rwmj Reviews

658km, Yoko no Tabi (2023)

The hitchhiker

[7/10 · 28 January 2024]

Yoko (Rinko Kikuchi) is a hikikomori doing online work and never leaving her apartment in Tokyo until one day her cousin turns up to tell her that her father from Aomori has died and the funeral is tomorrow, 658km to the north. Her mobile phone has broken so she wasn't answering calls. The cousin, his wife and their children offer to take her to Aomori. Along the way they stop at a service station. Yoko becomes separated from the cousin's family and ends up hitchhiking the rest of the way, and it's the distressing hike which is 90% of the film.

Along the way she meets the whole range of humanity, but the main progression is herself. From the hikikomori who barely speaks, to the important soliloquy about life near the end.

Like a lot of Japanese films, it's quite slow paced (though not boring). Kikuchi is excellent, although possibly too good looking for this grim role. Sawa Nimura was also good. Also Joe Odagiri as the ghostly father figure, and the bickering but loving old couple.

Extraneous Matter Complete Edition (2021)

Entertaining and thoughtful short film about sexy tentacled aliens

[8/10 · 23 September 2023]

A woman in a sexless relationship discovers the tentacled alien in her closet provides relief. Soon enough her friends discover it too. Later we find out her boyfriend has also discovered the alien's charms. The story, sparsely but smartly told, skips forward to a time where these aliens are everywhere. Even later we find out they are being wiped out but two of the workers charged with shredding them save one.

Filmed in black and white with little dialog, it's always entertaining.

This film has at least a few parallels with Cronenberg's Naked Lunch and especially Burrough's mugwumps. Being set in Japan, Hokusai's Dream of the Fisherman's Wife must get a look in.

The Voyeurs (2021)

Peekaboo

[7/10 · 10 October 2021]

A millennial couple move into an implausibly nice apartment with large Rear Windows. The beautiful couple across the way don't draw their curtains and a bit of peeking quickly leads to disaster.

I've watched this movie twice and I have to agree with other reviewers that there is a great - possibly classic - film trying to get out, but the screenplay lets it down near the end. The good parts are the excellent cast and lovely cinematography. It's enjoyable and never once boring across the 2 hour running time. The ending is somewhat weak and lets it down, but I will still give this a solid 7/10 and recommend that people to watch it.

Okuotoko (2018)

Intertwined fairytales about money

[8/10 · 6 September 2020]

The film opens with two people apparently throwing an enormous, excessive party, and a heist where one steals millions of Japanese yen. What's going on? I honestly thought my DVD might have mixed up the reels, but the story steadily unfolds through flashbacks and current events. The subplots are all about money, some comic, some tragic. Every major character in the film has made or lost enormous sums of money and for the most part it obviously didn't make them happy or better people.

I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would and even though the running time is quite long at a full 2 hours I was never bored. At the time of writing this has an average score of 5.2 and no english reviews at all, but I think if you can find this film with subtitles it's well worth taking a look.

Seven Nights in Japan (1976)

There's a good film in there somewhere, flawed but still enjoyable

[7/10 · 3 April 2020]

George is a naval officer who has seven nights of shore leave in Japan. Unfortunately for him his other job is heir to the throne of England so he must spend it at the British Ambassador and making dull factory visits. He decides one night to escape over the fence and enjoy Tokyo, whereupon through an entirely believable sequence of mishaps he ends up on a tour bus and falls in love with one of the guides and they have the titular seven nights to enjoy Japan and each other before he must return to his duties.

This could have been a good - not great - romantic comedy, if the director had cut the script down to the essentials, slowed things down, and left the ludicrous and senseless subplot involving the yakuza on the cutting-room floor. (No real surprise that the director and the producer both worked on James Bond films.)

Despite its many flaws it's an enjoyable and very watchable travelogue of 1970s Japan, and I have to admit I was crying like a baby by the end.

Unlike other reviewers I think Michael York played the plummy, stuck up and unworldly royal very well. His love interest, Sumi, is sweet, but that's about all. As an actress Hidemi Aoki would go on to be in almost nothing else.

If you come across this film it's worth watching and at least never dull.

TWA Flight 800 (2013 TV Movie)

Conspiracy theory nonsense

[1/10 · 14 July 2019]

I accidentally downloaded this and watched the first bit. The flight blew up because of a spark in one of the tanks, ie. a terrible engineering failure. That would have been an interesting documentary. Unfortunately this documentary tries to make it out as some kind of conspiracy, and is utter nonsense.

Kasane (2018)

Enjoyable adaptation if you ignore a few plot problems

[8/10 · 13 March 2019]

I quite randomly watched this film on a flight to Japan, but was very glad I decided to watch it as in all it was fun and held my attention right to the end.

The plot is about two aspiring actresses, one with beauty but not much in the way of talent, and the other scarred across her face but with an abundance of acting skill. Luckily (or perhaps not) the scarred one has a tube of magic lipstick given to her by her actress mother which allows her to borrow another woman's appearance temporarily, and using her talent and the beautiful actress's looks she quickly becomes a famous star.

There's one rather large plot device which is slightly unbelievable (yes, not just the lipstick), but in general it's a thoroughly enjoyable film all the way through.

The real stars here are the two real life actresses who have to play multiple "layers" of roles, sometimes playing a woman playing another woman playing another woman. At no point did I wonder who was who.

Boku to tsuma no 1778 no monogatari (2011)

Charming but bleak film about love

[7/10 · 7 May 2011]

I caught this film on a flight over from the states. After watching Mike Leigh's latest and rather depressing film, I was in the mood for something more fun, and this was a Japanese film with robots ... fun right?

Sakutaro is an aimless dreamer and unsuccessful science fiction writer, who happens by luck to be married to the one woman, Setsuko, who can look after him. He sits in the park or in his study all day surrounded by toy robots, dreaming and writing. When Setsuko is diagnosed with cancer and given a year to live, Sakutaro writes a story every day to keep her spirits up.

The film thankfully doesn't try to tell every one of these stories; most are just amusing or interesting titles. For a few the film cuts to Sakutaro's imagination as he battles robots or has a hallucinogenic experience with a giant squid. These parts work very well and the stories themselves are poignant and funny. For these alone it's certainly worth watching the film.

As to the underlying story, I'll just say that it's bleak. If there's a message it's not too deep. That's why I give this 7/10.

Wool 100% (2006)

Flawed but interesting strangeness

[7/10 · 19 April 2008]

Two elderly sisters live in a house piled up and over with junk. They go on daily scavenging expeditions to find new stuff which they bring home and meticulously catalog. One day they discover some red yarn which they bring home and in the night a girl with a knitting obsession breaks in and repeatedly knits and unpicks a sweater for herself.

The first half of this film is charming. Some of the subtle humour might be lost on a western audience - for example one of the sisters has a western style of dressing and eating while the other has an eastern/Japanese style, and some of the comedy is in the Japanese descriptions of the drawings they make of their junk.

However the story loses its way after this. You can almost see the director's thought processes here: How do we resolve this film? Why are the two sisters living together? Obviously the answer involves War and Love Lost. The girl turns out to be pretty annoying. The house gets cleaned up and cleared out (thereby losing all its charm!). The plot starts to fall apart as we segue back in time, and I found it hard to fathom exactly what was going on for the last bit. Nevertheless the animation is great fun - think "Happiness of the Katakuris" for something similar.

7/10 - worth watching but don't be expecting greatness.

Honey & Clover (2006)

Yawnfest

[2/10 · 21 January 2008]

I'll admit that I only watched this film because of Naomi Nishida (from "The Happiness of the Katakuris"-- a far far better film that this), but ouch was this a real bore.

By the end of the film -- and I'm rather disappointed that I bothered to watch the whole thing - - I had no compassion at all for the characters. The "arts students" were stereotypically the worst students you could imagine (ie. lazy, talentless non-working dossers), the plot is virtually non-existent, and the central "artist" is a misogynistic wastrel. The film outlasted its welcome by at least an hour.

The only good thing I'd say is that this film is available on certain sites, so at least you won't have to waste hard cash to watch it. Time, on the other hand, waits for no man.