Hot Picks
|
|
|
Ubume no Natsu
Summer of Ubume
Kyogokudo 1
Japan 2005
produced by Yoshikiyo Arai, Satoru Ogura for Dentsu Inc, Geneon Entertainment, Nippon Herald Films, Oruga Jimusyo Co, Tokyu Recreation
directed by Akio Jissoji
starring Shinichi Tsutsumi, Masatoshi Nagase, Hiroshi Abe, Rena Tanaka, Ayumi Ishida, Tomoyo Harada, Nomaru Abe, YosiYosi Arakawa, Chisako Hara, Keisuke Horibe, Magy, Suzuki Matsuo, Toshiaki Megumi, Noboru Mitani, Hitomi Miwa, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Misa Shimizu, Ryoko Shonohara, Kei Suma, Sawa Suzuki, Susumu Terajima, Sachiko Hara, Masami Horiuchi
screenplay by Shinichi Inozume, based on the novel by Natsuhiko Kyogoku, music by Shinichiro Ikebe
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
Japan, shortly after the war: A trio of friends - the nerdy Sekiguchi (Nagase Masatoshi)
who is plagued by sudden outbursts of premonition, private eye Enozuki (Hiroshi
Abe), an occasional mindreader, and librarian Kyogokudo (Shinichi Tsutsumi),
who has no supernatural powers at all but also works as an exorcist - is
hired to investigate the disappearance of a man, who has apparently left
his pregnant wife Kyoko (Tomoyo Harada) ... but seems to have vanished
from a locked room into thin air quite literally while Kyoko has been
pregnant for 20 months now. When the three friends under Kyogokudo's
leadership peel away layer after layer of this case, things only get more
and more complicated and unbelievable, and the whole affair seems to also include a few
murders and missing babies from wealthy families, until Kyogokudo comes to
the conclusion that an exorcism would be in place - which finally reveals
Kyoko's baby to be stillborn. However, this is only the beginning of the
case, which ultimately leads to a mad scientist, Kyoko's baby-stealing
sister Ryoko (Tomoyo Harada again), a sinister clinic and a torch-bearing
angry mob of villagers. As is always the case in films of this ilk, the
clinic is burned down to the ground in the end. Natsuhiko Kyogoku's
novel which this film is based on (and which I freely admit of not having read)
is said to be quite innovative and unusual, as it tells an elaborate plot
made up from historic, folkloristic, gothic and mystery elements in such a
complex and extravagant way it was deemed to be unfilmable. Filmmaker Akio Jissoji tried
anyhow ... and only succeeded in turning a quite extraordinary work of
literature into a quite ordinary mystery in period settings that might be
well-filmed from a mere technical point of view, but it comes across as
amazingly old-fashioned and stagey, and it likes itself so much as a
period piece in the traditional sense of the word that even the more
creepy elements are tuned down to such an extent you can only describe
them as tasteful, while the gothic elements continuously give way to
period settings that seem to contradict them. Yet the film is not a
total loss, it is carried by a certain atmosphere throughout despite
everything, and while it's not exactly creepy, it is at least an eerie
piece of cinema thanks to its story ... one just could have made so much
more out of mad scientists, missing babies, supernatural detectives and similar gothic and pulp clichés ...
|