Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
After School @ the 12th Japanese Film Festival
November 10th 2008 01:23
"After School" opens on a grim breakfast - a pregnant woman sits at a quiet breakfast with a young salaryman. With hardly any affection, he eats, then runs off to work, leaving the woman with a clouded look on her face.
Things get worse when a coworker takes a picture of the salaryman taking another woman to a hotel in a seedy part of town. Suddenly, everyone's interested in this mysterious employee and the unnamed woman - the company executives hire a private detective with loose morals to find the man, while the yakuza profess an extreme interest in finding the girl.
While it may seem that "After School" aims to take a well-trodden path down a familiar road, things start to spiral out of control, and become progressively more interesting as the film moves to the unexpected conclusion.
In fact, the film seems to pose a rather interesting question, how much can you ever know anyone? We look at a situation and examine the evidence, coming to a conclusion - but this conclusion depends on our prior experiences and cultural biases. In "After School", the detective, the yakuza and the company executives all assume prior knowledge of the situation, which entangles them further.
The audience becomes guilty of this as well - I expected a twist, but, using previous knowledge, I thought I understood where the film was aiming, then was startled as I was proven to be fantastically wrong. How can you trust an observation if the observer is biased? Similarly, how can you trust a judgement if the judge is a desperate, gambling criminal?
Shot in fabulous, living colours, amidst the noodle bars and clubs of Tokyo, "After School" provides a thoroughly enjoyable experience, making the most of slapstick conventions, mixed with that uniquely Japanese vision. Opening night at the Japanese Film Festival will prove to be a raucous, hearty affair, with audiences laughing and cheering as these bumbling fools shuffle across the screen.
I say: Highly enjoyable, and a perfect start to the festival, which looks like it'll offer a terrific program again.
See it for: Uchida creates a living background, with pedestrians and traffic flowing effortlessly on screen - he has an eye for stunning women, though, and you'll see many of them parade in the background.
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