Producer Ridley Scott assisted in bringing this film to the big screen where it didn't really see much interest or playtime outside of film festivals. It quickly made it's way to Netflix starting on the 15th of November.
Categorized as psychological thriller this film in Japan has an impressive cast (especially Alicia Vikander who performs a great deal of her lines in Japanese,) however, the movie, for the most part is just really slow an boring.
There will be some mild spoilers in this because I can't get the point across without them. I don't recommend watching this film because of the EXTREMELY slow pace, but if you wanna see it blind, don't read this
Lucy Fly (Vikander) is a translator for flims working in Japan. She is introverted and truly ingrained into the culture of Japan but doesn't have much of an active social life. One day she meets a charming Japanese photographer named Teiji (Naoki Kobayashi) while walking home from work. They begin dating. He is a mysterious man, who is quite secretive about his work and photographs and Lucy becomes increasingly suspicious of him being a bit of a player when she discovers lot of photographs of other women.
This feeling of jealousy and suspicion is amplified once Lucy introduces Teiji to another expat friend of hers named Lily and Lucy starts to feel as though they are flirting with one another.
Sound boring yet? Well it is. It takes about an hour to get to the point that I just did in 2 paragraphs. Literally nothing else happens and you start to feel a real sense of "get on with it already!"
There are some elements of crime and some dream sequences that happen but those moments of action are extremely brief and we are re-introduced to a very slow-moving film whose plot has been done many many times before.
The only thing that keeps you watching is Alicia Vikander's performance while speaking Japanese. I have no idea if she is doing it correctly, but I really dislike it when some Hollywood actor is in a film surrounded by people speaking an Asian language and we are meant to believe that they understand everything that is being said despite the fact that they are not participating in any spoken dialogue at all. Jared Leto's embarrassing performance in The Outsider springs to mind right away but there are many other examples.
However, you stop being enthralled with Vikander's dedication to the craft after about the 17th yawn.
from the MovieClips Trailers official channel
The trailer gives the impression that there is going to be some sort of supernatural something or other going on and there are times throughout the film that this is sort of hinted at as well... However, it never happens and isn't in the film at all.
I really can't find any redeeming qualities in this film other than a great performance by Vikander. The story never really gets moving and once you arrive at the conclusion it is neither surprising nor interesting. I feel duped having sat through this and don't think that you should make the same mistake.
My overall rating! 3 / 10
