This film has most of the elements to make a great film, but it doesn't quite pull them together. The acting, characters, cinematography, costuming, and audio are all quite good. Scenes of Tokyo were sort of interesting for someone who has not been there. The problem is that the script isn't strong and the editing needs more work. The first hour is painfully slow. The first hour's content could fit in 20 minutes, and the rest is repetition and poring over minutiae. We don't need to see 40 minutes of scrubbing toilets; we understand what that's all about.
The film picks up at about 65 minutes in, and from there the pace is quick enough to sustain an interest. We then see that the main character has a lot going on inside. Finally, the last few minutes contain the emotional climax, but unfortunately, the plot has run out, and we don't get to see it blossom.
The effect is like an unfinished project that could be given to an advanced film seminar, with instructions to make this better and more understandable. This film was made by a team of German and Japanese staff, but here is a case where there is no synergy. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. One could defend the result in saying that the action is symbolic, rather than articulate. But, that would only work if it used an understood set of symbols. It's not clear that the symbolism here even fits into a vocabulary of Japanese symbols, let alone a symbolism familiar to other cultures.
If you really have nothing else to do for 2+ hours, this could be entertaining. But, if you have a chance to so something interesting this evening already, do that and skip this film. You won't be missing much.
The film picks up at about 65 minutes in, and from there the pace is quick enough to sustain an interest. We then see that the main character has a lot going on inside. Finally, the last few minutes contain the emotional climax, but unfortunately, the plot has run out, and we don't get to see it blossom.
The effect is like an unfinished project that could be given to an advanced film seminar, with instructions to make this better and more understandable. This film was made by a team of German and Japanese staff, but here is a case where there is no synergy. The whole is less than the sum of its parts. One could defend the result in saying that the action is symbolic, rather than articulate. But, that would only work if it used an understood set of symbols. It's not clear that the symbolism here even fits into a vocabulary of Japanese symbols, let alone a symbolism familiar to other cultures.
If you really have nothing else to do for 2+ hours, this could be entertaining. But, if you have a chance to so something interesting this evening already, do that and skip this film. You won't be missing much.