Japanese Story Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)November 12th, 2003
JAPANESE STORY
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: C
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Directed by: Sue Brooks
Written by: Alison Tilson
Cast: Toni Collette, Gotaro Tsunashima, Matthew Dyktynski, Lynette Curran, Yumiko Tanaka, Kate Atkinson, John Howard, Bill Young, Reg Evans, George Shevtsov, Justine Clarke Screened at: Preview 9, NYC, 11/11/03
As I watched Ian Baker's camera capturing scenes of the Australian outback in Sue Brooks's phlegmatically directed picture, I couldn't help thinking not so much of the particular plot of "Japanese Story" but of political possibilities. Wouldn't the Canberra government have gone down as the noblest nation in the 20th century if it had allowed refugees from the world's totalitarian hells to come and settle in the mostly unpopulated spaces? Just think of how easily the six millions Jews lost in the Holocaust could have found salvation if the Aussies opened their hearts and ports to allow them to emigrate and irrigate, just as they made the Israeli desert bloom. Consider how Pol Pot's two million Cambodian victims could have lived out their lives, perhaps experiencing culture shock for years but content under the Australian sun? After all, with a density of just 2.6 people per square kilometer, just under Mongolia and Namibia, and with a population of 19 million projected to just 23 million in 22 years, maybe this land down-under could use some diversification as well.
This is just one of the notions that could pass through the heads of some of the more politically committed members of the audience, but Alison Tilson's script, incorporating the emptiness of the Pilbara Desert in the country's northwest, uses space instead to evoke the flexibility of human relationships. "Japanese Story," which is really the tale of the emotional opening-up of an Australian woman living and working in Perth (which geography-bee contestants know is the most distant metropolis from New York), has an undeveloped script with a shocking climactic event not deeply thought out by scripter Tilson. Aside from showing off the considerable talent of Toni Collette who made a name stateside with her role in D.P.J. Hogan's "Muriel's Wedding" (about an ugly duckling with a dysfunctional family who yearns for a happier life and leaves her home town of Porpoise Spit for Sydney) dominates the scene in yet another film which like Hogan's is not a feel-good Hollywood work but has darker themes to explore about men and women.
While a good part of the 107-minute tale fits into the conventional Hollywood thematic templates two people from different cultures who ultimately connect; two people who spend so much time on their work that they have no patience to smell the daisies director Brooks's palette paints a pretentious picture similar to Gus Van Sant's "Gerry," wherein two friends go for a hike, leave the marked path, and must adopt tactics to survive and stay sane. When Sandy Edwards (Toni Collette) and Tachibana Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima) have much to worry about when their van gets stuck in the desert, they must not only dig themselves out with the thought that they could actually die from dehydration but find their muddle to be a blessing in disguise as their situation opens them emotionally.
In the story, Sandy, a geologist and partner in a software company with Bill Baird (Matthew Dyktynski) , is asked to take care of Hiromitsu, a businessman from Kyoto, to whom they hope to sell their product. Hiromitsu has another agenda, and to cater to his whim, Sandy takes him on a field trip to the Pilbara desert after meeting with a couple of guys who run a vast mine which exploits the natural beauty of the area. Trouble starts right off when the Japanese thinks that Sandy is merely a driver, and priggishly waits for her to pick up his heavy bag and stuff it into the van. When Hiromitsu, all bows and rigid posturing, gets drunk at a karaoke bar to the point of unconsciousness, we begin to wonder whether he is an unhappy fellow living in the typically small space allotted to most of his countrmen, who seeks to be reborn in the vastness of Australia. For her part Sandy, all business, stubborn, and jumpy as a 'roo, understandably hates her assignment to babysit this seemingly chauvinistic businessman until their life-and-death situation softens her up, as deadly fear often will.
The humor in "Japanese Story" is not unlike that of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," also a tale of clashing cultures albeit not one with the vast differences that Sue Brooks treats. While Ms. Collette's alternately humorous and gut-wrenching performance is likely to be the stand-out rave of critics and of the limited audience for the film, the pace varies from slow to stop, the story is as minimalist as "Waiting for Godot" without possessing any of Beckett's wit, and for non-Australians in the audience, some of the dialogue is just plain unintelligible.
Rated R. 107 minutes.(c) 2003 by Harvey Karten at
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