How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 5 April 2016
A movie review of FUKUSHIMA, MON AMOUR. |
YouTube review:
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“You think too much. Only the cup and you. Nothing else,” Satomi (Kaori Momoi)
Writer-director Doris Dörrie returns to Japan after the movingly bitter-sweet CHERRY BLOSSOMS (2008), looking at a similar dynamic. A German tourist and a Japanese woman bond over an interest in the latters culture and a mutual exercising of demons. CHERRY BLOSSOMS looked at a retirement-age man, who took his wife for granted and stifled her dreams, attempting to redress his wrongs after being widowed. He meets a homeless Butoh dancer, where they heartbreakingly enrich each other’s lives. Here, a woman crosses the world to escape from an unspecified emotional sundering, hinted at from the opening wedding day tear-filled argument ending with the groom storming off.
Writer-director Doris Dörrie returns to Japan after the movingly bitter-sweet CHERRY BLOSSOMS (2008), looking at a similar dynamic. A German tourist and a Japanese woman bond over an interest in the latters culture and a mutual exercising of demons. CHERRY BLOSSOMS looked at a retirement-age man, who took his wife for granted and stifled her dreams, attempting to redress his wrongs after being widowed. He meets a homeless Butoh dancer, where they heartbreakingly enrich each other’s lives. Here, a woman crosses the world to escape from an unspecified emotional sundering, hinted at from the opening wedding day tear-filled argument ending with the groom storming off.
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FUKUSHIMA, MON AMOUR (or ‘Greetings from Fukushima’ to give the film it’s translation from the German language title) holds off for as long as possible to reveal exactly what occurred on the verge of Marie’s (Rosalie Thomass) nuptials. The delay annoys, as it is a tool being used frequently in cinema to mixed results. Revelations need to be deft, see LONE STAR or the stage production of ‘August, Osage Country’. The unspoken inner turmoil of the lead duo hangs over the proceedings artlessly. FUKUSHIMA, MON AMOUR, while gently engaging and never dull, is a step back, in terms of filmmaking, from Dörrie.
Being shot in black and white, the monochrome does not elevate the presentation of the story. Modern movies utilising that choice, usually want to create a historical context (e.g. Soderbergh’s THE GOOD GERMAN) or future time (e.g. Sono’s THE WHISPHERING STAR) or some kind of audience distance (e.g. Tarr’s THE TURIN HORSE). Talking of Sion Sono, he also has been very interested in the Fukushima disaster (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear power plant meltdown), using locations of the catastrophe in his work.
For some reason Marie is a clown. Why that anachronistic, unfunny profession? Is it a heavy-handed symbol of crying on the inside? She joins “Clowns4Help” to entertain those still living in the devastated areas around Fukushima. Residents are only of the older generation, who refuse to leave. There she meets Satomi, the sole geisha in the vicinity. Failing to actually give comedic relief to the citizens, Marie quits but ends up aiding Satomi rebuild her home in the restricted zone. A clumsy odd couple, cross-generations/cultures, dominates the runtime, with the eventual predicted mutual respect emerging. (As one writes this review, one likes the film less than when starting typing.) Satomi has her own backstory waiting to be outlined.
Relying too much on the obvious, this should’ve been more likeable. There are moments of quality, e.g. a scene where Satomi talks in an apartment, Marie listens, the former’s daughter Toshiko cooks off camera, and Toshiko’s husband plays classical music on the piano – there is a lot going on and it is cleverly choreographed. Also, the last pseudo-enigmatic shot of a guy incongruously standing in a busy Tokyo street wearing a giant cat head is pretty cool, and should have been the template for the rest of the film.
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