Japon (Japan/2002)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C+ Film: B-
Carlos Reygadas is turning out to be one of the most
important filmmakers of his generation and the more I see his work and hear him
talk, one of the most distinguished careers in international cinema is shaping
up and everyone should start with his remarkable feature debut Japon. That translates into Japan, though the film
does not take place there or directly reference the country.
Instead, it is meant to represent the art and sense of
being the country stands for at its best as a context (in the Akira Kurosawa
mode) for the life of the lead actor’s character and the profound drift it is
about to take. He wants to
self-destruct, but it is not that simple and there is an in describable sense
of unfinished business to deal with.
The film is about that journey.
The directors who have come up in particular are Pier Paolo Pasolini and
Andrei Tarkovski, two of the last of a line of filmmakers in the movements of
Italian Neo-Realism and a Soviet Cinema above Stalinism. Because they found a new kind of freedom in
the last years of great world cinema before the regressive 1980s, it is also
like watching Reygadas pick up where they left off on some key finer points.
The only problem is that he has not totally found his
voice at this point and despite a remarkably rich knowledge, love and deep
grasp of writerly cinema, the film sometimes seem familiar if you have seen the
previous works. But when you are this
ambitious and sincere, you have got to start somewhere. That in that context he goes further here
than most “slick” Hollywood filmmakers and would-be auteurs with egos and
usually no talent. Add his limited
resources and ambition and he just achieves what all the others dream of and fail
by going into film for all the wrong reasons with all the wrong ideas making
the worst (and most obvious) possible mistakes.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is soft, with a
slight darkness throughout that is partly the film, but also the transfer, so
Diego Martinez Vignatti’s cinematography is not quite as well represented as it
could be. The credits suggest and
Reygadas confirms that this was a 16mm scope production, which is not much
different than Super 35mm as far as using frame area is concerned. The actual shooting composition is
impressive and since the dialogue is limited, is left to tell the story all the
more. Fotofilm Madrid processed the
Fuji negative footage and I always tell people to never underestimate
16mm. I’ll have to see this on film or
HD to compare sometime, but this transfer will do. The Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 mixes are both weak and cannot hide
the monophonic origins of the film, though it was a Dolby theatrical release of
some kind. Extras include the trailer
for this film, Bush’s Brain and an interview with director Reygadas,
also in 16 X 9 anamorphic, with Jason Wood interviewing.
- Nicholas Sheffo
