Lucidno
Three Japanese film talents
On April 10, 2020, Obayashi Nobuhiko, one of Japan's greatest film directors, passed away. This is a great loss for the Japanese film industry, as if a huge star had disappeared. However, I hope that foreign audiences don't misunderstand it as "Japan has lost all the talented film directors". Still, few real young talents in Japan are known to the world. Therefore, this article introduces you to some of the youngest and most talented filmmakers who will be making their mark in the 2020s after Nobuhiko Obayashi.
First up is "Orphan's Blues", directed by Riho Kudo. A young woman named Emma sells books on the street to make ends meet, refusing to let go of her cigarette. But she suffers from an unexplained illness that causes her to gradually lose her memory. While this interfered with her day-to-day life, Emma lives quietly with her diminishing memories.
In the early part of the story, this film depicts painstakingly the slow-moving everyday life Emma immerses herself in. She sells books on the street and chats with her client. She sips ramen noodles straight from the pot after cooking. However, the audience will notice something unsettling in the midst of such ordinary life. A customer asks her to order a book, but she's forgotten all about it. The walls are covered with fragmentary notes for lost memories. Its editing here seems to be a direct representation of her shifting memories.
One day, among the cluster of notes on the wall, Emma discovers a piece of paper with the name Yan, who was an old childhood friend to Emma. Motivated by this name, she goes on a journey to see Yan again. On the way, her friend Van and his girlfriend Yuri also join her, and the journey continues.
The journey is filled with beautiful landscapes. We feel as if we are traveling through a place where Asian cultures intersect rather than Japan itself. Chinatown with its colorful neon lights, languages different from Japanese. A daytime market with vibrant tropical trees. Wide streets of a countryside that I want to describe as very Japan-like. The way they all converge on a single journey is strangely attractive.
The scenery is beautiful, but the cinematography by Saki Tanimura is also excellent. The vivid colors stand out everywhere in her gaze. The quivering kettle boils, Emma's back covered in hair, the vast greenery of the countryside, the darkness that fills the inn, the blue of the sea in tranquility. These things are arranged in parallel, and then the joy of beauty is found by the audience, which's extraordinary.
In the meantime, Emma and her friends end up staying at a guest house run by Yan's friend, and spend their days there. The days of drinking beer, sleeping late and playing at the beach are lazy and fun. But even there, Yan's disappearance floats uneasily in and out of her mind, and with it Emma's memory disorder is getting worse. The end of their journey is steadily approaching for them.
The director has created a film that expresses the sincere emotions of her characters through the many casual movements and expressions that appear in their daily life. Everyone hides their true thoughts in the back of their minds, yet they appear in unexpected moments. When we witness it, a complicated feeling hits our hearts. And when those thoughts are enveloped in the soft orange of the setting sun, they are connected to nostalgia. A heartbreaking nostalgia for somewhere other than here.
This film has a science fiction-like design as well as a road movie appeal. From the beginning of the film, the current situation where the world is gradually coming to an end is hinted at from the radio. Therefore, the sadness for the disappearing world pervades the journey, and it resonates with Emma's memory disorder. And so "Orphan's Blues", along with its fading memories, reaches the warm end of the world.
The next film I would like to introduce is "Cry", directed by Hirofumi Watanabe. The protagonist is a nameless young man who lives with his grandmother in a rural town. He works at a pigsty where he takes care of the pigs, and when the day is over, he goes home and has dinner with his grandmother. Then he reads a paper or a book, and then goes to sleep. The next morning he wakes up, has breakfast with his grandmother and walks to the pigsty....
First of all, this film depicts his daily life in a stern and solemn way. A man feeds and waters pigs. A man cleans the floor of a pigsty. A man walks along a rainy road with an umbrella A man eats dinner with his grandmother. A man reads a book. Such ordinary scenes appear and disappear. This is Watanabe's sixth film, and he has made many comedic films in the past Therefore, this film is probably the first experimental film that is devoid of words.
The world captured by Woohyun Bang's camera is a black and white one with rich shadows. He presents this muddy world, colored by the squealing of pigs, in its rawest form. We can only be overwhelmed by its grimy, obsidian-like world. And we would be surprised to know that this is a true landscape that spreads in Japan.
And his camera continues to follow the man's movements with great care. From behind, we see him walking, and from the side, we see him cleaning a pigsty. This closeness is reminiscent of the works of Alan Clarke and his so-called kitchen sink films, which are oriented towards a kind of realism. His camera does not try to turn away from dirt. It tries to present filth itself.
What is striking at this point is the man's back. As the camera captures the man as he continues to walk down the street, we witness his big back. It is constantly shaking, which covers our retinas. If you film the back of a man walking down the street, that's how you make a film. We can feel the director's strong will in this scene.
But we will be surprised because completely nothing occurs in the man's daily life. In a mainstream film, it might cheapen oneself by involving love or death. But the director doesn't really make anything happen.
And yet, we can't take our eyes off of this film because of the tremendous power of life that dwells here. This is symbolised by the pigs. Even though they are caged, they move, eat, and excrete according to their own desires. Their wriggling and cries reflecting their vehement life keep us glued to the screen.
The film is supported by Hirofumi Watanabe, who plays the nameless man, not only as a director but also as an actor. He does not speak at all. No emotions can be read from his body or facial expressions. He only accepts life in silence. But this great simplicity brings us closer to the truth of life. "Cry" is a high-pitched hymn to life, like exuberant mud.
The last film I would like to introduce is "Life: Untitled", directed by Kana Yamada. Kano has been leading a normal life, but due to the economic recession, she is unable to find a job. Hence, she decides to become a call girl, but she refuses to work because it's too shitty. Still, she has to work as a staff member of the brothel.
Kano's life is full of intensity. She's a loser, getting slapped on the head with a magazine by the manager, scorned by the other call girls, then continuing to struggle at the lowest level. The pay is good, so she's staying here, but trying to get out of this shithole.
This film can be described as an ensemble drama of women, with Kano at the center. They are oppressed by men, love men, and play with men, but they are all in hardship. These women are in lukewarm misery and don't know how to be happy. This film embraces their lives with great generosity.
What is striking about this film is the vivid landscape of life at the bottom of Tokyo. The echoing noise of trains, trash on the ground, drunkard on the ground, and the white filthy light in the parking lot. Such diverse landscapes of Tokyo are depicted in this film. For foreign audiences, this kind of locality will be very attractive. Moreover, this film is based on the stage play of the same name, but it is more than a film adaptation of the stage, because of the raw existence of Tokyo.
The director, Kana Yamada, is a playwright who wrote its original play. She makes a movie from her play with deep understanding, but what is prominent at this point is the sharpness of her eyes for women. The women are constantly bursting with emotion, but the director observes them quietly, and the rich details are engraved on the screen.
The film that comes to mind while watching this film is a film by American filmmaker Lizzie Borden's "Working Girls”. This film depicts prostitutes living in the city, and "Life: Untitled" has a similar level of authenticity and rawness with this film. And it shines with a unique brilliance because of its Japan/Tokyo locality.
Sairi Ito, who plays Kano, is the core of this film. She crawls around on the ditch in Tokyo, being called ugly and beaten up with a magazine. But she screams in her impressive husky voice, "I'm going to live through this shitty life." I'd call her the Japanese Jennifer Lawrence. A fearless presence resides in her.
The original title of this film, "Taitoru, Kyozetsu," means "I refuse the title" literally. There is a more intense rebellion in the original title than the English title. The women try to live their nameless lives with gigantic despair and determination. The audience will be fascinated by this strength.
So I have introduced you to some of Japan's most remarkable young talents, but of course, there are many other talents out there, too. Nao Yoshigai, Sho Miyake, Hiromichi Nakao, Masaya Jo, Kana Hatakeyama, Elaiza Ikeda and many others, but I'll introduce them next time.
Tettyo Saito
Tettyo Saito is a film critic in Japan who works for several film magazines, and editor-in-chief of Japanese online magazine Z-SQUAD. He is also a novelist in 3 languages: Japanese, English and Romanian.
