[Review] 'It's Me, It's Me' movie review
I thought it was better to write a comment on the movie since it’s a real pity very few people decided to do it. Since my review ended up being SUPER-long, I will first post the TL;DR version (this one). I am no good at writing reviews and I blabla a lot so you're warned.
I’d like to start quoting a tweet I read some weeks ago. “it’s a movie that might be interesting not only for director Miki’s or Kamenashi’s fans, but for the uniqueness of seeing the same person multiplicating. So I’d be happy if you watch it taking the bias glasses of ‘Kamenashi’s starring here’ off”.
IT'S ME, IT'S ME
(@ UDINE Far East Film Festival 15, 2013.04.19)
TL;DR MOVIE REVIEW (AKA: “just tell me if it’s good or bad, I don’t care about details”)
I really liked it. But I like dystopia stories to begin with, I enjoyed the book, and I like Miki’s movies too. So yeah, this kind of movie is my piece of cake. Nonetheless, I think you don’t need to read the book to enjoy “It’s me, It’s me” because the plot was partly rewritten and for some aspects I think the movie edition emphasizes some themes (especially the wavering side and, at the end, the scary side of Hitoshi, which represent young people’s hesitance that develops cruelty) way more than the book.
It isn’t an easy movie: if you aren’t used to Japanese humor you will probably eye quirk “WTF?” for the first 20 mins and if you aren’t used to surreal movies you won’t even get the themes. On the opposite side, if you expect a simple Japanese comedy full of absurdities you won’t probably appreciate the second darker half either.
This movie starts as comedy (first half you laugh for absurd scenes or funny acting), you even might identify with Hitoshi, a simple young 28-year-old man working in an electronics shop and kinda dissatisfied with his life because he had to give up his dream of becoming a cameraman. Sounds like us young people who are struggling to find their own path in an already complicate world and yet brought by necessity to give up their dreams and accept a normal job.
But here the change: it starts as comedy, but develops into a darker story. At first you just smile at Hitoshi’s dismay in finding many Me’s; you agree with Nao’s enthusiasm in creating a place full of “me”, because just imagine of being in such a world, if we’re surrounded by ourselves, everything is easier because we know ourselves, right?; but then you feel that something’s wrong, and you understand why Daiki doesn’t smile anymore at new Me’s popping up. And then people in the movie begin to die; no, they are killed. Killed by other themselves.
This is why it’s a typical yet atypical Miki’s movie: there’s all the comedy and the surreal and the confusion that “Miki’s world” depicts (and about this, I found extremely cute the dark rabbit, for which I suggest you to watch “Instant numa”. Nice way to remind the viewer that Ore Ore is another chapter of this huge novel called “Miki’s world” - together with the usual recurring actors, of course). But a comedy rarely has death, right? You’re supposed to laugh, not to be scared, right? So why has this movie death? Miki explained “Comedy and death are two faces of the same medal”.
Let’s go back to my first lines. I said dystopia. We can call dystopia a world opposite to the perfect world (utopia) that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. Ore Ore starts with the cosy, reassuring assumption that nothing is safer than a world made of me. Hitoshi, Nao and Daiki are in syntony, they get along well with each other, they help each other, for some aspects their lives get better (look out for [a couple of] romance!). Yet the movie develops and you feel that all of this is wrong and this sensation frightens you. Think about it: you are Hitoshi, you did something wrong (a scam) but as a result you begin to live in a supposed-to-be perfect world; but suddenly, everyone starts to kill each other… you are killed by yourself. It’s like the only one you trust, that is yourself, is betraying you. Doesn’t this makes your whole beliefs crumble down? Isn’t this scary?
Here kicks in my interpretation, which might be correct or wrong.
I can name many themes here that can track back to other classic dystopias. One is the “ego” theme, that I remember for example in Huxley’s Brave new world which depicts a sort of edonistic, controlled modern society (if we take the Me multiplying as image of young modern people’s egocentrism, thinking they’re the center of the world etc).
But actually what this movie reminded me first was Golding’s The lord of the flies, because this book’s message is basically “men create evil” (we had kids eliminating each other when “animal instinct to survive defies the rational mind”). And actually this is a crystal and clear theme in the movie too, clearly expressed by Hitoshi and Daiki’s crude words during their last two talks they have in the movie (which I won’t write because it’d be spoiler).
This world made of me can’t go on as it is, so someone must die. But who? I kill you because this way I’ll survive. This is what human beings are. And we're going to kill each other until just one is left. But who is the one who's supposed to be left, and is he the right one?
Another theme might be “many me’s = multiple choices the present world offers us and therefore we get lost in the choice”. This is especially true for modern young people, as I said at the beginning and as Miki hinted too, if I remember correctly. This movie may be a huge metaphor of the process of “looking for the true me among many possibilities”. (for this, look at FACE to face lyrics too: “who am I? Who is me?”. Talking about main songs which fit their movies.)
Of course even the kind of scams Hitoshi does is a hint: he isn't a pickpocket or a killer, he did a "it's me it's me" scam. He faked his identity, he stole someone else's identity, he tried to be someone different from himself. That's the beginning.
And of course, the easiest theme out of all, which is: actions and words have consequences. Hitoshi’s scam done out of boredom might look fun at first but the consequences aren’t easily fixable, therefore the following mess. And it’s here that you, viewer who sympathized with Hitoshi, start feeling that he isn’t just a victim… he actually isn’t just a “positive” character. So, who is the positive character?
Let me change the question: is there a positive character, then?
Actually if I have to compare Ore Ore to something easier to get than books from almost 100 years ago, I’d say “Inception”, this surreal world in which our world’s rules won’t work and you need something to grasp at, person or object (Inception had both of them and as object had the top, here we have a couple of important objects too, in my opinion: the scam money and the wristwatch). Points in common between Inception and Ore Ore are a world created by you but that might repel you; and of course the structure in which the director gives you hints all throughout the movie and it’s up to you whether notice them. And well… the open ending is common to both movies.
I'd also dare to say that, beside the great worldwide dystopia themes, there in this movie there are influences from Japanese noir cinema. Moreover, I think I could spot one of the greatest studies about horror and fear made by the 1990s Japanese horror masters, that is the "fear made physically representable", result of the "fear coming from everyday life and harmless everyday objects" (see Ring, Dark Water etc). Here too, in fact, panic comes from places Hitoshi frequents everyday, so considered harmless, and people around him becoming suddenly enemies. Also the phone itself, everyday object which turns into trigger of unexpected negative changes (the scam that changes the story, but also how the phone is used a bit further in the movie).
Also, I noticed for example the use of the "tunnel" image, a well-known topos in Japanese horror movies (the scene with Hitoshi on a train inside a tunnel). But I'd like to know Miki's idea about this or if I'm reading too much into, lol :)
Of course there isn’t only despair in such a messy situation, and here Sayaka’s role: she is the one Hitoshi clings to and he looks comfort and help in. But…
Another two things I want to point out but won’t write here for sake of space (but will do somewhere else) are: backgrounds/sceneries. Sceneries of periphery of Tokyo instead of the flashy Tokyo we know; the white, huge, depersonalizing condominium Hitoshi/Daiki’s family lives in (opposed to the single house Hitoshi will take pictures of); the aseptic white Sayaka’s office; the empty road in front of the (big) bowling center; and Nao playing in the middle of that empty road…
Second aspect is the details, which are fundamental for the story development: eyes and hands close-ups, glances, objects around the room and around the road (be careful and pay attention to road signs!!)…
Last note is about the three main characters. Miki and Kamenashi explained quite well how much their relationship is fundamental for the movie, especially the fact that Daiki and Nao at a certain point of the movie become the strongest characters while Hitoshi is left behind wavering, and how Hitoshi then decides to take back his role in all of this and acts. What made me think “oh, this movie is great” is the fact that (at least me) I could find myself in all of them three in different moments of the movie. Inside of us there are all three of them, they’re three aspects of us: the average one, the playful one, the serious one. As much as the other 30 roles. With the idea that +infinite characters are out there and they’re all sides of us. And no one is less true than the other.
I’d say that the different characterization for the three main characters was splendidly done and I bow to Kamenashi for his efforts because they actually paid off! You can tell apart Nao, Daiki and Hitoshi even from small details (pouting or being serious, walking, how they keep their hands, even tone and voice).
Bias aside, such a movie isn't easy to pull off for an actor - it means acting everything alone, talking to the air and looking in the eyes of no one, imagining that he will be there one hour later and he'll move like this or that and it will take him XX seconds to say the following line... It's *hell* -. But I believe he could create a great connection between himself (as actor, not character), the director and the camera, because the viewer doesn't feel this kind of difficulty at all and the movie is very fluid, acting-wise.
Of course the movie has flaws. The biggest one is that the central part is actually slow. The multiplying, the relation-building between Hitoshi and Sayaka, the characters switching roles, actually take quite a lot of screen time. In my opinion this was wanted to give off from one side the chaos Hitoshi lives (people multiplying everywhere confuses Hitoshi but the viewer too) and on the other side the attempt of creating a quiet island of peace in this mess (Hitoshi, Nao and Daiki eating together, going to work, etc). But as a result the narration becomes ripetitive in a cycle of similar scenes until the story turns again, yet this narrative slow-down was probably too long.
Actually I could continue the analysis (yes I am a movie nerd, forgive me) but I would need to describe and analyze the ending and this means spoiler. I just leave a comment/warning: the ending is both the key to solve some mysteries and the beginning of many others.
Also, I leave behind another reflection. A dystopia scheme normally has a Hero, someone that understand the dystopia world mechanism and generally wants to overturn it. The question I have for you, whenever you’ll watch this movie, is: is Hitoshi a hero? If not, who?
So, this was a sort of “short review” and I’m going to post the original SUPERLONG review in the next days for whoever wants to read it, since I am almost done with it. In the meanwhile, I hope I made you curious about this movie at least a bit, lol. ^^'
On a side note, I need to say that director Miki is more than kind and being able to have a small chat with him about the movie itself is one of the highlights of my whole FEFF experience! ^__^ together with of course meeting Kame, seeing him being so appreciated by even non-fans for his being polite and funny in the interview and being very praised for his 33-roles-acting venture ^__^
You are free to reshare, link anywhere this page ^^
I’d like to start quoting a tweet I read some weeks ago. “it’s a movie that might be interesting not only for director Miki’s or Kamenashi’s fans, but for the uniqueness of seeing the same person multiplicating. So I’d be happy if you watch it taking the bias glasses of ‘Kamenashi’s starring here’ off”.
IT'S ME, IT'S ME
(@ UDINE Far East Film Festival 15, 2013.04.19)
TL;DR MOVIE REVIEW (AKA: “just tell me if it’s good or bad, I don’t care about details”)
I really liked it. But I like dystopia stories to begin with, I enjoyed the book, and I like Miki’s movies too. So yeah, this kind of movie is my piece of cake. Nonetheless, I think you don’t need to read the book to enjoy “It’s me, It’s me” because the plot was partly rewritten and for some aspects I think the movie edition emphasizes some themes (especially the wavering side and, at the end, the scary side of Hitoshi, which represent young people’s hesitance that develops cruelty) way more than the book.
It isn’t an easy movie: if you aren’t used to Japanese humor you will probably eye quirk “WTF?” for the first 20 mins and if you aren’t used to surreal movies you won’t even get the themes. On the opposite side, if you expect a simple Japanese comedy full of absurdities you won’t probably appreciate the second darker half either.
This movie starts as comedy (first half you laugh for absurd scenes or funny acting), you even might identify with Hitoshi, a simple young 28-year-old man working in an electronics shop and kinda dissatisfied with his life because he had to give up his dream of becoming a cameraman. Sounds like us young people who are struggling to find their own path in an already complicate world and yet brought by necessity to give up their dreams and accept a normal job.
But here the change: it starts as comedy, but develops into a darker story. At first you just smile at Hitoshi’s dismay in finding many Me’s; you agree with Nao’s enthusiasm in creating a place full of “me”, because just imagine of being in such a world, if we’re surrounded by ourselves, everything is easier because we know ourselves, right?; but then you feel that something’s wrong, and you understand why Daiki doesn’t smile anymore at new Me’s popping up. And then people in the movie begin to die; no, they are killed. Killed by other themselves.
This is why it’s a typical yet atypical Miki’s movie: there’s all the comedy and the surreal and the confusion that “Miki’s world” depicts (and about this, I found extremely cute the dark rabbit, for which I suggest you to watch “Instant numa”. Nice way to remind the viewer that Ore Ore is another chapter of this huge novel called “Miki’s world” - together with the usual recurring actors, of course). But a comedy rarely has death, right? You’re supposed to laugh, not to be scared, right? So why has this movie death? Miki explained “Comedy and death are two faces of the same medal”.
Let’s go back to my first lines. I said dystopia. We can call dystopia a world opposite to the perfect world (utopia) that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. Ore Ore starts with the cosy, reassuring assumption that nothing is safer than a world made of me. Hitoshi, Nao and Daiki are in syntony, they get along well with each other, they help each other, for some aspects their lives get better (look out for [a couple of] romance!). Yet the movie develops and you feel that all of this is wrong and this sensation frightens you. Think about it: you are Hitoshi, you did something wrong (a scam) but as a result you begin to live in a supposed-to-be perfect world; but suddenly, everyone starts to kill each other… you are killed by yourself. It’s like the only one you trust, that is yourself, is betraying you. Doesn’t this makes your whole beliefs crumble down? Isn’t this scary?
Here kicks in my interpretation, which might be correct or wrong.
I can name many themes here that can track back to other classic dystopias. One is the “ego” theme, that I remember for example in Huxley’s Brave new world which depicts a sort of edonistic, controlled modern society (if we take the Me multiplying as image of young modern people’s egocentrism, thinking they’re the center of the world etc).
But actually what this movie reminded me first was Golding’s The lord of the flies, because this book’s message is basically “men create evil” (we had kids eliminating each other when “animal instinct to survive defies the rational mind”). And actually this is a crystal and clear theme in the movie too, clearly expressed by Hitoshi and Daiki’s crude words during their last two talks they have in the movie (which I won’t write because it’d be spoiler).
This world made of me can’t go on as it is, so someone must die. But who? I kill you because this way I’ll survive. This is what human beings are. And we're going to kill each other until just one is left. But who is the one who's supposed to be left, and is he the right one?
Another theme might be “many me’s = multiple choices the present world offers us and therefore we get lost in the choice”. This is especially true for modern young people, as I said at the beginning and as Miki hinted too, if I remember correctly. This movie may be a huge metaphor of the process of “looking for the true me among many possibilities”. (for this, look at FACE to face lyrics too: “who am I? Who is me?”. Talking about main songs which fit their movies.)
Of course even the kind of scams Hitoshi does is a hint: he isn't a pickpocket or a killer, he did a "it's me it's me" scam. He faked his identity, he stole someone else's identity, he tried to be someone different from himself. That's the beginning.
And of course, the easiest theme out of all, which is: actions and words have consequences. Hitoshi’s scam done out of boredom might look fun at first but the consequences aren’t easily fixable, therefore the following mess. And it’s here that you, viewer who sympathized with Hitoshi, start feeling that he isn’t just a victim… he actually isn’t just a “positive” character. So, who is the positive character?
Let me change the question: is there a positive character, then?
Actually if I have to compare Ore Ore to something easier to get than books from almost 100 years ago, I’d say “Inception”, this surreal world in which our world’s rules won’t work and you need something to grasp at, person or object (Inception had both of them and as object had the top, here we have a couple of important objects too, in my opinion: the scam money and the wristwatch). Points in common between Inception and Ore Ore are a world created by you but that might repel you; and of course the structure in which the director gives you hints all throughout the movie and it’s up to you whether notice them. And well… the open ending is common to both movies.
I'd also dare to say that, beside the great worldwide dystopia themes, there in this movie there are influences from Japanese noir cinema. Moreover, I think I could spot one of the greatest studies about horror and fear made by the 1990s Japanese horror masters, that is the "fear made physically representable", result of the "fear coming from everyday life and harmless everyday objects" (see Ring, Dark Water etc). Here too, in fact, panic comes from places Hitoshi frequents everyday, so considered harmless, and people around him becoming suddenly enemies. Also the phone itself, everyday object which turns into trigger of unexpected negative changes (the scam that changes the story, but also how the phone is used a bit further in the movie).
Also, I noticed for example the use of the "tunnel" image, a well-known topos in Japanese horror movies (the scene with Hitoshi on a train inside a tunnel). But I'd like to know Miki's idea about this or if I'm reading too much into, lol :)
Of course there isn’t only despair in such a messy situation, and here Sayaka’s role: she is the one Hitoshi clings to and he looks comfort and help in. But…
Another two things I want to point out but won’t write here for sake of space (but will do somewhere else) are: backgrounds/sceneries. Sceneries of periphery of Tokyo instead of the flashy Tokyo we know; the white, huge, depersonalizing condominium Hitoshi/Daiki’s family lives in (opposed to the single house Hitoshi will take pictures of); the aseptic white Sayaka’s office; the empty road in front of the (big) bowling center; and Nao playing in the middle of that empty road…
Second aspect is the details, which are fundamental for the story development: eyes and hands close-ups, glances, objects around the room and around the road (be careful and pay attention to road signs!!)…
Last note is about the three main characters. Miki and Kamenashi explained quite well how much their relationship is fundamental for the movie, especially the fact that Daiki and Nao at a certain point of the movie become the strongest characters while Hitoshi is left behind wavering, and how Hitoshi then decides to take back his role in all of this and acts. What made me think “oh, this movie is great” is the fact that (at least me) I could find myself in all of them three in different moments of the movie. Inside of us there are all three of them, they’re three aspects of us: the average one, the playful one, the serious one. As much as the other 30 roles. With the idea that +infinite characters are out there and they’re all sides of us. And no one is less true than the other.
I’d say that the different characterization for the three main characters was splendidly done and I bow to Kamenashi for his efforts because they actually paid off! You can tell apart Nao, Daiki and Hitoshi even from small details (pouting or being serious, walking, how they keep their hands, even tone and voice).
Bias aside, such a movie isn't easy to pull off for an actor - it means acting everything alone, talking to the air and looking in the eyes of no one, imagining that he will be there one hour later and he'll move like this or that and it will take him XX seconds to say the following line... It's *hell* -. But I believe he could create a great connection between himself (as actor, not character), the director and the camera, because the viewer doesn't feel this kind of difficulty at all and the movie is very fluid, acting-wise.
Of course the movie has flaws. The biggest one is that the central part is actually slow. The multiplying, the relation-building between Hitoshi and Sayaka, the characters switching roles, actually take quite a lot of screen time. In my opinion this was wanted to give off from one side the chaos Hitoshi lives (people multiplying everywhere confuses Hitoshi but the viewer too) and on the other side the attempt of creating a quiet island of peace in this mess (Hitoshi, Nao and Daiki eating together, going to work, etc). But as a result the narration becomes ripetitive in a cycle of similar scenes until the story turns again, yet this narrative slow-down was probably too long.
Actually I could continue the analysis (yes I am a movie nerd, forgive me) but I would need to describe and analyze the ending and this means spoiler. I just leave a comment/warning: the ending is both the key to solve some mysteries and the beginning of many others.
Also, I leave behind another reflection. A dystopia scheme normally has a Hero, someone that understand the dystopia world mechanism and generally wants to overturn it. The question I have for you, whenever you’ll watch this movie, is: is Hitoshi a hero? If not, who?
So, this was a sort of “short review” and I’m going to post the original SUPERLONG review in the next days for whoever wants to read it, since I am almost done with it. In the meanwhile, I hope I made you curious about this movie at least a bit, lol. ^^'
On a side note, I need to say that director Miki is more than kind and being able to have a small chat with him about the movie itself is one of the highlights of my whole FEFF experience! ^__^ together with of course meeting Kame, seeing him being so appreciated by even non-fans for his being polite and funny in the interview and being very praised for his 33-roles-acting venture ^__^
You are free to reshare, link anywhere this page ^^