Hey folks, Harry here... Not real sure what I think of this review, while I'm intrigued to see the movie, I'm not entirely sure what it is about, though I think it is about talking and sex with ICHI THE KILLER, but I'm not entirely sure. Here ya goes...
Hey, Harry! It seems like the way to get a review on the site these days is to say, "long-time reader, first time contributor." Well, that's me! So here I am with a review for a film I saw last October at the Vancouver International Film Festival, one that I haven't seen get any attention on your site (and it should be!). Figured, better strike while the iron's hot, before someone beats me to it.
The movie: Vibrator.
What can I say? what a great movie! End review? um, ok, I shall elaborate. But please, readers, come back to this first statement and find a way to see this movie. I've checked all over the internet and have found nothing about a dvd release or any kind of distribution yet, so find a Festival and check it out.
We open up with a girl in a truck stop convenience store, err, that is to say, a 'young woman'. She's looking for something, something like cheap wine. As a matter of fact, that's her main source of sustenance. Any food she eats she purges. Hey, we all have our diseases, right?
As she wanders the aisles, we get the first rumblings of a voice over. Her voice over. And as the voice over continues it begins to dawn on us: is this so much a voice over as it is the leanings of a tentatively schizophrenic mind? Hey, some have more diseases than others.
Either way, the translation and subtitles are bar-none fantastic (as much as I love Battle Royale, especially the Special Edition, man, that is a case study in how not to do subtitles) and the monologue has us hooked.
It's at this time that I notice something--the beautiful, simple, soft piano music that breaks the silence on the soundtrack. Barry Woodcock of DVDTimes (www.dvdtimes.co.uk) said in his review of Save the Green Planet, "most Korean films rely on a minimal piano or acoustic soundtrack" Well, this movie's not Korean, it's Japanese. Still, it relies on a minimal piano soundtrack and lemme tell ya, it gets the job done. The last English-language film I can remember that relied so heavily on just one instrument to provide the soundtrack was Dead Man, and Neil Young, as much as I love you man, this movie has you beat. The piano kicks in at just the right moments, timed and attuned so perfectly to what's going on on-screen it honestly made my eyes bright up and my heart feel a little lighter. I know, cheesy, I know. Good music will do that to you guys. First love and good music, those two things will do that.
So he we are in our convenience store and who should walk in? None other than?(drum roll please) Ichi the Killer himself, Nao Ohmori! Only he enters with much less fanfare than my exclamation intimates, and this time, something's different. This is not the Ichi we know-no-this is somebody else. An altogether different character. An altogether different presence. This is great. My first introduction to Nao was as Ichi and as anyone who's seen it would know, it leaves quite an impression. I was wondering, worried, whether or not I would be able to shake it. More so, I was worried, would Nao?
With a bleached-blonde hairdo and gumboots firmly in place, I say yes, Nao has. Nao has firmly stepped out of the shadow of being the star in a 'Takashi Miike vehicle' (as well as the shadow of his father) and shown that he is a star in his own right with this role . It's not showy, scenery chewing stuff a la Renee Zellwegger in Cold Mountain. It's not "Hey I haven't been nominated for an Oscar in awhile so I'm gonna play a mentally handicapped guy!"
It's solid. It's understated. What more, and this is painfully what I ache for in cinema, it comes across as real. I believe he would wear those gumboots. I believe he would dye his hair. And when he opens his mouth-I believe the words he's saying, the tone of them, and the look in his eyes because in this role Nao is natural. I wasn't sitting there saying, "Wow, what great acting." I was just-watching. Cause it was so natural. And that is a great thing to witness on-screen: when the unnatural looks natural. And Nao has done it as Takatoshi.
Before we know it, circumstance and a few personal decisions have thrown these two together, Takatoshi and Rei, the young woman, into the cab of Tak's truck. There they wait out the weather and talk.
I remember the first time I saw Clerks and thought, wow, a talky movie that's really entertaining. Yeah, I was 15 at the time, still, it was all talk and I was all enthralled. Not since then have I been so enraptured by characters talking. This is the great thing about it- it's entertaining! It's interesting! Talk! Mere talk. I got the feeling that I get when I meet an attractive girl for the first time and tell her a little bit about myself and she finds me really interesting. And then she tells me a little bit about herself and hey, I find her interesting! And whaddya know, when that happens, we wanna talk some more!
That's what I got from these characters. I wanted them to talk some more.
As you will soon find out, just like in real life when a conversation clicks with a girl and you've thrown in some alcohol talk can lead to a little something more.
And so the two don't leave Tak's truck that night if you know what I mean. Come morning, Tak has to make some deliveries and they have to decide, Rei, does she stay or do they go their separate ways? And when Tak's truck does roll out, how committed are they to the decision(s) they've made?
This is a film about two people spending their time together getting to know each other through conversation and sex, I gotta say, the two best ways people really use to get to know each other. Really, the only ways people use to get to know each other.
The great thing about Tak and Rei in Vibrator is there's so much to get to know.
Later,
SaturnCat
