A Blue Automobile (Aoi kuruma) [2004] • Japan

This film has three things going for it: Aoi Miyazaki, Kumiko Aso, and a great soundtrack. Miyazaki and Aso are two of Japan's most talented and popular young actresses, and I'm always happy when a director shows good taste in music and uses it well—although the hip and evocative soundtrack used here sometimes seems a bit at odds with the slow paced art-house stylings of the film.

A Blue Automobile is a good looking film, very bleak, all stark and concrete, and there are a number of creative and interesting directorial choices made by Okuhara but the overall vision of the film left me wanting. That isn't always a problem but this film plays like it wants to be a film with a vision to talk about, an exploration of a heavy theme: pain, as a game changer. Indie actor cool dude Arata does a fine job as a young man who doesn't think much of living because of an accident as a child that has left him scarred around the eyes. He plays an introverted danger-punk guy, and we all know that fetching, young, good-hearted women are attracted to the type, so that's what plays out.

I was intrigued, fascinated even, by the characters as discreet units but wasn't able to engage or be moved by the exposition of the characters' motivations toward one another. It's basically another story about a guy who gets two women. And this time they are sisters, which adds to the oh-so-intense nature of the angst. That there's a big theme of immense suffering lurking in the background all the time doesn't make it much more than that, except it does make it "alternative".

The film has many bright moments and solid acting. It's not mainstream fare by a long shot, but fans of any of the three leads should enjoy watching them do their stuff. The film wants to be more than it is but it really doesn't matter. I enjoyed the experience of the film. It's one of those where you give more points to journey than goal.

★★★

Director: Hiroshi Okuhara
Starring: Arata, Aoi Miyazaki, Kumiko Aso, Tomorowo Taguchi, Kenji Mizuhashi

IMDb
Asianmediawiki
Japan Times

Girlfriend • Someone Please Stop the World [2004] • Japan

More Ryuichi Hiroki. This one is love story between a young woman photographer, Kyoko, who gets an assignment to pick a woman off the street and take nude photos of her for a men's magazine, and the woman who turns up as the subject of that assignment, Miho. Kiyoko's professional ethos is one of getting to know her subject deeply, be it a fruit plate or a human being, and as she does this she finds her interest in this particular subject, Miho, turning into fondness. The feeling is mutual, but this isn't a gay-themed film per se. There are just no barriers in the way that might prevent these two wandering souls from exploring each other, trying to find a positive relationship in a world they feel disconnected from, saddened by. The two performances are good enough, but not great, while the underlying drama and psychological trauma seem less satisfying.

I'm never quite happy with films that explore a lesbian liaison by setting up one of the participants as frustrated by bad relationships with jerkball men. It doesn't have to be that way. In this case it's Kyoko, but she has the personality of being frustrated by more than her bad boyfriends. She's a bit frustrated with herself and is trying to find a comfortable compromise between photography as art and photography as commerce. She's idealistic and a bit peculiar. When she meets Miho, who is angry about her father who left her family years ago and hasn't been in contact since, she meets someone who's more bummed out with life than she is so she's able to feel a little bit better about herself, and seems genuinely interested in, listening to Miho's stories. It's not unusual to become attracted to someone that makes you feel better about yourself.

Miho agrees to pose nude for Kyoko partly, well, mostly, as a means of getting back at, and getting the attention of, her father. I'm not sure about that as a method or as a solution but she's hurt and angry and she wants her father's attention. Kyoko and Miho are both presented as empathetic outsiders. Following them is a reasonably enjoyable romp in indie ennui but it doesn't wrap itself up into a grand story.

Girlfriend is part of the Love Collection, a loose series of DV shot features from 2004 with the common theme of love. Other entries include Kihatsusei no onna (A Volatile Woman) by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, OLDK by Masahiro Hara, Nejirin bou by Tadashi Tomioka, Moon and Cherry by Yuki Tanada and Kokoro to karada by Hiroshi Ando.

★★★

Director: Ryuichi Hiroki
Starring: Aoba Kawai, Tomorowo Taguchi, Kinuwo Yamada, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Jason Gray, Aya Sugimoto
IMDb
Asianmediawiki
cinephilia101

Tokyo Trash Baby 東京ゴミ女 (Tokyo gomi onna) [2000] • Japan

Mami Nakamura's performance makes this one a big winner. She's engaging, endearing, amusing, and sympathetic from start to finish. That's what it takes for a small film like this to succeed, a film which says: "Here's an offbeat character, do you like her? Does she draw you into her life, entertain you, and invite you to wonder what will happen to her?" It takes a clever script and a good performance. Tokyo Trash Baby delivers on both accounts.

Miyuki (Nakamura) is a girl in love with her upstairs neighbor, a musician. Instead of trying to meet him she is content with stealing his garbage and foraging through it to find things that will give her insight into his personality. She collects many things, like empty cereal boxes, cigarette butts, love letters, discarded musical scores, and creates a shrine to her love in her apartment. She discards a used condom. The story falls a little flat after she does eventually meet him face to face, but Miyuki is still fun to spend time with. As are the few peripheral characters in the film.

Tomorowo Taguchi plays the manager at the cafe where Miyuki works and is typical Taguchi odd but doesn't have much impact on the story. Two other characters do, though: Kô Shibasaki plays co-worker, Kyoko, whose screen time is devoted almost exclusively to telling Miyuki stories of her sexual conquests, dreams, and dilemmas ... and bumming smokes. Masahiro Toda plays a customer trying desperately to get Miyuki to go out with him but he's too boring to make an impact on her. His attempts at realizing love are face to face but his loneliness prevents him from catching a clue. Both characters serve as juxtaposition to Miyuki and highlight my favorite theme of the film: loneliness. Kyoko has a very active social life but seems unfulfilled and lost. Miyuki (contrary to most observations on the film) doesn't seem lonely. She seems content and happy with her life. That's what makes her interesting. Director Hiroki gives her the respect she deserves.

Tokyo Trash Baby is part of the Love Cinema series of six straight-to-video releases which also includes Takashi Miike's Visitor Q. It's a low-budget affair shot on Digital Video. It's uses all natural lighting and sometimes the glare from an open window distracts but never gets in the way. It's testament to the strength of the story and performance that technical limitations do not derail the project at all.

★★★★★

Director: Ryuichi Hiroki
Starring: Mami Nakamura, Kazuma Suzuki, Kô Shibasaki, Sayuri Oyamada, Tomorowo Taguchi

IMDb
Asianmediawiki
MidnightEye

The Eel うなぎ (Unagi) [1997] • Japan

I like films with a relaxed pace but this one is slow to the point of boring and its poetic undertones are silly. The story is trite: jealous man kills his wife, goes to prison, opens a barber shop in a small village when he gets out, saves a woman from suicide, she falls in love with him, people gossip, his affection remains towards his pet eel, her baggage causes him to defend her, he goes back to jail. We've seen it all before. Nothing wrong with that, per se. There are a handful of cinematically attractive moments but not enough to make the film worthwhile.

Misa Shimizu is fetching in her high-wasted slacks but never shines. Kôji Yakusho isn't given enough script or the proper direction to make his signature introspective style come alive. All of the acting seems very stilted, about the level of Tomorowo Taguchi.

And there's something very excuse-making and just plain wrong with a film that ends several times for about a half hour. Geez.

★★★

Director: Shohei Imamura
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baisho, Akira Emoto, Fujio Tsuneta, Tomorowo Taguchi

IMDb
Wikipedia
Asianmediawiki

Sada 戯作・阿部定の生涯 [1998] • Japan

Forget that this is another entry in the dramatization of Sada Abe's life and crime of killing her lover and cutting off his man-parts, most infamously portrayed in the sexually explicit In the Realm of the Senses, and ignore all the commentary that molds the story into a historical and social context for your academic pleasure, and never mind that these kinds of stories always start off with the girl being raped as a teenager. All those things involve too much thinking. Just kick back and enjoy this as another odd but fairly well-executed film by director Nobuhiko Obayashi.

The first things you'll notice about the film are the narrative and filmic techniques used by Obayashi. Characters break the Fourth Wall; there's a mix of black & white and color photography which is interesting and useful some times and random at others; some jump-cut editing use is mostly abandoned after the first act; the costuming, both traditional and modern, is gorgeous; there's a fabulous stop-motion sequence in the middle that starts with Sada reading a book while her lover sits near her having a snack, they do the hanky-panky and then resume their initial activities, and there are several moments of Keystone Kops style comedy. After that you should find it to be a fascinating character study of a strong and intelligent woman.

Hitomi Kuroki is amazing as Sada. Her characterization remains a constant as she effortlessly transitions through the varied styles of presentation Obayashi employs. She is always elegant, beautiful, sensuous, and in control. She is also very genuine, which comes off as quite sexy. (For the curious, there is zero nudity in this version of the story, not even a glimpse of Sada's notoriously cute butt. The closest we get, in a brilliant directorial move, is an odd-angled, extreme close-up of her fully kimonoed posterior. There are lots of bare shoulders and legs, and there are several sex scenes but they are mostly played either artfully or comically.)

Sada may serve it's nominal content respectfully and respectably but it comes off so much more as a film than a biography that if it's approached with an educational curiosity its style may frustrate. Watch it for the whimsical stylings of the director and the lovely and remarkable performance of Hitomi Kuroki.

★★★★

Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Starring: Hitomi Kuroki, Kataoka Tsutaro, Miki Norihei, Shiina Kippei, Negishi Toshie, Renji Ishibashi
IMDb
Wikipedia

Switching - Goodbye Me 転校生 -さよなら あなた- (Tenkôsei: Sayonara anata) [2007] • Japan

It cracks me up the way the Japanese (and the Koreans do this too), concoct these un-named, incurable diseases and then treat them as just another plot point, no big deal really. Someone dies here, but this information isn't really a spoiler because it doesn't matter. It's not what the movie is about. Switching - Goodbye Me is the story of two fifteen year old kids, a boy and a girl, who switch bodies and learn about themselves, their relationships, and love. It's a theme that's been done before. In fact, Switching - Goodbye Me is a remake by the same director of a very well received film he made in 1982 called I Are You, You Am Me (Tenkosei).

Switching - Goodbye Me is filled with beautiful cinematography that seems a pay grade above the level of film it's operating in. The acting is all very good, especially from the two teenagers gender-hopping as the leads, and the script is quirky smart. I was a little surprised by the very casual but to-the-point dialog about nuts and boobs and "body parts that change shape" when you touch them. Not because I don't think fifteen year old kids talk about these things but because these two fifteen year old kids are presented as something close to the epitome of innocence. That's the beauty of this film. It's somewhat skewed all the way through. Even the camera angles are all mostly from off the horizontal plane. And the typically Japanese ability to hurl fast-paced absurd dialog at you with a straight face makes for an odd yet peaceful roller-coaster ride.

The first hour of the film is pretty much comedy, turning a bit more dramatic for the second hour. The ending is a slow fizzle which attempts to wrap things up with an upbeat message when it really just rolls over and plays dead. But it doesn't matter. Unless you know for sure you don't like movies about teenagers, I highly recommend this film. It's a family film with a subversive yet sweet underbelly. Kids will get the weirdness and parents will never feel like things have gone too far. The characters are well-developed and likable and it's a very good looking film. A final shout out to both of the teenage actors. They do a remarkable job of channeling the opposite sex, mostly through body language and speech patterns. Switching - Goodbye Me should leave you smiling most of the way through.

★★★★

Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Starring: Misako Renbutsu, Naoyuki Morita, Misa Shimizu, Saki Terashima, 
IMDb
Asianmediawiki

How to Create Myself of Tomorrow (Ashita no watashi no tsukurikata) How to Become Myself (2007) • Japan

There are two reasons to watch this movie, assuming of course that flicks about teen angst aren't off limits. The first reason is Riko Narumi. She's got looks, talent, and a maturity beyond her age which should protect her from catching disposable idol syndrome. She's got the skill to bring us inside the film and not question the all too common premise of how the best looking and smartest girl in class, who's from a well to do but unassuming family, can be an introverted social outcast. Her parents fight a little and that's what's got her down. It isn't until the second act, when the class prize loses her social standing allowing Narumi's character to sweep in and relate, that we become engaged and the film picks up its rhythm. And it does it through film technique more than simple storytelling.

The second reason to enjoy this film is the creative way director Jun Ichikawa has put the package together. He uses fades and split screens and shots about nothing all in the service of a poetic rhythm that carries the viewer from start to finish. The two girls don't just meet and bond. In fact, they live in different parts of the city and go to different schools. They communicate with one another via email and text messages. Narumi's character is an aspiring writer and she uses her skill to create a persona to share with her new friend. On one hand, she is trying to give her friend a role model, and on the other she is using the character as a vehicle to express the thoughts and feelings she doesn't have the confidence to own up to herself. Her friend likes the character Narumi has created so much she assumes its identity. Things get complicated and the girls have to finally give in and be themselves. It's not a challenging story but it is innovatively rendered and scored.

I prefer the literal, if a little overly formal, English translation of this film's title, How to Create Myself of Tomorrow, over the one you're likely to find on the DVD box in your favorite import video store, How to Become Myself. I think it better reflects the imaginative presentation of this lovely little teen flick.

★★★★

Director: Jun Ichikawa
Starring: Riko Narumi, Atsuko Maeda, Mariko Ishihara, Yoshizumi Ishihara, Sosuke Takaoka
IMDb

Brass Knuckle Boys (Shonen merikensakku) The Shonen Merikensack [2008] • Japan

I'll watch anything with Aoi Miyazaki in it but it was extremely tough this time. She's fabulous, of course, and the film starts off with a refreshingly bizarre sense of humor, but it quickly devolves into toilet humor. Miyazaki plays a record company office worker who discovers a punk rock band on the Internet, thinks they are the next big thing, and decides to represent them on behalf of her company. What she doesn't know, at first, is that the band's web site and videos are 25 years old, so she must follow through promoting a group of middle-aged punk rockers because contracts have been signed and jobs are on the line. I can't imagine who this movie is aimed at. Young people (who are into punk) will recognize it as fake and older people (who may have been punks) will too. Brass Knuckle Boys confuses punk with childishness and fails to create characters that anyone will care about. For every quick and funny moment that works, and there's a bunch of them, there's umpteen that don't. And the sibling rivalry family drama subplot is painfully uninteresting. I'm a huge Aoi Miyazaki fan but a two hour fart joke is a bad vehicle for her.

★★★

The Most Beautiful Night in the World (Sekai de ichiban utsukushii yoru) [2008] • Japan

It's all here. The reason for wars and other bad things is that people are not sexually satisfied. So, create a potion that will make everyone want to have sex all the time, all the unhealthy people will die from exhaustion, and then the world will be overrun with children. The march of civilization will stop but at least so will the wars and corruption. Interesting idea, but the acting and the storytelling in this nearly three hour film are so bad it can only work by virtue of a train wreck curiosity. It may become a cult classic. It's got full frontal nudity and a fifty persons naked orgy at the end. You can't take this film seriously but it does make a case for taking pity on it. It's bad, frighteningly bad, but it's shooting for being so bad it's good, hoping to create a pathetic charm. And it succeeds, to a degree. I admit to sorta liking this film after it was over but sitting through it had many difficult moments.

Michie Itô is great as the genius girl who breaks out in an allergic rash when she gets near stupid people, and who gives birth to a girl who has no bellybutton because she was born in an egg.

It's definitely not a pink film and I even hesitate to call it weird. It's more just earnestly underachieving. There's a wholesome quality to it too. It's strangeness isn't typical of Japanese weirdness, it's more like midnight-movie camp. It's structure is that of a fifteen year old girl (the one without a belly-button) narrating the secret of why her small community has such a high fertility rate: "It all started fourteen years ago when 'that man' came to our village", and then it takes its sweet time getting to the present. There isn't really an allure that something erotic might happen, although Michie Itô's character has a way of leading you to the edge every time she shows up, but there is a continuing implication that the story might unfold in an interesting and fulfilling way.

It's not Christopher Guest weird, where everyone seems to exist in their own orbit, and it's not Satoshi Miki witty weird, it's more like Godzilla ... with animated sequences from a third-grader thrown in. NYAFF Trailer @ YouTube

★★★