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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 17 August 2011
This article is a review of VILLAIN. |
"Why did you abandon her?"
Opening on a petrol station with a man watching a video on a mobile phone, it’s of the intimate kind. He seems downbeat. Is this a stalker? Ex-lover? Boyfriend? Straightaway, the film sets up the themes of loneliness and desperation that permeate proceedings. There is also an unusual, and satisfying, structure at play. The first half is a murder mystery, and the second lovers on the run combined with a look at victimhood. VILLAIN is also handsomely made; e.g. the camera inside the car travelling to the crime scene and the aftermath, and the cityscapes.
The victim of the murder is Yoshino, who is seeing two guys – so she says. Those conservative viewers probably dismiss her as a floozy, but the more open minded might view the dating game as just that, a game. However, as the film progresses Yoshino is painted in a harsher light, as both a snob (but perhaps the filmmakers want sections of their audience to be uncomfortably empathetic) and also cruel. This is what elevates the film, that it doesn’t seem to want us to take the moral high-ground with any of the characters (well actually one, who seems to be a sociopath).
Opening on a petrol station with a man watching a video on a mobile phone, it’s of the intimate kind. He seems downbeat. Is this a stalker? Ex-lover? Boyfriend? Straightaway, the film sets up the themes of loneliness and desperation that permeate proceedings. There is also an unusual, and satisfying, structure at play. The first half is a murder mystery, and the second lovers on the run combined with a look at victimhood. VILLAIN is also handsomely made; e.g. the camera inside the car travelling to the crime scene and the aftermath, and the cityscapes.
The victim of the murder is Yoshino, who is seeing two guys – so she says. Those conservative viewers probably dismiss her as a floozy, but the more open minded might view the dating game as just that, a game. However, as the film progresses Yoshino is painted in a harsher light, as both a snob (but perhaps the filmmakers want sections of their audience to be uncomfortably empathetic) and also cruel. This is what elevates the film, that it doesn’t seem to want us to take the moral high-ground with any of the characters (well actually one, who seems to be a sociopath).
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The film shifts its focus, giving time to other characters beyond the lovers on the run, the grandmother of one of the suspects to Yoshino’s murder, and the father of the victim. The latter is looking for justice while the former is assailed with problems. She is ripped off by a criminal, while her husband is very sick and grandchild a police target. She is one of the tragedies in the film. And that is what the film sometimes seems to be aiming for, a Shakespearean tragedy. VILLAIN is all about choices and hindsight, not having the bigger picture.
The two lovers (Yuichi and Mitsuyo), who meet via a dating site, are shy and solitary; both shown to be looking to make a romantic connection with others. Somehow they manage to overcome their insecurities and you wonder if a happy ending is on the cards. They represent both hope and the results of low self-esteem, tenderness in a sea of misery. Life feels breathed into them, both from the writing and the acting.
This would have got an extra star for enjoyment if the last shots of the film hadn’t striven for something a little upbeat, and 20 minutes shaved off the running time, focusing the story more.
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