Japan Japan (2007/France/Water Bearer DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Film: C
In
Writer/Director Lior Shamiriz’s Japan
Japan (2008), the main character wants to declare cinema “dead” and says he
sees it as living through the lives of others, yet when he goes to Japan, all
he can be is consumed by other XXX and Pop Culture like ABBA music, et al. Not only is it shot on digital video, but
uses frames all over the main frame the way Peter Greenaway has done in his
later work dubbed “Post-Colonialism” by critics. I did not get that same impression here.
The main
character Imri is Jewish, but wants to go to Japan. Amusing, but why would he think it was so
different at first. This is the early 21st
Century already and he does not find Old Japan by any means. I could find little metaphor either, but
maybe with some concentration, he could have shown and said more than things
only he ultimately understood the meaning of.
The
anamorphically enhanced image seems to be 2.35 X 1, yet on some players, did
not translate that way, not totally unsqueezing the faked scope frame. Some of the footage (like a graphic XXX tape)
even exhibits digital blocking for whatever reason. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is bare stereo and
sound gets mixed up in ways that are as sloppy as they are creative. Extras include a half-hour of deleted scenes
that are more narrative than experimental.
They may not have helped, but it shows the confused direction of the
whole project by comparison.
- Nicholas Sheffo
