"Hai!" (Japanese Story (DVD))

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	Japanese Story (DVD)
Date:	24/01/07 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, finely told

Disadvantages: Perhaps a prolonged ending

What we have here is a tale of two opposites who meet, dislike each other, fall in love, and that's it. It's been done many times before, in many different ways, but none quite like Japanese Story.

She, Sandy, is a brash, brazen geologist. "Large arse, blue eyes" as she's described in the film. Short crop of hair, something of an attitude problem. Even when she's at home of an evening she hardly relaxes - just puts the most basic meal together - beans from the pan, with lettuce thrown at toast.

He is a rich, smart, somewhat uptight Japanese chap. His English is good enough, but he hardly says much to begin with apart from a ubiquitous "Hai!", which can mean almost anything he likes, it seems. He seems to be the stereotypical Japanese businessman, whose kow-towing has grown into a ridiculous business card swapping ceremony.

He also might have a stereotypical attitude to women, for all we know. It falls on her to drive him from place to place in the outback, to look at mines, offices, places where nice rocks came from... She knows this isn't a good idea, and often tells him so, but ends up stuck with the job.

And, before long, they end up with the car stuck in the sand in the middle of absolutely nowhere. From here the two polar opposites begin to stick to each other, and you might want to try and guess the rest...

With this widescreen DVD an awful lot of the scenery looks far too small - the cinema must have been a great place to view this film. But even on the small screen certain elements come through. For the director hasn't focussed on the red and green outback as much as two excellent performances.

Toni Collette, still standing her ground as an actress for directors who want an actress instead of a star, is superb. Her character goes through a huge journey in this film - and nothing like the out-of-love to in-love trip you might get in a romcom. Every emotion is shown brilliantly with her face, from a sallow mouth (meaning pretty much anything - "Hai!") to her eyes. When the couple finally get together there's an intensity in her gaze on him you'd be lucky to find in real life, let alone in Hollywood.

Gotaro Tsunashima as Hiromitsu is an excellent find. You won't know the name, and it was his first film, but his performance is just as good, even if perhaps seemingly a little easier - quieter, less showy, and so on - just like the character. (He has also been described as very good looking.)

It is pretty much a two-hander, but all the characters in the background are fine. There's the friends - sorry, colleagues - Sandy has in the various offices, and other people who get involved on the return from the trip into the desert. An added depth is given by the cameo of a boatman who describes how the Australians tend to feel about the Japanese, but race politics is pretty much left out of the story.

What story there is is of a much higher class than the usual romcom effort. Alison Tilson, with her first major screenplay, measures it just right, especially with the forceful characters coming together. Details are delivered at the right times - such as Hiro's connections back home. The two characters barely touch until half-way through the film, and when they do start it seems a little too late.

This is a bit of a weepie, by the way.

Tilson's regular colleague, Sue Brooks - again, nothing of hers will have come your way before - is of course helped by a good cast and good scenery, but does an excellent job. If memory serves, some of the critics weren't too keen on the film's seeming simplicity and opposites attract storyline, but bah to them. The last section might be a little too slow and long, but otherwise there's nothing to fault. The humour is finely balanced; the music very memorable but never forced upon you.

Japanese Story is a great tale, told not by idiots at all, and signifying a lot - a major future for the makers if all goes well.

The DVD comes, as said, in widescreen, with three audio set-ups available. The commentary comes in the set-up section of menu, and not the extras, for some reason. This features the author, director and producer all commenting, in a far too cosy and friendly way - there's no edge to the opinion, no surprise in the information.

The same three women appear in a filmed Q&A session. This, plus the one deleted scene - also with optional voiceover for a brief detail on why it was dropped - and the trailer, all give the whole plot of the film away, but you wouldn't want to be watching them first anyway - and most probably not for a second time either.

All this means that the film is just as well watched when broadcast, as when bought, but it's not exactly dear - £4 on amazon now. It'd be a great one to show off your huge plasma screen with, should you be lucky enough. But then, it's a great one full stop.


Is this disc recommended? Hai!

Summary: Toni Collette in sterling outback effort