I Am Keiko (1997) User Reviews

"Your time is tick-tick-ticking away,Ticking away."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 29 September 2019]

For my 30th Japanese film viewing of August 2019,I decided to dig deep into online sites for a lesser known title by major auteurs. Having found Seigi no tatsujin: Nyotai tsubo saguri (2000-also reviewed) a delight,I was happy to stumble on another Sion Sono rarity,which led to me meeting Keiko.

View on the film:

Breaking the 4th wall with a clapperboard click in the opening shot,writer/directing auteur Sion Sono threads the audience on the passage of time across the reels of film, ringing in to long, stilted shots of a clock fading to clocks facing the camera as Keiko faces the viewers. Sitting down in just one room, Sono continues to display the developmental in his eye for colour, via looking towards Keiko with strikingly bright plain red,green and blue backdrop, subtly highlighting the darkness in the dialogue.

Talking directly to the audience, the screenplay by Sono opens the box on a thoughtful study of depression, unwrapped in Keiko talking about the death of her dad from cancer, and the feeling of time and life continuing to countdown to a emptiness which beeps on a blank answer machine. Later working with Sono again on Suicide Club (2001) Keiko Suzuki gives a delicate turn as Keiko, bringing out in her fragile voice the withdrawn state of Keiko.

A powerful and rewarding work for patient viewers

[OneMovieLover · 9/10 · 28 November 2015]

It is difficult to summarize KEIKO DESU KEDO/I AM KEIKO in a sentence without revealing all of its major plot elements. It should not, however, be thought of as a film in which 'nothing much happens'; indeed, the mundanity of depression has rarely been captured more distinctly on screen. Viewers with enough patience will find that the film is a work of considerable merit.

KEIKO DESU KEDO is self-referential from the beginning, with the clapstick of a clapperboard being shut in front of the titular character within the first minute. Keiko later tells the audience that the film will end in an hour and a minute - and this is not simply part of a gimmick, for what Keiko expresses a wish for, over much of the next hour, more than anything else (besides successfully keeping the time), is an audience. The presence of one will make her believe that something here must be interesting; that her life is not fully boring.

She is shown hosting a sort of home-produced news show, looking into the camera as she discusses her day's events. There is an argument to be made that the difficulty of KEIKO DESU KEDO - arising from long sequences in which the protagonist simply counts, as well as color schemes and set pieces which are notable yet austere - is fully intentional, serving not only to emphasize social isolation, but also as a means of further polarizing the audience; of preventing viewers from being 'lost' in the film's events and ensuring we know we are still an audience, still that thing which will assure Keiko her life is not defined entirely by mundanity. Perhaps this is why she stays with us until the very end.

(She does, after all: she reads the film's credits.)