The lives of four women intersect at a local ice cream shop.
Director Tetsuya Chihara adaption of a short story by Mieko Kawakami is a nixed bag. A moving story with a great cast the film is undone by a filmmaker who doesn’t know what to do with the camera. While the film is shot in a kind of verite style, the images seem to alternate from jiggly hand held shots that feel like the camera person couldn’t get a grip on the camera or in ultra tight close ups of faces. It feels like the work of a young filmmaker making his first film, but while this is Chihara’s first feature he has been working in design and advertising for years so one would think he would know how to frame a shot.
After a while I stopped looking at the images and just focused on the subtitles.
Call me an old fart for not getting it, but I’ve always been one to argue that that the images we see should have a reason for existing, especially with in the context of a film. Why are you showing us this image in this way. Most times I know, but I’m not certain here, with the over riding decision seeming to be we shot it this way because it will be cool, or hip or happening or whatever the kids say these days.
This is a good story with good characters messily told.
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