Kao (2000)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Junji Sakamoto

Writers:

Junji Sakamoto (writer)
Isamu Uno (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 August 2000 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Awards:

22 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Naomi Fujiyama	...	Masako Yoshimura
Etsushi Toyokawa	...	Hiroyuki Nakagami
Michiyo Ookusu	...	Ritsuko Nakagami
Riho Makise	...	Yukari Yoshimura
Jun Kunimura	...	Kenta Kariyama
Kanzaburo Nakamura	...	Toshirô Yamamoto (as Kankuro Nakamura)
Misako Watanabe	...	Mrs Yoshimura
Ittoku Kishibe	...	Eiichi Hanada
Koichi Sato	...	Akira Ikeda
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ai Saotome	...	Sakiko Kariyama
Hajime Tsukumo	...	Train Conductor
Shungiku Uchida	...	Coffee Shop Woman

Also Known As:

Face (International: English title)

Runtime:

Canada:124 min | Hong Kong:123 min | Spain:123 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

New Zealand:R18 | Hong Kong:III

Company:

Eiga Gekijo

Knock Down, Drag Out

Misako, the fleeing main character who inadvertently kills her own sister directly after their overworked mother drops dead, struck me as mentally challenged right from the start. She is not "right." Even her walk is unstable. Psychologists would have a field day with her lack of self-esteem and poor self-image. She seems to have been the family dummy from the word Go. Yet, she is toiling dutifully away as the movie opens, sewing endless seams on zoo-ey fabric covered with jungle animals among whom she picnics in her imagination. Misako's demeanor is roughshod and instinctual, and her outcries are in such a low register, from the diaphragm, that it spelled mental illness to this viewer at least. Why, on two occasions, when unwelcome men press sexual demands upon her, does Misako encourage them once they wain by saying "My body is on fire!"? I had a difficult time following the various supporting characters,especially the men. Who was whom? From whence did they come?They confused me completely. If you enjoy watching a hard-pressed Japanese woman, who strangled her sister, running for her life through various gritty areas of Japan, colliding on her wobbly bicycle with strangers, remaining mute in circumstances that seem to require speech, pratfalling flat-out upon the ground several times in awkward flailings about, doing swimming motions on dry land like a maniac - then by all means rent this confusing flick. The only good thing is the realism imparted by the evidently well-respected Japanese actress Naomi Fujiyama.