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Sunday, April 01, 2018

Dispatches from HKIFF (++) 2018, Part 2

It might seem a little absurd to make a movie out of an (admittedly popular) app about colllecting cats, but the world's been guilty of far more. Neko Atsume no Ie (Neko Atsume's House) is the story of Masaru Sakumoto (Atsushi ito), a once-popular novelist who has gotten into a slump. On a whim, he decides to move to a house to the countryside, where the power of cats help him get his groove back.

That's the plot of the film, and while it does spread pretty thin for a movie this long, the cats almost make up for it. Almost. Ito (and co-star Shiori Kutsuna) are both excellent despite this, and the cinematography works best when covering our feline friends (and not humans), where the camerawork revolves around a handheld treatment and too-close-for-comfort closeups.

Surprisingly, the film does follow the mechanics of the original game (buy cat toys and cushions and food, wait for cats to arrive, take pictures, rinse and repeat) so it technically is a faithful adaptation of its source material. But for those looking for more than just cats, viewers may find nothing more of substance here.

A young teenager, Eunchan, dies while saving his friend Ki-hyun during a swimming trip. Devatated, Eunchan's parents try to reconcile their grief and the death of their son. Eunchan's father, through a set of circumstances, then takes in Ki-hyun as an apprentice, where the young man begins to learn the trade of wallpapering and craftsmanship.

It sounds like everything is set to fall into place in Shin Dong-seok's Last Child: the parents without a child coming together with a child desperately in need of parental figures. But the truth and the eventual outcome of the film ends up being far more complicated. Last Child is an examination of guilt, societal hypocrisy, forgiveness and grief, much like the works of Shin's countryman, Lee Chang-dong - in particular, one of his more recent films, Poetry

Last Child is boosted in particular by several performances, most notably the central three characters, who all deal with Eunchan's death in varied and interesting ways. The film avoids shifting into frank melodrama and treats its characters with a touch of sincerity. The film builds up rather well, culminating in an emotionally charged finale reminiscent of last year's Harmonium (2016/7) but with a different, almost cathartic, outcome.

Tina is a loving mother to her daughter Vittoria, both spending a rather idyllic life in the Sardinian countryside. But the truth is, Vittoria is adopted, and one day she meets her true mother, Angelica, who is the complete opposite of what Tina embodies: irresponsible, drunk, rebellious. Vittoria becomes captivated by this mother she never knew, and this eventually puts the three in conflict with each other as Vittoria tries to reconcile the fact that she has two mothers.

Daughter of Mine is a fascinating character study from director Laura Bispuri. It soon becomes clear that both Tina and Angelica have their own dysfunctions and positive traits. Tina looks like a responsible, doting mother, but she has a hidden petty, vengeful side, and her possessiveness of Vittoria drives the child away. Angelica looks irresponsible, brash and incorriginble, but there is a genuine desire to reconnect with her daughter - at one point, she tries to pay off a long standing debt that would help alleviate her situation, but she decides to spend it on a gift for her daughter instead.

The treatment can get a little rough in parts, and certain stretches of the film feel a bit overlong for a simple story, But at the heart of it, Daughter of Mine is relateable story worth teling.

Yoshika (Mayu Matsuoka) is still smitten by her high school crush, Ichi. She spends her time fantasizing about him and reminiscing the very few times they actually spoke to each other. In the mean time, she puts up with Ni, an awkward and obnoxious, but ultimately well meaning, coworker who wishes to be her boyfriend.

Observant and funny, Akiko Ooku's Tremble All You Want has all the tropes of a conventional chick-lit romance, but it has a diferent conception of love, one that is far removed from the shoujo manga-esque notions of falling in love and ending up with your dream guy. It presents love as something rooted in a mutual understanding rather than a one sided fantasy, a relationship where both parties actively work together to understand each other, a relationship where love grows gradually and naturally, moving from "I like you" to "I love you".

Mayu Matsuoka's performance is fantastic; she keeps up with the wacky demands of the script and shows off her versatile range, laughing and crying and singing with considerable amounts of charm (yes, there's an extended musical segment in this film). 

Yoshika's story ultimately boils down to her getting out of her shell, where she realizes that the people around her are not just props for her own fantasies, but flesh and blood people with their own dreams and aspirations, their own story to tell, and her personal growth is reflected when she genuinely begins to setp out into the world and get to know people and talk to them sincerely.

It's a journey that takes a couple of detours, especially in the last third where a bunch of contrivances extend the running time far more for my taste. But in the end, Tremble All You Want is a crowd pleaser whose view on love is atypical compared to the slew of contemporary Japanese rom-coms out there.

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