Director Takeshi Kitano demonstrates his masterful storytelling technique with this movie that interweaves three somber love stories featuring three star-struck protagonists. Young Matsumoto is chosen by his company's president as a fitting man to marry the president's daughter, but complications arise. An aging Yakuza boss keeps a date and takes a fateful chance. And pop idol Haruna Maraguchi realizes how deep fan obsession can become.
Lovely. The summary above doesn't really do it justice. The film is told as if it were a traditional puppet play brought to life (and begins/ends with the puppets themselves). The pace is slow, but it didn't bother me. Actually, slow isn't really accurate; there's a rhythm to the varying tempo, and it's easy to settle into it. I have a feeling it would have been a better experience in the theatre, though, or at least on DVD. I watched on Netflix' streaming service, and it has its limits (not to mention the limits of my 15" screen).
Definitely recommended.
Random thought alert:
I wonder how much of the filmgoing experience is dependent on (and how much the filmmaker relies on) shared culture? Presumably, my experience watching this is going to be very different from a Japanese viewer, and very different from a Norwegian viewer, etc. An American with knowledge of Japanese culture and film would bring even different things to the film, as well.
15/9
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