Brief Thoughts on Three World Premieres at TOKYO FILMeX

Now that the 10th edition of TOKYO FILMeX has wrapped (see my closing story on Screen) and several post-fest parties were enjoyed, I thought I'd get down some very brief thoughts on the three Japanese films that had world premieres.

I'll start with what I tweeted about each one and expand a little from there. Mild spoilers.


First up was Ômori Tatsushi's A Crowd of Three (Kenta to Jun to Kayo-chan no Kuni, 『ケンタとジュンとカヨちゃんの国』).

Tweet: Omori Tatsushi's A Crowd of Three a road trip into the dark heart of today's lost youth

Tweet 2: Omori's Whispering...was trangressive - A Crowd of Three was neither art nor mainstream. Hard sell. I liked perfs, incl. Matsuda.

An overlong, glacially-paced nihilistic road movie stuck at a fork in the road. Is it an art film with genre trappings or a mainstream drama with indie stylings? Neither, really, though from talking to a few Japanese audience members its depiction of dead end delinquents seemed to strike a chord. Solid performances by indie stalwarts Andô Sakura and Kôra Kengo. Idol Matsuda Shôta does his best in what could probably be considered the lead role. I haven't seen Ikigami and don't watch terebi dorama (especially not the likes of Hanadan) so I had little to go on other than what he delivered, most of which was good. He has an interesting face. Everyone in the film does, actually.

A Crowd of Three starts off well, setting a tone as Kôra and Matsuda pointlessly jackhammer away at cement walls at their dead-end construction jobs. They decide to take off for Hokkaidô, where Matsuda's pedophile brother is imprisoned at Abashiri, eventually heading right off land's end. Despite the rage, sadness and fleeting moments of happiness along the way (a bus ride with a group of mentally challenged people is a highlight) the proceedings feel as flat as a pancake. The film does give off some sparks when Andô and Ômori Tatsushi regular Arai Hirofumi are on screen.

After Ômori's uncompromising Whispering of the Gods I was expecting much more.


Second was Toyoda Toshiaki's comeback film The Blood of Rebirth (Yomigaeri no Chi, 『蘇りの血』).

Tweet: Toyoda's Yomigaeri no Chi visually and aurally beguiling but felt only like the first act of his rebirth as a director.

Mark Schilling's Japan Times review, which also puts The Blood of Rebirth in the context of Toyoda's career, just went up here. It details the film's synthesis of music and imagery well but relates little about the plot or story -- that's because there isn't much there. But that's OK. Even on a shoestring Toyoda is a supreme stylist.

At a brisk 83 minutes with very little dialogue (only about 400 subtitles according to translator Gotô Tarô, with one reel sans any) Toyoda's The Blood of Rebirth is more fecund than most directors can manage at their randiest. The final scene really twisted my melon, man.

Toyoda stretched his legs nicely with this film, the most well-realized of the three. Looking forward to where he wanders next. Best seen on the big screen.


Thirdly was competition title Doman Seman (Horikawa Nakatachiuri,『堀川中立売』), directed by Late Bloomer's Shibata Gô.

Tweet: Doman Seman (Horikawa Nakatachiuri) a sprawling socio-slapstick redemptive urban fantasy. In all that footage lies a great movie. I think...

I generally don't harp on what a film should've been but in this case I will because of the obvious creativity Shibata and his band of collaborators possess.

The background info I posted in in November in combination with the promotional imagery/teaser led me to believe Doman Seman would be a much more somber, enigmatic affair. In fact, it's a humorous, hyperactive hoot surfing on dark undercurrents. As we follow the film's two goofball heroes through various machinations, the film touches on J-issues such as the vicious cycle of money-lending, fatal juvenile crime, corporate cults, internet privacy and the growing homeless population.

Doman Seman could've been this year's Love Exposure (one of the characters is even dressed like Sono Sion in one scene). If only the pieces of this very unique jigsaw puzzle were connected more carefully instead of glued together in haste. As Nippon Connection's Alex Zahlten said, the film does have an internal logic to it but like listening to an astrophysicist lecture on black holes you feel "Wow!...Erm, what?"

I really dug Doman Seman's eye-popping colours and the clarity of the HD images. However, the sound mix seemed off with dialogue lost under layers of music and sound. Like Toyoda, Shibata is a music maestro who gets a lot of mileage out of the bands he's closely associated with.

I can appreciate that the Doman team was cutting the film's 130 minutes right up until the screening -- I hear it will go through further editing ahead of its 2010 release. Best of luck to them.

More than the other two titles, I'm interested to hear other opinions on this film.