Slightly off-tempo romance, beautiful cinematography

There's a lot of promising material in this film, but the heart of the story is a little off-target. The director has a real flair for depicting a city and its atmosphere, in a few aesthetically pleasing but not superficial shots, as well as the emotional weight these cities hold for the characters. It's with the latter that the problem arises: they're well acted (with subtle facial expressions in their interactions) and potentially plausible, but some of the dialogues should never have gone beyond the rough draft stage. As a result, the discussions between characters are sometimes very clumsy, without really having a naturalistic aspect, where key words are repeated over and over again without really moving forward. This aspect clashes all the more with the rather fast pace of this fairly short film, awkwardly slowing down what was hitherto moving at high speed.

When we get away from this heavy-handedness, the characters take on much more meaning, as in the shorter exchanges via webcam, or when the two male leads meet for the first time and exchange introductions in each other's language. The final scene is equally beautiful, full of restrained tension.

The soundtrack is also well done. I can't wait to see her next film; despite the clumsiness of this first attempt, there's a lot to like here.

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Il y a beaucoup de matériau prometteur dans ce film, mais le cœur de l'ouvrage vise un peu à côté de la cible. La réalisatrice a une vraie belle patte pour ce qui est de dépeindre une ville et son atmosphère, en quelques plans esthétisants sans être superficiels, ainsi que le poids émotionnel que ces villes entretiennent avec les personnages. C'est avec ces derniers que le bât blesse un chouïa, ceux-ci sont bien interprétés (avec une mimique subtile dans leurs interactions) et potentiellement plausibles, mais certains des dialogues n'auraient jamais dû dépasser le stade de brouillon. Cela donne des discussions entre personnages parfois très pataudes sans vraiment avoir un aspect naturaliste où l'on répète à l'envie des mots clefs sans vraiment avancer. Cet aspect s'entrechoque d'autant plus avec le rythme plutôt rapide de ce film assez court en ralentissant assez maladroitement ce qui défilait jusque là à grande vitesse.

Quand on s'échappe de ces lourdeurs, les personnages prennent bien plus de sens, comme lors des échanges plus courts via webcam, ou bien quand les deux rôles masculins se rencontrent pour la première fois et échangent des présentations dans la langue de l'autre. La scène finale est également belle, toute en tension retenue.
La bande-son est de bonne facture également. J'ai hâte de voir son prochain film, malgré les maladresses de cette première tentative, il y a beaucoup de choses à aimer ici.

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A special ancestor to many horror movies

A lovely forebear of Evil Dead 2, it's animated by the same love of cinema and shares it with the same immoderate joy.
Another point in common is the use of arthouse-style editing effects with a half-horrific, half-humorous purpose and frenetic energy. And the latter creates some beautiful artistic moments amidst the chaos, such as the mirror scene and the piano assassination.
The then-young actresses have not enjoyed fantastic careers since, but I find them all convincing in what they were asked to do.
The older actress who plays the aunt is a pleasure to watch, having a ball as a very ham-handed villain.
The action scenes with Kung-Fu are surprisingly well done.

The film is dated, however, and whatever innovations it may have displayed on release, today some visual effects could look as if they'd been created with a bad free video editing app, and it's not always possible to overlook or sublimate them.
Fortunately, most of them are quite interesting, and add their share to an already rich and baroque editing style, set and props.
I don't have a strong opinion on the conclusion of the story, but it's a reasonable ending, yes.

The management of the music is perhaps one of the failures of this experimentation. On the one hand, I like the musical style's discrepancy with the film, but on the other, its constant use is both wearing and sometimes unsatisfactory. It's a flaw that could be applied to the film as a whole, which is highly lavish but just as messy.

A potential rewatchable winter classic as far as I'm concerned.

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Half-baked but the baked part is pretty good

The film is at its best when threading unusual vignettes through various Tokyo landscapes, such as when we follow an unstoppable multicolored guitarist, or when a slightly ridiculous cosplayer suddenly jumps from a rooftop, inexplicably surviving only to flee on his moped just as white as his costume.
These scenes, though fun enough and appropriately tied in with the main plot, just don't mesh sufficiently well. Two films seem to be fighting for the right to exist here, a limp absurdist comedy and a hastily spliced family drama.
The patchwork approach is viable, but the absurd intensity should have been pushed far beyond what is presented, and the dialogue crafted with greater flair.
The interludes with the dead wife's colleagues are entirely dispensable.

That said, nothing is mediocre, the actors play well, Tokyo is beautiful, and the group scenes in the final act are touching.

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