| an_apple | 2007-10-05 10:37 |
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Bottom Line: This piece of Japanese candy floss will only melt in the mouth of the mushiest romantic. By Maggie Lee Oct 5, 2007  Pusan International Film Festival “Closed Note” (Kurosudo Nooto), as its title suggests, is a closedworld where ugly reality is locked out, offering gift-wrapped romancemade for escapists. Director Isao Yukisada pulls the done-to-deathtrick of the old diary connecting one person to another living in adifferent time and world. The film opened in third place at the Japanese boxoffice Sept. 29, partially stimulated by controversy about lead actress ErikaSawajiri’s “attitude problem.” Yukisada’s unabashedly commercialromances “Crying Out Love From the Center of the World” and “SpringSnow” replicated their domestic success in Asia, but the new film isslack on originality and chemistry, so it probably won’t perform a hattrick in the overseas market. Kae (Erika Sawajiri), a college student training to be a schoolteacher, discovers a notebook tucked away in her newly rentedapartment. It is the handwritten diary of former tenant, Ibuki Mano(Yuko Takeuchi), a elementary school teacher. She starts to followIbuki’s floridly written entries like a Harlequin addict. Ibuki who hasmore patience for her nauseatingly cherubic pupils than Mother Teresafor the sick, becomes the diffident Kae’s role model. As Kae serializesIbuki’s love life in her mind, she casts her TV idol in the role ofIbuki’s boyfriend Takashi. When not strumming her mandolin like a Vermeer portrait, Kae workspart-time in a shop specializing in rare fountain pens. And who couldhave walked in but the most classically chiseled face in Japanesecinema — Yusuke Iseya (”Sukiyaki Western Django,” “Memories ofMatsuko”) playing a man named Ryu Ishitobi. He is looking for the rightpen for his exhibition though it’s not ink but corny dialogue thatflows. It turns out that Ryu has been loitering in Kae’s neighborhood, andshe is driven to distraction by expectations of a full-blown romancewith his mildly suggestive overtures. Kae eventually summons thecourage to confess her love to Ryu, but overhears a crushing truth.This is supposed to be a big revelation, though there’ll be few gaspsof surprise in the cinema. Hearts are broken and healed, tears areshed, but there follows a resolution that helps wash down the emotionalheartburn from too much syrupy sweetness and melodrama. With many outdoor locations set in or around Kyoto, every encounterbetween the main protagonists are framed by a lush backdrop, sprinkledwith conventional visual tropes like rain falling at a sad moment, or aclose-up of blue andrangeas under the window sill to suggest a romanticinterlude. The problem is that every character is too damn nice — tolook at and to each other — so every scene feels cosmetic and lacksenough contrast and tension to justify the running length. Love scenesare scrubbed clean of sexual passion, leaving only a bland chasteness. “Closed Note” still makes a good date movie, if only to let thefemale audience swoon over Yusuke Iseya, whose flowing mane and realillustrations (he was an art college graduate) make him look the part.Guys get to drool over Japan’s two loveliest actresses for the price ofone ticket. CLOSED NOTE Toho Company Ltd./Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc./SDP Inc./Sony MusicEntertainment (Japan) Inc./Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. Ltd. Credits: Director-screenwriter: Isao Yukisada Screenwriters: Tomoko Yoshida, Chihiro Ito Based on the novel by: Shusuke Shizukui Producers: Kei Haruna, Morio Amagi, Akihiro Yamauchi, Hasashi Usui Executive producer: Minami Ichikawa Director of photography: Koichi Nakayama Production designer: Yuji Tsuzuki Music: Meina Co Costume designer: Sachiko Ito Editor: Tsuyoshi Imai Cast: Kae Horii: Erika Sawajiri Ryu Ishitobi: Yusuke Iseya Ibuki Mano: Yuko Takeuchi Running time — 138 minutes No MPAA rating Resources: Hollywood Reporter - United States Credit: http://sawajiri-erika.cn/2007/10/closed-note.html |
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