 90 pounds, but is now thin. Lastly, and after some time, Teruo Soejima,
the son of the hosts, makes a late appearance.
As alcohol
seems to take control of most of the people present, thoughts and words that
wouldn’t come out otherwise, fall on the table, creating tensions and revealing
secret agendas and actual characters. Mrs Soejima’s jealousy takes the better
of her, and eventually starts an oral fight with Haruko, who insists that her
hostess is better looking, particularly due to her large bossom, that Mrs
Soejima has taken care of presenting in all its grandiosity. Tanoura is mocked
for liking Haruko, and proves a lousy drunk, as he is constantly crying,
occasionally for no apparent reason. Mr Soejima starts flirting openly with
Kazumi, while Masato seems to have health problems due to his rapid loss of
weight, and starts fading repeatedly. Taro seems not to be bothered by the fact
that everyone seems to lust on his wife, since he has an agenda of his own.
Teruo’s appearance, who also seems to know Kazumi, complicates things even more
as he reveals the true character of his father, and vice versa.
I have to
admit one thing. I adore single location films (Johnnie To’s Three comes to
mind), even more when they are based on and set as stage plays. In that
fashion, I found Kenji Yamauchi’s (Her Father, My Lover) adaptation splendid.
However, At the Terrace stands on a higher level than most similar films,
particularly for two reasons. The first one is the pace, which is dictated by
the rapid way all of the actors speak, and the constant change of the person
talking. The second one is that so much is happening, despite the single location,
mainly through dialogue, but as time passes, through actions also, in a tactic
that finds its apogee in the truly shocking finale. Lastly, as in an actual
theatre play, after the story has ended, Yamauchi presents his actors on
screen, through portraits of sequences of the film, in an original and well
thought “trick.”
The film
may be on a single location, but cinematographer Kiyoaki Hashimoto had much
work to do, since the camera movement is constant, as it focuses on the person
talking each time. In that fashion, he did a wonderful job, not lagging these
changes even for a second, and retaining the fast pace Yamauchi wanted the film
to have.
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5. Destruction Babies (Yuya Yagira, 2016)
5. Destruction Babies (Yuya Yagira, 2016)
Winner of
the Best New Director prize at the Locarno Film Festival, and one of the
greatest recent Japanese films, “Destruction Babies” is a combination of Miike’s
“Izo”, Tsukamoto’s “Tokyo Fist” and Toyoda’s “Pornostar“.
The film
starts in Mitsuhama, a small port in the west of Ehime prefecture where two
brothers are living, abandoned by their parents. The younger is named Shota and
seems like a regular high-school boy, and the second is Taira, a delinquent who
is introduced through a fight with the local gang, he against half a dozen that
is. Almost immediately after the fight, and a little before the mikoshi
(portable shrine) festival, Taira leaves and embarks on a trip of blind
violence through the streets of the city, where he picks fights with anyone
that comes across his way, including the members of the local gang who run
a hostess club.
Taira
wanders tirelessly in the streets, being beaten, but always returning to win
against his opponents. Eventually he meets Yuya, a high school brat that is
intrigued by his behavior and decides to follow him, even starting to give him
orders regarding his opponents. As their fights start to circulate through the
internet, Shota tries to find his brother, while Nana, a shoplifter and a
hostess to the aforementioned club, gets involved with the violent duo, with
terrible consequences.
The way
Tetsuya Mariko directs the film is quite hard to believe, as Taira goes from street
fight to street fight, in a loop that
seems to make him stronger each time is repeated. Apart from his first victim,
though, the rest of his opponents somewhat deserve it, since they include
yakuza and two brats with dyed blond hair who decide to make fun of him. This
endless fighting could become tedious, but Mariko’s direction and Yuya Yagira’s
magnificent, silent acting make it very hard to look away from the screen.
The combination of Yasuyuki Sasaki’s cinematography and Lee Hidemi’s editing is one of the film’s strongest points, with the two of them being responsible for the utterly realistic and very impressive fights. Furthermore, Sasaki presents a number of impressive images, both in the roads of the urban setting and in clubs, pachinko parlors, and other interior spaces.
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