Friday, July 03, 2009
Sion Sono's Be Sure To Share
As I tweeted a couple of days ago, I attended a press screening of Be Sure To Share (Chanto Tsutaeru, 『ちゃんと伝える』), the latest film from writer-director Sono Sion (園子温監督), made before we've even "had a chance to recover" after Love Exposure, as the press notes put it. These are just a few thoughts, a review of sorts, which includes spoilers, ahead of the film's world premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival on July 5th (see my June 11 entry).
You can read a good plot summary at the NYAFF link above. In short, 27-year-old Shirô (Akira) finds out his father (Okuda Eiji) has terminal cancer after he collapses at home and is rushed to the ER. Shirô and his mother (Takahashi Keiko) pay daily visits to the hospital. For Shirô it's the most time he's spent with his father since being coached by him in high school. During one of his visits, Shirô finds out he himself has cancer and that it's much worse than his father's -- he's unlikely to outlive him. Shirô struggles with when and if to tell his loving girlfriend (Itô Ayumi) and his family about his condition. As the days count down in both their lives they plan their first, and last, fishing trip together. The impetus for the film was the passing of Sono's own father, whom the film is dedicated to, in January 2008 (he was no fan of his son's movies, Sono has said).
Akira from megahit band EXILE does a fine job in his debut role. He has an easy charm about him. Boys and girls will find him equally likable, I'd guess. There are a few scenes where the drama calls for more than he might be capable of yet, but if he's serious about acting he has the potential to become great.
"With the way he looks in EXILE, the only roles I could think of for Akira were in movies about juvenile delinquents in Shibuya or gangs, but he really shed his sex appeal for this role ...I think his performance will touch people," explained Sono in a recent interview.
The teenaged version of Shirô in the flashbacks looks nothing like him, which I found a little distracting, especially since the time slips are handled so beautifully courtesy of Sono's regular editor Itô Jun'ichi. Not a major gripe -- I honestly don't think "professional" critics will find much, if anything, to be picky about with this film.
Itô Ayumi is a talented actress and beautiful woman who I've been keeping an eye on over the years. She's already worked with many of Japan's best directors (Iwai, Aoyama, Shindô, Sabu etc.) As I also tweeted, I think she has the chance to cross over like Kikuchi Rinko did. No accident she joined Anoré, the same small agency Kikuchi started at ran by Asano Tadanobu's father. She infuses her character of "the girlfriend" Yôko with humanity in a layered performance far removed from the affectations of terebi dorama. Her character is the kind of woman you want to marry (and I did). No wonder Shirô tells her the truth about his condition in the end, in a scene shot at the director's own childhood home.
Okuda plays the role of the bed-ridden father with the perfect amount of vulnerability and gruffness. The scene where he asks his wife to lay in his tiny hospital bed next to him because he misses it had me closer to tears than the "big" scenes.
In the high school flashbacks he's something like Robert Duvall in The Great Santini (comparison courtesy of NYAFF), berating and brutalizing Shirô for daring to call him "dad" during school hours. Off the pitch he's a calm man who barely raises an eyebrow when his son ends up at the local kôban after fighting. Okuda also plays a dead body well (it is one skill in an actor's repertoire after all).
Veteran actress Takahashi Keiko as the wife and mother is also affecting in a very quiet way. There are no histrionics, only superb and often wordless acting -- lonely gazes at the empty space next to her in bed and a warm smile at the young bus driver who drives her to the hospital every morning.
Other roles played by Takaoka Sôsuke (Crows series), Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Denden and Satô Jirô are handled well.
Fans of Mitsushima Hikari (Love Exposure) will be glad to see her as a giggling schoolgirl but might hope for more than her two-minute scene. On a Mitsushima/Okuda tangent I can't resist, during my Skip City pre-selection duty I watched her in the directorial debut of Okuda Eiji's daughter Andô Momoko. Entitled Kakera (『かけら』), Mitsushima plays the object of desire of an older woman. Watch for it!
The technical credits are solid. Shot and set in the city of Toyohashi, the cinematography by Ueno Shôgo (All Around Us) is espcially effective during the nighttime scenes along the deserted old shôtengai and the lake where the fateful fishing trip takes place. On a weather-beaten bench from a bygone era, Okuda's character comes to understand the pleasures of fishing from a senior colleague at school (Denden). The lake is flanked by a mountain on one side and swaying wheat on the other (we'll ignore the commuter bridge in the profile shots). Add to that the acoustic guitar on the soundtrack and it recalls early Michael Cimino. The lake develops an almost mythical status in their lives because it represents the will for both Shirô and his father to fight for the day they can fish it together.
You'd swear Be Sure to Share was based on a best-selling novel but the screenplay is yet another colour in the prism of Sono's originality. The characters and dialogue are honest and to the point, moving the story forward in a 109m film with no fat. Additionally, if you're studying Japanese and tired of simplistic dorama, this is a perfect film for an intermediate speaker.
To think Sono crafted this modest gem right after the treasure chest of pop culture insanity that was Love Exposure is startling. "Using music as an example, after a rock album tour de force you want to move right into something 'unplugged'," was Sono's analogy. What he may not be conscious of is that he's working toward the title of Japan's greatest living director right now.
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