Author: Joe Bendel

By Joe Bendel. You might expect the end of the world would get played up more in the media. Unfortunately, they only have time to report a few train crashes before it is pretty much too late for breaking news bulletins. Indeed, the end comes swiftly but dramatically for the residents and visitors of a sleepy provincial university in Gatukyu (formerly Sogo) in Ishii’s Isn’t Anyone Alive? (trailer here), which screened over the weekend at the 2012 Japan Cuts: the New York Festival of Japanese Cinema.

Adapted by playwright Shiro Maeda from his own stage drama, IAA is about as reserved as apocalyptic films ever get. The darnedest comedy of manners, it takes its time establishing a group of college students, only to start killing them off.

Evidently, this campus has two specialized fields of study: medicine and urban legends. Maki is a medical technician receiving an unwelcome visit from her ne’er do well brother. Nana is the chair of the urban legend studies association, who has been advancing the campus myth that high level military research goes on in the hospital’s third sub-basement. When people start keeling over, they naturally blame the hospital’s apocryphal black ops projects, but it is all balderdash Maki assures anyone still alive to listen.

Frankly, we never have any real idea what is going on, because nobody has enough time to determine anything. Yet, when facing the apocalypse, those still living struggle to develop a new etiquette for impending collective death, which is nonetheless ignored as often as it is observed. There is a lot of razor sharp dialogue and distinctly black humor in IAA. Frankly, it is rather a bummer when Nana is the first character to go. However, it is just as well for her. In Ishii and Maeda’s bleak world, the last one left standing is the cosmic loser.

As Nana, Mai Takahashi exhibits an upbeat screen presence that would ordinarily mark her as the leading candidate to survive a conventional horror movie. Rin Takanashi, Hakka Shiraishi, and Asato Iida also hilariously play out one of the unlikeliest love triangles, as the world burns unbeknownst to them. Yet it is Shota Sometani who nicely turns IAA’s defining scenes as the decent work-study café employee Keisuke, through whose eyes the audience ultimately sees the totality of it all.

IAA is one of the oddest end-of-the-world movies you are likely to see. Yet cinematographer Yoshiyuki Matsumoto makes it look eerily believable, slowly but surely transforming a sunny afternoon into an ominous Judgment Day. For those who enjoy their cinema dark and slightly off-kilter, it is definitely worth taking a gander at when it plays at this year’s Fantasia Festival (7/31 & 8/3), but naturally Japan Cuts screened it first, presenting the North American premiere this past weekend.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on July 23rd, 2012 at 8:35pm.

By Joe Bendel. It is not much of a business, but at least the inventory is cheap. In fact, Sayoko attracts stray cats like a magnet. Profits really are not the point anyway. She is out to fill the holes in people’s hearts, perhaps even including her own in Naoko Ogigami’s Rent-a-Cat (trailer here), which screens as part of the 2012 edition of Japan Cuts: the New York Festival of Japanese Cinema.

In a sleepy corner of Tokyo, Sayoko lives in the picturesque Minka-esque house she once shared with her beloved late grandmother, along with a dozen or so cats. The woman has become a crazy cat lady at a young age, but there is a method to her madness. Most days, she pulls her cart through the neighborhood, hawking cats for rent. Of course, she will not rent to just anyone. A home inspection is required.

Intentionally episodic, we watch Sayoko repeat the cat rental ritual with several customers, each with a hole to fill in their lives. For an elderly widow reluctant to buy a new cat knowing her time is short, Sayoko’s service is a godsend. However, some clients take a bit of convincing, like the desperately unfulfilled car rental agency manager. Yet the most intriguing potential client-story arc involves Yoshizawa, the former delinquent middle school classmate Sayoko initially wants nothing to do with.

Rent-a-Cat is a quiet film, chocked full of feline adorableness. It wears its sentimental heart on its sleeve, deriving gentle laughs from its characters quirks (to use a loaded word). However, it is more bittersweet than compulsively cute, particularly during Sayoko’s smartly ambiguous encounter with Yoshizawa.

As Sayoko, Mikako Ichikawa blends goofy awkwardness and sincere sensitivity quite touchingly. Indeed, it is a very humane performance, displaying real on-screen chemistry with her animal co-stars and Kei Tanaka’s Yoshizawa.

There might not be a lot of surprises in the unhurried Rent-a-Cat, but Ogigami infuses the proceedings with a wistful atmosphere that is quite beguiling. Essentially, it is an animal lovers’ indie that well reflects traditional Japanese aesthetics of elegant simplicity. An effective mood piece featuring several nice turns from its small human ensemble, Rent-a-Cat is recommended surprisingly highly for those who suspect they might appreciate its discreet charms. It screens this coming Wednesday (7/25) at the Japan Society, as this year’s Japan Cuts continues.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on July 21st, 2012 at 10:42am.

By Joe Bendel. If you’re wondering where Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones’ fifty-plus mojo went, it’s been in Japan with Kôji Yakusho. While American audiences might know him best as the salaryman who cuts a rug in Shall We Dance?, nobody working in film today is more credible as a middle-aged man you do not want to mess with. His hardnosed everyman charm is also perfectly suited to the gently humanistic comedy of Shȗichi Okita’s The Woodsman and the Rain (trailer here), which screens as the centerpiece of this year’s Japan Cuts and a key selection of their Focus on Kôji Yakusho retrospective sidebar.

If you have seen Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, you know what a dynamic presence Yakusho can be in an action-driven film. If you haven’t, the Japan Society will give you an opportunity this Saturday.  It’s kind of awesome, but Woodsman is too, in a very different way. Here Yakusho plays a sixty year-old lumberjack and you would not want to be a tree in his sites. He is not a superhero, though. Having survived a health scare, Yatsuhiko Kishi (Yatsu-san) can no longer eat sweets. The widower’s relationship with his slacker son Koichi is strained at best. However, he can now predict precipitation with uncanny accuracy. Given the title, this ability will obviously come into play at some point, but wisely nobody in the film belabors it.

Kishi is pretty set in his routine, until a film crew comes to town. Much to his own surprise, he finds himself shuttling about a nervous assistant director and a socially awkward twenty-something in search of locations for their zombie film. That quiet kid turns out to be Koichi Tanabe, the first time director with massive confidence issues. Yes, he has the same first name as Kishi’s son, but Okita never overplays that card either.

Before you know it, Kishi is deeply involved in the shooting of Tanabe’s dubious b-movie. Many of these scenes are essentially played for laughs, but in an earthy, understated way. Still, for genre film fans, how can you resist a film about lumberjacks and movie-zombies?

Woodsman is a perfect film to anchor the Yakusho showcase. His performance is rich, nuanced, and deeply felt. He is a good sport, willing to look slightly ridiculous at times, yet he always maintains his dignified bearing. As the Koichis, both Shun Oguri and Kengo Kora grow on viewers, subtly but convincingly showing their characters grow up as the film progresses.

Not exactly bittersweet, but certainly not compulsively cheerful either, Woodsman is ultimately wholly satisfying, in a rugged, down-to-earth way. It is a great example of Yakusho’s powerful screen presence, as well as a wistfully wise bit of storytelling. Very highly recommended, The Woodsman and the Rain screens this Saturday at the Japan Society as this year’s Japan Cuts centerpiece (featuring an intro and Q&A with the man himself), but good luck getting in. It is already sold out, so if you do not have your ticket booked, you’re flying stand-by. Also very highly recommended, tickets for 13 Assassins and Shall We Dance? are currently available on Saturday (7/21).

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on July 21st, 2012 at 10:41am.

By Joe Bendel. The end of the world is nigh and it smells like feet. Mutant fish flatulence is a tough way for humanity to go out, but it looks like our number is up, nonetheless. Prepare yourself for a messy apocalypse in Takayuki Hirao’s Gyo (trailer here), which must be poised on the brink of taking the world by storm after it screened yesterday as a co-presentation of the 2012 Japan Cuts and New York Asian film festivals.

Kaori and her friends are spending their last spring break together vacationing in Okinawa. This will not be a good time to be near the water. Kaori is hot but nice. Erika is hot and mean. Aki, the third one, is plain and dumb. They will act accordingly throughout the impending crisis. It turns out the trio is on the front line. They are the first to record an encounter with the stinky fish with strange bio-mechanical legs. It turns out there were plenty more where that one came from and they have already overrun Tokyo.

Fearing the worst from a disconnect with her fiancé Tadashi, Kaori rushes back to the fish-battered city, hooking up with Shirakawa, an only slightly sleazy photojournalist. Ostensibly acting as her protector, Shirakawa really wants to get a story from Tadashi’s at least partially mad scientist uncle, who has apparently become the world’s preeminent authority on “walking fish” in a matter of hours.

Nothing says End of Days like hordes of walking fish cascading over Tokyo’s boulevards. However, it is the death stench that is the real poison, mutating humans through their open wounds. It looks like it is payback time for all that sushi Japanese chefs served up.

By the way, Gyo is not for kids. As if all the mutant mayhem were not enough of a red flag for parents, let’s just say Kaori’s friend Erika is kind of a tramp. It did not screen as part of the Anime from Hell sidebar for nothing. Considering how gleefully notorious it will surely become, Gyo is sure to be picked up by other festivals, so you’ve been warned.

Give Gyo credit—it takes the wild premise of Junji Ito’s manga and runs with it. There are times it plays like the anime equivalent of a Roger Corman film, but how can that be a bad thing? To Gyo’s further credit, it features a strong female protagonist, though it would probably be a stretch to call it empowering, unless you’re a fish. It should also be noted those mutant farting fish seem to be the result of a nefarious Imperial Japanese research project during WWII. Frankly, North Korean lunacy would be a more likely culprit, but it is just nice to see this one not blamed on the American military, as in Bong Joon-ho’s overrated The Host.

This is a good film to see with an audience. Indeed, it is surely fair to say most of the patrons at the Japan Society felt they got their money’s worth, even if nobody will be mistaking it for a Miyazaki film anytime ever. Worthy of a long run of midnight festival screenings, Gyo was an entertaining bit of strangeness for this year’s NYAFF and Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Japanese Cinema.

Posted on July 17th, 2012 at 2:29pm.