A Stranger of Mine meet 'the' Japanese in a nutshell. A wannabe-tough Yakuza, a girl feeling sorry for herself, a hopeless bachelor, a disillusioned private detective and a pretty, misbehaving girl all get mixed up in an entertaining story. Some try to save a friend; others their face, some are looking for love; others for fast money. A Stranger of Mine is an intelligently arranged movie, giving away just enough so the audience will be able to laugh once again seeing scenes a second time from a different angle. Get déjà-vu-ed! The picture's, realization, photography, actors and soundtrack make it my over-all festival winner i Oslo. It gets the Golden Sushi Maki!
4 Reviews
Trust no one... or trust in the right person.
ethSin26 July 2009
"Unmei ja nai Hito" (S/He's not the one) or "A Stranger of Mine" is a movie where a series of events in one night is unfolded in the perspectives of five main characters: A gullible salaryman, a woman who just found out her fiancé is cheating on her, a detective who's the salaryman's best friend, a female con artist, and a yakuza boss.
The story development is excellent. Even though same events are played out over and over again, we learn more and more each time, with frequent comedic reliefs to keep us interested. One twist follows another, and summarized very well in the end. The scenario is carefully designed without obvious plot holes.
Acting is wonderful, and it was very easy for me to sympathize with the main characters. Not only it was very funny, this film was very deep, makes you think how much could be going on around you without you knowing about it. Definitely worth watching.
The story development is excellent. Even though same events are played out over and over again, we learn more and more each time, with frequent comedic reliefs to keep us interested. One twist follows another, and summarized very well in the end. The scenario is carefully designed without obvious plot holes.
Acting is wonderful, and it was very easy for me to sympathize with the main characters. Not only it was very funny, this film was very deep, makes you think how much could be going on around you without you knowing about it. Definitely worth watching.
Seeing is not believing (or Nothing is what it appears to be)
harry_tk_yung7 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is a gem of a little conjurer of a movie. Some compares it to "Pulp Fiction", but it's actually much simpler. Nor will "Momento" do for a comparison because it has two lines of temporal manipulation, one moving backward and another forward, and is therefore still too complicated. "Irreversable" seems closest, with its simple succession of backward jumps in time. But no, that's not really it either.
"A stranger of mine" starts with telling a simple episode depicting the encounter of two recently broken hearts, over a few hours. This has all the hallmarks of a budding love story, when we see the two parting, but not before his chasing the taxi a couple of blocks to get her phone number. But that's where the fun really begins.
Using several sequences of backward narrations similar to but not the same as in some of the movies mentioned above, the director continues to surprise and delight us by repeatedly pulling wool over our eyes and lifting it again. Whenever we see scenes we saw before, they all have new meanings. There's hardly any plot holes because the plot is actually quite simple. It's just that the story is so devilishly cleverly told.
As I said, the plot is not at all convoluted, so the only thing I'll just add is that there are three more key characters - his buddy who is a private detective, his ex girlfriend who is a con girl, and a gangster big boss this con girl got involved with. The story revolves around these five characters In addition to the endless clever twists (which are not really twist had it been told in a linear fashion), the movie is also sparkling and bubbling with humour that borders on being dark but are really grey. There are also funny little touches such as the ring tone of the gangster boss's phone "telephone, big boss, telephone" (which I image would be a lot funnier to those who understand Japanese).
Enough said. Just a recommendation - if you spot this movie in your neighbourhood, in whatever form, don't miss it. It's a gem.
"A stranger of mine" starts with telling a simple episode depicting the encounter of two recently broken hearts, over a few hours. This has all the hallmarks of a budding love story, when we see the two parting, but not before his chasing the taxi a couple of blocks to get her phone number. But that's where the fun really begins.
Using several sequences of backward narrations similar to but not the same as in some of the movies mentioned above, the director continues to surprise and delight us by repeatedly pulling wool over our eyes and lifting it again. Whenever we see scenes we saw before, they all have new meanings. There's hardly any plot holes because the plot is actually quite simple. It's just that the story is so devilishly cleverly told.
As I said, the plot is not at all convoluted, so the only thing I'll just add is that there are three more key characters - his buddy who is a private detective, his ex girlfriend who is a con girl, and a gangster big boss this con girl got involved with. The story revolves around these five characters In addition to the endless clever twists (which are not really twist had it been told in a linear fashion), the movie is also sparkling and bubbling with humour that borders on being dark but are really grey. There are also funny little touches such as the ring tone of the gangster boss's phone "telephone, big boss, telephone" (which I image would be a lot funnier to those who understand Japanese).
Enough said. Just a recommendation - if you spot this movie in your neighbourhood, in whatever form, don't miss it. It's a gem.
A Nutshell Review: A Stranger of Mine
DICK STEEL23 August 2010
Today marks the start of a series of paid screenings of the Japanese Film Festival, which if you do not already know comes in two parts, the first being the free ones that celebrate the classics and masters of Japanese cinema. The contemporary offerings get its air time now, and in this year's selection comes a number of films programmed from Japan's oldest film festival, the PIA Film Fest. I haven't seen a film coming out of that festival till now, and if this film is any indication on the kind of quality we could be expecting over the next few days, then I can't wait!
Written and directed by Kenji Uchida, A Stranger of Mine begins with what I thought would have made it a fine romantic film. Maki (Reika Kirishima) decides to leave her cheating fiancé, and pawns her engagement ring for 3500 Yen. Literally packing up all her troubles in an old kit bag, she wonders about town alone and dejected, wallowing in self pity before finally ending up in a restaurant where Kanda (So Yamanaka) is reminding Miyata (Yasuhi Nakamura) that age is catching up on the latter and that he should forget about Ayumi (Yuka Itaya) the girl who had dumped him. A coincidental meeting of someone from the opposite sex is just about never going to happen to people over 30 years of age and to create an opportunity for his friend, Kanda gets Maki to sit with them before he disappears, leaving the two strangers to sink or swim with their new found acquaintance.
So begins what would be an episode of emotional connection through awkward conversations going nowhere before some certainty in a friendship emerges, and from then on I thought it's about two broken, lonely souls connecting and rediscovering the beauty of being in a relationship should they take the leap of faith together. In some ways their conversations around town hints at Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise/Sunset, and some of the most beautiful love stories can actually happen in the simplest fashion with two interacting lead characters when their conversational pieces strike a chord emotionally between themselves and with an audience who identify with the topics at hand.
Hold you horses, buster, it is not this film! Uchida throws all that romanticism out of the window, and opts for a filmic romanticism of the non-linear narrative, where this film is not about two lonely, broken souls, but about 5 persons in total, offering a lot more to the entire story with the respective character arcs that enriches the entire story unfolding a series of events in 24 hours, giving us the expose on who the characters actually are, probing their intent and providing a multi-faceted look at their motivations, some uncanny, mostly comedic, some hopeful, while others scheming.
I'm all for non-linear narrative films, and am a sucker for them actually because of the way the filmmaker keeps you in suspense for the most parts, before slowly revealing the plot in a way that adds a little something to the film. This revelation doesn't need to be linear as well, and has to be done with skill so that the individual segments still made sense, is self- contained to tell a sub-story, and yet easy enough for an audience to pick up on certain cues meant to glue the rest of the segments together. Uchida succeeds on all counts, and what finally got delivered is a romantic comedy with characters we care for, even if they are fearsome gangsters, scheming fatales or wimpy nerds.
Just what about happens in the rest of the film best remains to be experienced yourself, so I'm going to keep mum about it. But I assure you that after Fish Story, this merits itself as one of the highlights of the festival experience thus far, and I'd enjoy a good madcap caper or two that demonstrated how the most innocuous of intent, with that proverbial suitcase of money and the necessity of Asian society and in general people across the board, to place a premium on face, and the saving of it. Certainly these were elements enough for Uchida to imaginatively craft a tale out of, and out came this superb film as a result.
As a character mentioned early in the film that nothing is coincidental, take it as a cue of what is on offer in the film, where you'd come to appreciate the intricacies of the storyline where every incident happens with purpose, makes sense and provides a lot of fun when the cat is let out of the bag, right up until the end credits, and more. It worked perfectly when a friend quipped "like that only ah"" and the end credit surprise came up for that coda. Made his day, and mine definitely.
Written and directed by Kenji Uchida, A Stranger of Mine begins with what I thought would have made it a fine romantic film. Maki (Reika Kirishima) decides to leave her cheating fiancé, and pawns her engagement ring for 3500 Yen. Literally packing up all her troubles in an old kit bag, she wonders about town alone and dejected, wallowing in self pity before finally ending up in a restaurant where Kanda (So Yamanaka) is reminding Miyata (Yasuhi Nakamura) that age is catching up on the latter and that he should forget about Ayumi (Yuka Itaya) the girl who had dumped him. A coincidental meeting of someone from the opposite sex is just about never going to happen to people over 30 years of age and to create an opportunity for his friend, Kanda gets Maki to sit with them before he disappears, leaving the two strangers to sink or swim with their new found acquaintance.
So begins what would be an episode of emotional connection through awkward conversations going nowhere before some certainty in a friendship emerges, and from then on I thought it's about two broken, lonely souls connecting and rediscovering the beauty of being in a relationship should they take the leap of faith together. In some ways their conversations around town hints at Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise/Sunset, and some of the most beautiful love stories can actually happen in the simplest fashion with two interacting lead characters when their conversational pieces strike a chord emotionally between themselves and with an audience who identify with the topics at hand.
Hold you horses, buster, it is not this film! Uchida throws all that romanticism out of the window, and opts for a filmic romanticism of the non-linear narrative, where this film is not about two lonely, broken souls, but about 5 persons in total, offering a lot more to the entire story with the respective character arcs that enriches the entire story unfolding a series of events in 24 hours, giving us the expose on who the characters actually are, probing their intent and providing a multi-faceted look at their motivations, some uncanny, mostly comedic, some hopeful, while others scheming.
I'm all for non-linear narrative films, and am a sucker for them actually because of the way the filmmaker keeps you in suspense for the most parts, before slowly revealing the plot in a way that adds a little something to the film. This revelation doesn't need to be linear as well, and has to be done with skill so that the individual segments still made sense, is self- contained to tell a sub-story, and yet easy enough for an audience to pick up on certain cues meant to glue the rest of the segments together. Uchida succeeds on all counts, and what finally got delivered is a romantic comedy with characters we care for, even if they are fearsome gangsters, scheming fatales or wimpy nerds.
Just what about happens in the rest of the film best remains to be experienced yourself, so I'm going to keep mum about it. But I assure you that after Fish Story, this merits itself as one of the highlights of the festival experience thus far, and I'd enjoy a good madcap caper or two that demonstrated how the most innocuous of intent, with that proverbial suitcase of money and the necessity of Asian society and in general people across the board, to place a premium on face, and the saving of it. Certainly these were elements enough for Uchida to imaginatively craft a tale out of, and out came this superb film as a result.
As a character mentioned early in the film that nothing is coincidental, take it as a cue of what is on offer in the film, where you'd come to appreciate the intricacies of the storyline where every incident happens with purpose, makes sense and provides a lot of fun when the cat is let out of the bag, right up until the end credits, and more. It worked perfectly when a friend quipped "like that only ah"" and the end credit surprise came up for that coda. Made his day, and mine definitely.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
