La Maison de Himiko (Japan, 2005)
Rating: 7 out of 10

The problem with this film about a gay retirement community in Japan, featuring mostly gay characters, with gay issues is . . . the movie is just not gay! It's ponderous and heavy. Gayness tries to peep through once in a while, but those moments feel uncomfortably out of place. When I saw the main character smile, it felt so out of character. They also feel like they're leading to some breakthrough or catharsis, but they don't. It's all back to heavy.

The film is about a girl whose father left her and her mother after coming out that he was gay, to live in hedonistic ribaldry of the gay community. Which is what I suppose all gay people do. The ensuing family struggle leaves the girl inconsolably bitter, so when she is contacted many, many years later and told that her father is dying, she couldn't care less. But when offered to be paid good money to come work part-time at the gay retirement community her father set up, she can't resist. She's deep in debt, which she also blames on him.

It's a watchable film. The acting is fairly excellent, the story holds its own, it's just not . . . gay. And the father isn't even dying of a gay-related illness (thank god, that would be more cliche than living in hedonistic ribaldry, but which might have justified the heaviness).

The characters are fairly well-defined, but none all that endearing, especially the female lead, who hangs onto her tightly-wound bitterness and anger to the end. So what's the point of the film?

The most pitiful parting is one where there is not even a "good-bye". How can you leave so little of an impression, so little of a mark, that when you leave, they/he/she don't even say "good-bye".



檸檬のころ (Lemon no Koro) (Japan, 2007)
English title: The Graduates; Chinese title: 青檸檬的時節 (Green Lemon Season)
Rating: 8 out of 10

I picked up the DVD to this Japanese high school film on a total whim at Blockbusters. I'd never heard of it, and I don't even recall whether it got a theatrical release in Taiwan last year. I don't know what the Japanese title means since I haven't seen the characters, but the English and Chinese translated title give a clue about the film. Senior year in high school is a time before ripening, still green on the vine.

I must say, skeptical at first, I ended up really liking this light-weight, pastoral film about an innocent time of life, set in the boondocks of Japan. Nothing big happens in the film, it's just a simple film, very well done, about high school kids about to graduate.

Out of the five main characters seemingly featured, I think the focus is on the two girls, the paths they're tracing in their final year of high school, and their interaction with the two boys they're interested in. I don't know why the third guy, the fifth character, is even featured, he's really a minor character – a fifth wheel.

One girl, Kayoko Akimoto, is the Japanese equivalent of the "homecoming queen" – she has it all, good looks, smart, dates the jock. The jock is a boor – loud, obnoxious, not-so-smart, unrefined. That's in Japanese terms. In American terms, the guy is Clark Gable. And the homecoming queen in Japan is humble, demure, compassionate.

The other girl, Kei Shirata, is kind of an underdog on the fringes. Not popular, wants to be a rock critic, loves rock and roll. She falls in love with the broody, loner, rock guy. She seems kind of detached, disaffected and aloof until her emotions well up, and then she becomes a squawking babbler – very cute. In fact, I think the actress, 16- or 17-year-old-at-the-time Mitsuki Tanimura, is absolutely remarkable. She's the revelation in this film as the range of emotions she portrays using her voice, her eyes, her body language, her face is something to behold.

This genre of Japanese film is very subtle. Emotions are muted and you have to interpret the culture to know what characters are thinking or feeling. The subtlety of the film unfortunately extends to the minor characters, who if you don't really pay attention to who they are, you have no idea why they're there. They're part of the subtlety, the background, the real life. And really, that's why I watch and love film – for the slices of the real richness in life that if some filmmaker didn't put in front of a lens, might go unnoticed. Film as life distilled to an essence, and I think this film captures a bit of it really well.