WTF did I watch?!
Technically, I know what it was.
I went to watch World of Kanako at Alamo Draft House. I am really appreciative of Drafthouse films bringing foreign films to US screens. But I wish they'd brought a different one.
What the hell kind of film subjects the audience to watch a protagonist rape and beat women? From start to finish, it's murder, murder, murder, rape, murder, murder, rape, murdermurdermurdermurder, rape, murdermurdermurdermurdermurdermurdermurder. To lighten things up, once in a while, there's simple assault. Oh, and drug abuse so lurid and ridiculous you'd think you were watching Reefer Madness.
It's disappointing, since there was potential in Kanako. The acting was beyond reproach (I was especially impressed with Shimizu Hiroya), and the cinematography was excellent. But it is just too much violence without purpose. A review in Variety indicates that it was supposed to explore the "duality of love and hate". Instead, it highlighted self-centeredness and obsession. I thought somehow the repeated motifs of the Victorian fantasy of Alice in Wonderland, shoujo manga, and detective noir might tie the main characters' exhibition of these flaws together, but instead, everything is plowed under in service to exploitation of violence. And then, even that is tossed away in the frozen wasteland of the movie ending that reminded me of the far superior Kumiko the Treasure Hunter. In Kumiko, the silent snow is a canvas for the audience to continue or explain Kumiko's story. In Kanako, the emptiness of snow-blanketed fields only seems like a coda for a film that was ultimately as empty.
I went to watch World of Kanako at Alamo Draft House. I am really appreciative of Drafthouse films bringing foreign films to US screens. But I wish they'd brought a different one.
What the hell kind of film subjects the audience to watch a protagonist rape and beat women? From start to finish, it's murder, murder, murder, rape, murder, murder, rape, murdermurdermurdermurder, rape, murdermurdermurdermurdermurdermurdermurder. To lighten things up, once in a while, there's simple assault. Oh, and drug abuse so lurid and ridiculous you'd think you were watching Reefer Madness.
It's disappointing, since there was potential in Kanako. The acting was beyond reproach (I was especially impressed with Shimizu Hiroya), and the cinematography was excellent. But it is just too much violence without purpose. A review in Variety indicates that it was supposed to explore the "duality of love and hate". Instead, it highlighted self-centeredness and obsession. I thought somehow the repeated motifs of the Victorian fantasy of Alice in Wonderland, shoujo manga, and detective noir might tie the main characters' exhibition of these flaws together, but instead, everything is plowed under in service to exploitation of violence. And then, even that is tossed away in the frozen wasteland of the movie ending that reminded me of the far superior Kumiko the Treasure Hunter. In Kumiko, the silent snow is a canvas for the audience to continue or explain Kumiko's story. In Kanako, the emptiness of snow-blanketed fields only seems like a coda for a film that was ultimately as empty.