Cinéma Vérité


Sensory Perfection 10/10

I wanted to respond to the user comment of hadaka no shima.

He/she said -

To me, the only thing missing to make this movie a masterpiece, is a little depth. For example, Saiko never really explained why she left Japan. It could have been explained into details, to give a little bit more "sorrow", more "depth" to the character
Yes she did. When Amari asked Saiko what Japan was like, Saiko answered:

Japan is...very peaceful. We're blessed. But (here Saiko breaks down crying)... we don't have...the warmth...that you all have.

Her choice to stay with Marvin, Amari, Greg, and Toi in the forested klong refuge, instead of carrying through with her plan to stay at the plaza (city) hotel, meant that she wanted to escape the city (materialism, fast-pace life) and reorient herself in nature (spiritual rejuvenation, slow-pace life).

Towards the end of the film she remembered a moment of intimacy with her lover (in Japan). She was sitting up facing him, with her legs closed together and under her chin, shielding her nudity from him despite the moment. She sensually clasped and unclasped her lover's hand. It was an extraordinarily intimate and sensual expression, she was extremely happy, he completely connected with her emotionally, yet she still fled Japan, which she was either scared of the happiness and intimacy, or it was not enough for her, or she felt its spiritual depth would be crushed in modern Japan, and she fled in order to not see it destroyed by a fast-paced materialistic life in Japan.

The film had a lot of depth and sorrow which was conveyed through the sensual intimacy of the characters, the entire personage of Netsai Todoroki (Marvin), the intersecting languages, the raw improvisation, the sweltering heat rippling through everything, the live raw unadulterated sounds of everything, the dramatic presence of formalized, ceremonial Buddhist tropes (notice the Buddhist Thai temple chofa was not menacing, but the Buddhist Japanese temple had menacing devil-like relief-work: depth and sorrow at work), the sense that time has stopped, the slummish market quarters, the revelation that Marvin perceived Saiko as the daughter he lost, the revelation that actor Grégoire Colin is homosexual, Amari's breakdown, Saiko's memory of her lover, Marvin joining the temple, the drifting finale shot of the natural environment - the procession and music and birds and trees and canal/river - flowing onward.
It could have been explained into details, to give a little bit more "sorrow", more "depth" to the character; that, at the end of the movie, there is not a feeling of having just seen a touristic movie.
This film is the antithesis of a touristic movie, it is Cinéma Vérité!

Thank you Grégoire Colin for appearing in Nanayo, I watched it because of you, per usual the films you appear in continue to shatter and redefine the cinematic world.

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I feel obliged to reply as I agree with "hadaka no shima" and disagree with both of you. :)

I also felt this movie lacked depth. It was a nice croquis of country life, but I didn't really feel the characters. I'm not saying they were played poorly, but they were very passive, mostly just lying around, trying to communicate. Their personal crisis were also very briefly explored and resolved. Greg's "revelation" that the OP refers to is one of the most casual ones I've seen. The story could've been written better too; there are many things left out, so we're left wondering what in fact happened. So if anyone actually finds this movie "sensual" and "intimate" I'd advise against seeing any other movies or they'll reach some sort of climax. I also find the following "hadakas" comment very interesting: "KAWASE NAOMI did manage to create extremely simple moments (to the extent that we could ask ourselves why and how to appreciate such an empty movie !)" Is that not what the art film extremists criticize in American movies? So to conclude, I don't think this is a masterpiece at all.

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