UrbanWire

Cast: Toni Colette, Gotaro Tsunashima, Matther Dyktynski
Director: Sue Brooks

Boring Story

Despite the fact that it cornered the top prizes (including Best film, actor (Collette), director, original screenplay and cinematography) at the Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards last year, Japanese Story is just another age-old silver screen tale of a disparate couple developing an unlikely bond following a series of occurrences.

Gotaro Tsunashima plays a Japanese businessman Hiromitsu, who is accompanied by Sandy (Toni Collete) to Australia's Pilbara desert for a business meeting. She's a geologist whose only reason for agreeing to escort a disagreeable Hiromitsu is to press for a profitable business deal between their 2 companies.

The old "opposites attract" scenario sets into motion, chronicling the journey of a culturally and characteristically different couple who develop an awkward attraction to each other.

Using a poignant and mellow mood, Australian director Sue Brooks attempts to showcase the development of mutual affection in the unlikeliest of circumstances, not the first film of its kind to do so And in comparison to other notable works by other filmmakers, like Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels, and Sofia Coppola's recent Lost In Translation, Japanese Story is sadly mediocre. Although lauded for the cinematography, the vast shots of the depressing Australian wilderness just highlights the dullness of a movie whose script should have been paid more attention to.

Contrary to what its title suggests, Japanese Story is shot entirely down under with only a couple of Japanese actors in the cast. It resembles Coppola's Lost In Translation in many ways, from its déjà vu "let-silence-narrate-the-movie" cinematography, minimalist soundtrack, to its plot - 2 personalities coupled up in a harsh foreign landscape with only each other to interact with.

The salvage factor of the film is probably the noteworthy performance of the leads. Collette manages to convincingly pull off the role of cynical Sandy in a performance that is a complete opposite to her wacky suicidal bohemian mother persona in About A Boy, while Tsunashima delivers a solemn rendition of mid-life-crisis-stricken Hiromitsu, retaining the quirks of the typical Japanese, for example, the way the Japanese use two hands and bow to present their business cards, but without perpetuating any stereotypes, like the famous Hollywood stereotype, which normally sees bucktoothed yellow men yapping "Hai! Hai! Hai!", and turning their heads around to look at everything in their new environment.

Near the end of the film, the plot takes an unexpected twist, and you have to give Brooks credit for at least enough originality not to conform to the typical Hollywood treatment, which might have given us another Forces of Nature, which was laden with tacky madcap comedy.

However, Brooks has failed in her attempt to make a movie that can be held in the same regard as Wong Kar Wai's similar works, as aside from the acting, there is really no reason to say sayonara to your money.