Bootleg Film

wason time

Masahiro Kobayashi is the talented director of one of my personal favorite modern Japanese films: Man Walking on Snow. I am lucky enough to have access to his five major films via my local library. Though I love many things about this film, it doesn't seem to have the 'completeness' of his other films (for lack of a better word).In this film, two old buddies are taking a trip to attend a woman's funeral. The woman is the ex-wife of one of the guys and the ex-mistress of the other. The two had known each other before, and often their conversations revolve around who she loved or who introduced who to her and such. It makes for an interesting setting.The other twist is that one guy (the ex-husband) is a (crooked) cop and the other guy is a yakuza. The yakuza has a body and two guns in the trunk which he is supposed to dispose of.Without giving away any spoilers I will sum up what I liked and didn't like about the film. First, I did not feel the ending was quite 'there'. There was a kind of dreamy afterlife kind of feel to the last 5 minutes or so. The one long scene leading up to the end was quite... uncomfortable? And I felt it went on a bit too long. I understand the reason for why Kobayashi went this route, but I liked the endings of his other films better. Also, there were several scenes where the actors mentioned older American films, but often I felt that this was more a 'shout out' to Kobayashi's influences than anything that really added to the plot. The one exception was the Godfather 2 comment and the little bit about Reservoir Dogs with the girl in the car. Though I enjoyed the Reservoir Dogs conversation, I felt that it brought attention to the fact that Kobayashi borrowed heavily from Tarantino's films.I did enjoy the Godard like cuts and jumps, though these seemed to go away about halfway through the film. The scenery was great. The film was shot in black and white and the snowy and mountainous setting was the perfect backdrop for the film. The acting was top notch across the board and the dialogue was perfect. Almost a Cohen Brothers style of black humor.In the end the film is serious and it is about life, death, guilt, and remorse. Both of the main characters are carrying heavy burdens of guilt, and it is interesting to see the way they both attempt (and fail) to deal with their emotions. It seems like the film was shot on a pretty moderate (low) budget, so it is all the more impressive that a film can carry this weight and have such striking shots with such a small cast and low budget. It put Kobayashi into the international film arena by being screened at the Cannes 'Un Certain Regard' section.Though his films are not terribly popular, he is a well regarded director in the art house cinema circle. I very much enjoyed this film, though I felt it was the weakest of his five major works, the others being: Man Walking on Snow, Bashing, Rebirth, and White Night. Still an excellent and gripping film.