japanese youth in search of itself

[Christophe CRISON]

Since the incredible commercial and critical success of Won Kar Wai's In the 
mood for love, it seems that a festival should always have asian movies in 
its program, whatever the quality.

Nemo French festival dedicated to independant cinema is no exception. First 
I saw Wada Junko's Body Drop Asphalt:

True to a recent trend in cinema, this movie is the equivalent of easy 
listening : nice story, nice actors, but harmless picture. It tells the 
story of a young girl effort to succeed in life ("Brigdet Jones living in 
Tokyo" to put in a nutshell).

If it was not for some jokes, the 60's atmosphere (the girl wears vintage 
Courrege dresses!), you would probably consider the movie (or video since it 
is not shot on celluloid) as the respectable work of cinema student. But 
nothing to rave about.

I have to confess that i could not endure more than 30 minutes of Kazuchi 
Watanabe's 19 which a teenage version of a Kitano's movie. You basically 
watch 4 boys in a car, throwing vague philosophical condiderations, and 
alternatively fighting each other for the fun of the audience. The 
ellaborate black and white and jarmush like direction makes this poor movie 
a supposedly portrait of japanese youth...

So, nothing new under the (rising) sun...

christophe


_________________________________________________________________
Discutez en ligne avec vos amis, essayez MSN Messenger?: 
http://messenger.msn.fr