Basically, "slow" is the style of Chiarustami, and it is also the most impressive Middle Eastern film. I still remember watching an Iranian girl under the lens of a director who was banned from filming at the International Film Festival. When looking at this work, a similar style naturally produces a cultural exchange and impact between the two places. In fact, except for the style of shooting that is Middle Eastern, the elements in other scenes are very Japanese, which is truly a Japanese story. When I think of Japan in the eyes of foreigners, the first thing that comes to my mind is "Lost in Translation". However, it is about the love story of foreigners in Japan, and this film is about the stories faced by Japanese girls.
As we all know, aided diplomatic relations are a phenomenon within Japanese society. As early as the late 1990s, the Japanese drama "God, Please Give Me More Time" brought out the existing problems. Subsequent Japanese films also have their own discussion of social phenomena, such as "Angel's Love", which is about sex workers. However, "Tokyo Rent Girls" is not about the morality of assisted dating. It depicts the life mode and status of assisted dating girls on the side through communication and exchanges between people.
The time set in the play, we can say is what happened in one day. In the evening, the girl smeared makeup and powder in the bar waiting for Ma Yi's instructions. On this day, the girl didn't want to work, so the grandmother from the countryside came to Tokyo to find her. For two years, from distant towns to big cities, there has been no news for two years. In the bar, she asked Ma Yi not to work for her, but Ma Pi still asked her to work. The grandmother has been waiting from morning to night, and the girl has been running away, afraid to receive a call from her grandmother. She doesn't want to upset her family, but there are not many job opportunities in big cities, and the youth unemployment rate in Tokyo alone is as high as 9.6 percent. Young people have no stable jobs, only part-time jobs. The background of the story is probably like this. To make a living, she had to sell her body, which made her feel helpless in reality. On the way of taking a taxi, the nostalgia of this foreigner is reflected in the bustling streets of Tokyo.
On the way to Yokohama, the girl turns on the answering machine, from which we can learn her story. Her grandmother saw a photo of her granddaughter on the street without admitting that it was her relative. She believed that her family would never do such an industry. The girl's struggle to see her grandmother and her reaction to seeing her grandmother is a climax of the film. Akiko felt that she didn't have the face to see her relatives, but she still had lovesickness in her heart.
After arriving at the guest's premises, they chat and see what they have in common from a painting. Mr. Watanabe is a gray old man and a writer at the same time. The so-called assisted dating is not a physical relationship, there are similar rental lovers in Hong Kong, just chatting with each other. The lonely old man doesn't actually have much scheming, he just wants to find someone to sleep with. In Kawabata Yasunari's works, there is a story that some old people live in nursing homes, and some young girls go to bed in their rooms at night. They don't have anything to do with each other, they just sleep. Or perhaps the director's inspiration was drawn from Kawabata Yasunari's work. The old man prepared food from his hometown for the girl, but the girl disagreed. She just wanted to get things done as soon as possible, but nothing special happened to either of them all night.
When the movie enters the second climax, it is the role of the game. Old man talking to girl's boyfriend, pretending to be each other's grandfather. In order to avoid conflict, the anxious and witty old man substituted into the art of speaking. Talking to the boy about responsibility, the man complained that the girl did not answer the phone at night, and said how much he loved her, but on the other hand, he had a distrustful attitude towards the girl. They walked into lies, argued with each other, and flattered each other. The girl's reaction was that she was at a loss. The sudden role reversal is the director's arrangement of the film. The success of the previous film is copied to this one, still blowing the wind of the master.
At the end, the director even handed over a blank ending, as if asking the audience to substitute what might happen next. Some audiences may not accept this kind of movie that stays for a long time from one scene to another, and the text and structure of the story are not really outstanding, but this is a way of dealing with Arabic movies. The role of women is rarely active, while men are selfish and possessive. In the film world of Chiarustami, we also see his breakthrough, entering a strange world to make films without losing his own style, and at the same time, it also gives people a feeling of interlacing. The interlacing of roles in "Looking Like a Destiny" is based on the view of feelings, and this one is substituted for family affection. Instead of seeing a grandmother, there is a grandfather. But the role of getting along with grandfather has another relationship with guests, which is quite mysterious.
However, I don't know if my expectations were too high. I thought there would be some surprises, but the plot is obviously under-supported and deepened in some aspects. It seems that you have the situation you are talking about, so if you want to play "role-playing", there is no denying that the previous one was more successful. The content of the movie corresponding to "Like Someone in love" will be broadcast at the end of the credits. You might as well leave the movie theater after listening to the song. This will give you a different feeling.
Text/Dorothy
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