Toshihiko Tanaka's REI is the work of a first time director and a troop of actors and creators who channeled their lack of work during Covid into a film they could take to festivals (it says so int the press notes and not a smart ass remark). It is a film full of ideas and a desire to put it all out there. The result is a deliberate film that is more like a novel than a film.
The film is the story of a young woman who meets a deaf photographer with whom she ends up having a relationship. It's a story that unfolds in it's own time and its own way. It is a film where the images and the landscapes that the characters inhabit is just as important as the dialog.
Running a dense 190 minutes there is a lot going on here. It plays out in long deliberate sequences that can be very intense. There are silences, owing in part to one of the characters but also because of other choices Tanaka makes in how he lets the story unfold. It's a film that you have to be ready to engage with and give yourself over to for its whole running time.
I'm going to be honest here and say I was not ready for this film. As I normally do with festival films I went in blind and unaware of what it was about and what its run time was. Normally I don't care how long a film is but there was a point where I suddenly realized that we were no where near done and that there was still another 90 minutes to go. That is my mistake, but at the same time the fact that I was questioning the run time makes me wonder if this couldn't have been shorter.
Okay, yes, call me heathen but normally long films don't bother me and I thought the even longer recent film ABOUT DRY GRASSES flew by. And it's not that I think the film is too long, but rather it's more in need of a break- there is a lot to take in and process and some times you need to step out, much like when you read a novel sometimes you need to put the book down.
While I like the film, and recommend it, your feelings may vary depending upon your feelings toward dense narratives and deliberate pacing.
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