AKA: Fîmeiru | Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, Suzuki Matsuo, Ryuichi Hiroki, Miwa Nishikawa, Tetsuo Shinohara | Country: Japan | Language: Japanese | 118 mins
Cast: : Nene Otsuka, Naoyuki Morita, Nomura Eri, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Chihiro Otsuka, Mitsuko Ishii, Hairi Katagiri, Eri Ishida, Ryo Kase, Kaoru Kobayashi, Saki Takaoka, Koen Kondo, Kyoko Hasegawa
Subtitles : –
Synopsis
Five short films, all not really worth a watch at the end of they day, maybe two of them. As a whole package, it’s hard to understand what the point was. Highlighting the stories written by women, but none of the stories are connected in anyway except that they are written by women. So it’s a confusing mishmash of style and story that doesn’t really do anything on a whole as a complete packaged film. Most of the shorts have terrible acting, strange dancing moments that don’t fit into much of the main stories, conflicting tone problems where people are screaming and yelling and then quiet and sad within the same moments, and awkward and generally terrible sex scenes. Not sure what is up with that in particular with this film, but the way sex is used is very uncomfortable and not in a cinematic way. The list could go on, but nothing here is concise or seemingly well placed.
My favorite shorts are probably Matsuo Suzuki’s short, and Tsukamoto’s. Both contain excellent film-making. The score for the Tsuakmoto short (Jewel Beetle) is also top notch. As is always, it’s a Chu Ishikawa soundtrack so you know its going to be good. Matsuo Suzuki’s short (Licking Nights) has the best camerawork by far, and the interesting colors being used is great. Sadly the sex scene in this ruins the short with aforementioned tone issues.
Not much to say though overall on this anthology film. It’s messy, not particular interesting, and for the short Tsukamoto short I got to watch, while interesting and the best one, wasn’t particularly that enthralling. MEh.
[NF] Female (2005)
[RG] Female (2005)
