From Yoshihiro Nakamura, the director of the wonderful shaggy dog tale A Fish Story comes this story of a young man who goes off to college and meets a man named Kawasaaki and then tries to get to the bottom of what is really going on with the people around him. As one of the characters says "You've come into a story that's not your own", and its true as our hero tries to make sense of all that's going on around him.
I'd really like to explain whats happens except that doing so would remove some of the layers of the film. Normally that might be okay, except that in this film the story replays events several times as we and our hero learns things. If I tell you what things mean then I'll have stripped away some of the layers and that isn't fair. Things like in life are not always what we took them to be on face value. I know its not fair, but thats life and this film.
I will give you a bone and say that the film begins with the robbery of a bookstore, for a dictionary and goes forwards and backwards from there.
This is a small gem that is no doubt doomed to obscurity because its a small little film with out explosions, monsters or an armful of awards. In all honesty I only found out about the film because the film is being screened as part of the Japan Society's Japan Cuts series which this year is focusing on unreleased films (in America) from the last 10 years. Because of a scheduling conflict I ended up finding this as an import DVD and in all honesty I'm happy I did.
Trust me, as with the directors meandering and equally charming Fish Story, bite the bullet, find this film and just let it take you where ever its going.
I'd really like to explain whats happens except that doing so would remove some of the layers of the film. Normally that might be okay, except that in this film the story replays events several times as we and our hero learns things. If I tell you what things mean then I'll have stripped away some of the layers and that isn't fair. Things like in life are not always what we took them to be on face value. I know its not fair, but thats life and this film.
I will give you a bone and say that the film begins with the robbery of a bookstore, for a dictionary and goes forwards and backwards from there.
This is a small gem that is no doubt doomed to obscurity because its a small little film with out explosions, monsters or an armful of awards. In all honesty I only found out about the film because the film is being screened as part of the Japan Society's Japan Cuts series which this year is focusing on unreleased films (in America) from the last 10 years. Because of a scheduling conflict I ended up finding this as an import DVD and in all honesty I'm happy I did.
Trust me, as with the directors meandering and equally charming Fish Story, bite the bullet, find this film and just let it take you where ever its going.
