jaycbird

Ironically, it is the more talk and less blood that gives MIYUKI its creep factor. Yuri Nanami's performance as a Japanese exchange student, living with the PERFECT cynical depiction of a Marin County, California family, is beautifully subtle and nuanced. The cinematography is down right gorgeous in composition and lighting, and the film editing is strikingly subjective and dreamlike in its pacing. Director Immanuel Martin has done a great job with the technical elements and only has some weak spots in getting consistent 'honest moments' from some of his cast. That said, "Miyuki" has the psychological tension of "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" and with even more back story, which is something impressive to have pulled off. The tone of the film is exceptionally low key, which only adds to the pathos of the characters involved. There is a little bit of a supernatural element included, which is wholly unnecessary, or perhaps it is a cultural reference that didn't click with me. However, that is a minor quibble. With some judicious editing around a couple awkward performance moments, the film should obtain some sort of distribution.

"Rampo Noir" (Rampo Jigoku) is a gorgeous, creepy, kinky to the extreme as well as beautifully conceived and well crafted compendium of four stories by Japanese author Edogawa Rampo (a transliteration of Edgar Allan Poe and the nom de plume of Taro Hirai): "Mars Canal", "Mirror Hell", "The Caterpillar" and "Crawling Bugs". "Mars Canal" bookends the program and launches us into the three other nightmares. "Mirror Hell" was fun and simply GORGEOUS to look at! "The Caterpillar" (which is the pet name a woman has given her husband for horridly KINKY reasons!) totally CREEPED me out! "Crawling Bugs" was dizzyingly lovely to look at, though quite unnerving as the lead character's 'dilemma' was eerily reminiscent of one of my best friends! It has been released on DVD (region 3) in Japan and I. Must. Have. IT!!

I also saw this at the San Francisco International Film Festival this year, but had an opposite reaction from that of the previous reviewer. I found this to be a simply gorgeous and completely abstract hour of images, music and some poems. During the Q&A, we found out that it actually had to do with the conflicts between many nations in Asia. However, I'm sort of ignorant to that, especially as abstractly presented here, so I just went along for the psychedelic ride! I. Loved. It!

It may have also benefited from having been paired with "The Year of Living Vicariously" which is, at worst, a talking head gab-fest! I found it quite a relief to just sit back and drift off into the imagery of "Tokyo Magic Hour" after having spent the previous hour of buzzing language and flying subtitles. (I don't want to speak to the catalog description or references to Derek Jarman, as I can't really say that I am a big Jarman fan to begin with.)