Japanese Story

The best thing about `Japanese Story,' an Australian film directed by Sue Brooks and set almost entirely in the Outback, is its unpredictability. Just as you begin to think that the story, written by Alison Tilson, is headed in one particular direction, it does an amazing about-face and leads us down an entirely different, utterly unexpected narrative path.

The movie starts off as a fairly standard romantic comedy, involving two strangers who don't like each other very much yet who are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time together. Sandy is a geologist whose company, against her will and better judgment, has asked her to escort an important Japanese businessman through the wilds of the Australian desert on a sightseeing tour. The film even begins to seem a bit like a landlocked `Swept Away' for awhile, as these two headstrong people – he a Japanese traditionalist with male chauvinistic tendencies and she a no-nonsense, freethinking, independent woman (but both filled with doubts and insecurities beneath the surface) – find themselves stranded in a hostile and remote environment, fighting for survival. But then the first of the film's numerous plot reversals kicks in and we find ourselves in an entirely different situation altogether.

I certainly don't want to spoil anyone's experience of this film by revealing just what those plot twists are, so I will merely state that the film, in the second half, becomes a fairly profound meditation on the precarious nature of life and the almost lightning-paced speed with which tragedy can intervene to bring our worlds crashing down around us. Toni Collette is heartbreaking as the feisty yet warmhearted Sandy and Gotaro Tsunashima is both tender and stoic as the man from an exotic culture with whom she eventually falls in love.

That, of course, is the predictable part. But if you think you know where this story is going, you will be pleasantly surprised at how wrong you will be.

This is, apparently, a love it or hate it movie. As is the case with such films those on one side have a hard time understanding the view of the opposite. I am fully in that camp, I thought this film was stark and beautiful--as moving in its silence and mundane moments as it was illuminating. For those who say there is no plot, well I clearly saw a different film, there is more story and intention in simple small details as there are in a whole series of other films. Toni Collette was amazing and Gotaro Tsunashima was perfect, capturing the emotional compression and exploration of his character with clarity and skill. In a film full of striking absolutely believable and full moments -- the furtive exploratory glances as the two leads drive through the desert, and Toni's fascination with Gotaro's nearly hairless arms say so much about the characters', their history, their assumptions, their prejudices. Incredibly moving, shattering emotionally, and ultimately deeply profound. A haiku-like meditation on living and sharing--I loved it.

I think it's one of those memorable movies you'll think about for a long time, but it also seemed to go on for a long time while you're watching it. I think Americans aren't all that comfortable with the very leisurely pace of a lot of foreign films, and that may have been part of the problem -- but there's only so long you can watch someone expressing an emotion before you want to say "I get it, I get it -- can we move on to what happens next?" The plot involves a headstrong young Japanese businessman's visit to the most desolate part of Australia -- a rather tough geologist played by Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding) is his tour guide. He doesn't quite understand how different Australia is from Japan, and Collette has her hands full trying to chauffeur him around. The movie centers around the relationship that develops between these two very different people, set in the mind-bogglingly desolate Australian outback.

If your idea of a great movie involves car chases, this is definitely not the movie for you. If you like slower and more nuanced movies, then this one is definitely worth seeing.

Spoilers - hopefully kept to a minimum, but you are duly warned !!

Thanks to the summary line 'The less you know about this film, the better', I curbed my urge to find out more about this film before watching it, something that I'm often tempted to do. If I had known the full plot, I would have been deprived of the dramatic experience of fully empathising with the emotions of the characters.

As others have said, this film is in three parts, call it three acts if you like plays or three movements if you like concertos. The first part is rather cliché, even banal, perhaps by intention. The scene of being stuck in the sand with the wheels spinning feverishly but going nowhere does strike a chord with those of us who have had similar experiences, on sand as well as on snow. The second part starts to intrigue and has all the necessary build-up. It's the third and final part, however, that has given me a cinematic experience that I've never had before. 'Powerful' will be an understatement. 'Powerful' however is not a fair description, because the word conjures up an image of being hit by an abrupt emotional blow. It's not quite like that. There's a sustained drive of waves of emotions, layer after layer. I know I'm getting myself into a lot of trouble saying this, but I think that it needs a woman director to pull this off. It also needs an actress in the caliber of Toni Colette.

Can't finish without mentioning the music. There are in fact a lot of scenes with absolutely no sound, not even the ambiance noise of the vast outback. But when there is music, they're the best. One good example is the love-making scene. But that is soon dwarfed compared with the hauntingly beautiful piece of music that is the background, sometimes just noticeable, sometimes coming forth, throughout the last twenty minutes of the film. Essentially, it alternates between a simple phrase of 8 notes on a plucked instrument and a haunting soprano chorus, blending in perfectly with the mood of the film.

Australia has given the cinema some wonderfully adept and strikingly effective female actors in the past twenty years or so, Judy Davis starting a parade that includes Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Toni Collett among others. Collett has the ability to convincingly inhabit many different roles, her part as the depressed, suicidal mom in "About a Boy" being one of her most memorable.

"Japanese Story" is a quirky tale about Sandy Edwards, Collette, an Australian geologist in her, I would guess, mid-thirties. She's ordered to squire about the son of a Japanese industrialist whose investment in a major project is dearly desired by her bosses. The young man, handicapped by a very poor grasp of English and virtually none of Australian, is played by Gotaro Tsunashima. He might be well known in his native country but he was a new screen presence for me.

Sandy takes him on a tour of an achingly eerie, desolate, windswept part of Western Australia. Must of the movie was filmed in the Pilbara Desert, still aborigine country.

Sandy and her charge encounter adventurous situations while, no surprise, a romance springs up. Why Sandy would be attracted to the younger gentleman is never explained and it really shouldn't have been. "Japanese Story" asks the viewer to simply accept that liaisons arise without any deep preliminary exposition of character.

I won't reveal the plot, somewhat unexpected, but fate insures that this affair doesn't proceed swimmingly. What makes the movie is Collette's superb and affecting acting. I cared about her while knowing relatively little about her character's past life other than she hasn't completely resolved mom-daughter issues.

Nothing in this film could impel me to ever wish to go to the Pilbara Desert but it does excite my desire to see Collette take on many more challenging roles. She has a strong future-I hope.

8/10. See it if it plays near you, rent it later if not. You won't be sorry.