JAPÓN
**1/2 out of *****
Reviewed by Juan Incognito

Genres
Drama

2002
Written and directed by
Carlos Reygadas
Cast
Alejandro Ferretis .... The man
Magdalena Flores .... Ascen
Yolanda Villa .... Sabina
Martín Serrano .... Juan Luis
Rolando Hernández .... The judge
Bernabe Pérez .... The singer
Fernando Benítez ....  Fernando

Japón is the first feature film of director Carlos Reygadas, who recently released his second film, Battle in Heaven. This is the film he made his name with, where he developed his signature style of long shots and hyper-realistic, unglamorous sex scenes. I decided to watch this film as I enjoyed his second film at the recent New Zealand International Film Festival in Wellington.

Reygadas works best with long, open shots, countryside, travel, and people’s faces. It becomes almost an immersive experience in a way that so much theatre is not. But the counterpoint of this style is that the natural tempo of the film is slow, and with Japón’s running time hitting 126 minutes I believe it is far too long. His later work, Battle in Heaven, which follows a similar style is 45 minutes shorter and this is one of the reasons it is a far more watchable film.

Death is apparently the purpose of the male lead’s (Alejandro’s) journey, and he has chosen for some reason to withdraw to a nearly inaccessible valley in the country. Why? Well, perhaps he is ashamed and wishes to be detached from what he knows before he ends his life. But he is quickly immersed into the activity of the village, into the arguments, to take sides. Perhaps negating in some ways the reason for choosing the valley. He works to right what he sees as a wrong, the destruction of the barn attached to Magdalena's (his landlady’s) house but to no avail. This is paralleled by Magdalena's attempts to pull Alejandro out of his funk. It is great when stories can be symmetrical!

Another neat thing about Reygadas's films is that the events are largely in isolation. Why does Alejandro want to commit suicide? Why is Magdalena isolated? Why does the barn owner want to remove the stone? It is never explained and the audience must focus just on the events of the film. Alejandro arrives and then reacts to his environment, his mission may or may not be achieved. As is expected with Reygadas there is a long, unromantic sex scene, and again, reflecting his style it seeks to shock, or at least portray something different, through the portrayal of an elderly woman having sex.

The acting style seemed more real than usual, almost documentary-like at some points, especially when many people were involved in a scene.  The male lead, Alejandro Ferretis, plays the role of a suicidal recluse well, almost too well really, he is almost too dull to care about, perhaps reflecting the almost self indulgent nature of his death-wish. Magdalena on the other hand is also dull, but because she is real, an older woman largely isolated and scorned by her village neighbours. Real people are often dull. The director reveals in the interview feature that he found her in a small market, she is the genuine article and I think this reflects some of the other casting decisions.

A director seeks to engage the audience, to shape their experience but I was left rather cold by Japón, I could not really engage in the relationship between Alejandro and Magdalena. Did I care that he wanted to die? No. Did I care that they became sexually involved? No. Instead I found myself more and more interested in the issue of the stone. Apparently well-dressed stone is a precious resource. I didn't understand the point well while the building was standing, then in the closing sequence the stone is scattered across the road, and it is beautiful, so square, so regular, the perfect building resource. In hindsight it was almost an insult to leave the stone blocks in the barn, and perhaps Magdalena understood this when Alejandro did not.

I would not recommend Japón to most viewers. Despite some really cool moments and cinematography the over-all package doesn’t seem to quite work, it perhaps was too ambitious to make this film as long as it is. The story does not warrant it, it seems contrived, even if the setting is not. As a study of how Reygadas’s style began it is interesting and for that I recommend also watching the interview feature.

Special Features
***1/2 out of *****

Aside from Spanish language support there are two features on the DVD, the trailer and an interview with the director.

The interview is reasonably interesting, running for 41 minutes, where the director progressively runs through the various facets of the film, the actors, the cinematography, his background etc. It is worth watching as he explains what he intended the message and themes to be, while discussing in some detail film and sound techniques that he used in the production. Interestingly, this was the first feature film that the majority of the crew, including the director had worked on, prior to this they had worked on short films together.

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