Japanese Story

Year: 2003

Grade: B-

Country: Australia

Director: Brooks

Review

if not for the heavy, 40 minute longeur on which this film ends, it would have been pretty good. the first half of the film establishes the relationship between collette and the japanese man she is escorting around australia. at first they annoy each other, then they end up fucking; and it happens about that abruptly. that said, it wasn’t this that derailed the picture. eventually collette discovers that her companion is married, but that doesn’t affect their affair…they go on having a happy time until he dives into shallow water and dies. the film has a few things going for it: 1) toni collette isn’t all that great looking, but she’s a good actress and the chemistry with her and Gotaro Tsunashima is pretty good 2) it’s not “lost in translation.” there are some cute, charming moments between the two and that’s when the film is at its best – when it’s just them bonding and interacting. like i said before, the downside of the film is the last 40 minutes during which basically nothing happens and the director tries to cash a check that’s bigger than the amount she’s earned in the first half of the film. that is, the first half of the film established a decent degree of humanity and potential sympathy, but the second half of the film tried tapping into that too much. and really, in a film like this, poignancy isn’t about the length of the grieving, it’s more about the effectiveness thereof. in the last two minutes of the film we get a clear example of this – collette’s character reads a letter Tsunashima’s character had written her with the intention of her reading it after he was on a plane back to japan. he speaks the letter in the form of a voice-over and what results is the poignancy and pathos brooks was after for the last 40 minutes. i understand that she may have been after some reality in the post-death portion of the film. firstly the death was quick, as most deaths are. secondly, there is a lot of post-death minutiae to be sorted out (incident reports, assembling his personal affects, cleaning his suit, shipping his body, etc.), but all this really should have been edited down a bit. incidentally, the last half of the film reminded me a lot of love liza which was mostly just philip seymore hoffman bawling and sniffing gas, but in that film there was a lot of comic relief to break the film up. it, too, ended with a powerful letter from beyond the grave. looking back on the film it’s better than i originally gave it credit for…. p.s. just read some comments on imdb.com that indicate the original version was longer, apparently some scenes were cut, but i stand by my review – not enough was cut! also, why “japanese story”? it’s more about her than about him and it takes place in australia…