Strawberry Shortcakes
Dir. Hitoshi Yazaki (Japan 2006)
Rating: 3 out of 4 Stars (good)
Review by: Jeff

Strawberry Shortcakes tells the story of the intersecting lives of four different women in Tokyo: an office worker, a prostitute, an artist, and a receptionist for an escort service. Each of the women is miserable and unfulfilled to varying degrees. The office worker has a boyfriend who won’t commit to her, and is stuck with an unfulfilling job with coworkers who despise her. The prostitute engages in dangerous, unprotected sex with her clients and pines after a college buddy who spurns her affections. The artist suffers from bulimia, and the receptionist is not only deeply lonely, but also is trying to avoid the advances of her skeezy, married boss.

As the plot description suggests, Strawberry Shortcakes is a troubling film. All of the women in the film are rather weak-willed. Most, if not all, of them believe that they will never be happy or fulfilled until they are married. On the other hand, the men in the film are portrayed as uncaring, lecherous, two-timing sleazeballs. Is the film critiquing how members of both sexes destroy their lives by falling into stereotypical patterns of behavior? Or is the film merely reinforcing those stereotypes? The answer is not clear, given that the story is presented in a naturalistic style without an explicit point of view.

Although the film’s politics may be questionable, the film’s aesthetics are unimpeachable. Although the film is shot in a verite fashion, with long takes and minimal non-diegetic music, its imagery is far from rough-hewn. Most of the film’s shots are remarkably beautiful; the filmmakers have truly managed to find poetry in unexpected places such as back-alleys and grungy rooftops. Notwithstanding their eye for visual beauty, the filmmakers do not shy away from ugliness; scenes in which the women engage in degrading sex are particularly tough to watch. As a final note, all four of the lead actresses should be commended for their fine, fearless performances. The actresses are extremely convincing in their roles, even when they have to pull off tough dialogue, such as conversations with God.

In short, Strawberry Shortcakes provides much food for thought. (Apologies for the pun.)

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES IS PLAYING AT THE NYAFF ON TUESDAY, JULY 1 AT 9:15 PM AT THE IFC CENTER

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Fine, Totally Fine
AKA: Zenzen Daijobu
Dir. Yosuke Fujita (Japan 2008)
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 Stars (very good)
Review by: David Austin

Fine, Totally Fine is another thoroughly enjoyable film from the same production company, Stylejam, that made Adrift in Tokyo (review here). The similarities go deeper than a common production company though. Many of the same elements that made that earlier film so enjoyable - low-key character-based drama and comedy, a de-emphasis on traditional plotting, excellent acting, polished scripts that go for the odd or clever line instead of the big laugh, and protagonists just crossing the line between youth and maturity. Yet Fine, Totally Fine is recognizably its own film with its own concerns and interesting in its own right.

Fine, Totally Fine focuses on two brothers, Teruo (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) and Hisanobu (Okada Yoshinori). Teruo is suffering from a severe case of arrested development – he is ostensibly wants to create the world’s greatest haunted house but spends most of his time goofing around and scaring his friends. He finances his toys and masks with a part-time job working for the parks department. Hisanobu, working as a hospital administrator, is seemingly a more productive member of society but keeps the world at bay with a combination of unflagging politeness and an unwillingness to engage with people around him on any deeper level. The two find their smooth pond ruffled when Akari (Kimura Yoshino), an aspiring artist and world-class klutz enters their lives and begins working at their father’s bookstore.

Rather than craft a traditional love triangle, director Fujita has created something more subtle. Both men are interested in Akari, and there is some tension between the two, but Fujita allows the potential romance to follow a non-traditional course. Non-traditional, that is, for the movies, but perfectly traditional for real life, where not every crush leads to humiliating disclosures, dramatic showdowns, or true love. Putting the love triangle aside, the real focus is on the small moments – conversations with friends, sitting around with family, minding the bookstore. These moments are perfectly realized and often hilarious. For example, Akari gets a lecture on how to handle the awkwardness of people buying pornographic books, with advice like, “Don’t look at the customer, but don’t deliberately look away.” Of course, the first time she has to put that advice into action, it leads to disaster, and the funniest porn-buying scene since Woody Allen’s Bananas.

After watching both Fine, Totally Fine and Adrift in Tokyo, I think I am starting to see the Stylejam house style coming together. So far, so good.

FINE, TOTALLY FINE IS PLAYING AT THE NYAFF ON THURSDAY, JULY 3 AT 6:30 PM AND ON SATURDAY, JULY 5 AT 6:30 PM AT THE JAPAN SOCIETY