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Japón

  • 20022002
  • RR
  • 2h 2m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
28,735
422
Japón (2002)
Drama
A painter from the big city goes to a remote canyon to commit suicide. To reach some calmness, he stays at the farmstead of Ascen, an old, religious woman. Although but a few words are spoke... Read allA painter from the big city goes to a remote canyon to commit suicide. To reach some calmness, he stays at the farmstead of Ascen, an old, religious woman. Although but a few words are spoken, love grows.A painter from the big city goes to a remote canyon to commit suicide. To reach some calmness, he stays at the farmstead of Ascen, an old, religious woman. Although but a few words are spoken, love grows.
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
28,735
422
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Carlos Reygadas
    • Writer
      • Carlos Reygadas
    • Stars
      • Alejandro Ferretis
      • Magdalena Flores
      • Yolanda Villa
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Carlos Reygadas
    • Writer
      • Carlos Reygadas
    • Stars
      • Alejandro Ferretis
      • Magdalena Flores
      • Yolanda Villa
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 46User reviews
    • 65Critic reviews
    • 76Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 16 wins & 10 nominations

    Photos79

    Japón (2002)
    Japón (2002)
    Japón (2002)
    Alejandro Ferretis in Japón (2002)
    Yolanda Villa in Japón (2002)
    Alejandro Ferretis and Magdalena Flores in Japón (2002)
    Magdalena Flores in Japón (2002)
    Alejandro Ferretis in Japón (2002)
    Magdalena Flores in Japón (2002)
    Alejandro Ferretis and Magdalena Flores in Japón (2002)
    Alejandro Ferretis in Japón (2002)
    Alejandro Ferretis, Magdalena Flores, and Yolanda Villa in Japón (2002)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Alejandro Ferretis
    Alejandro Ferretis
    • The man
    Magdalena Flores
    Magdalena Flores
    • Ascen
    Yolanda Villa
    Yolanda Villa
    • Sabina
    Martín Serrano
    • Juan Luis
    Rolando Hernández
    Rolando Hernández
    • The judge
    Bernabe Pérez
    • The singer
    Fernando Benítez
    • Fernando
    Carlo Reygadas Barquín
    • The hunter
    • Director
      • Carlos Reygadas
    • Writer
      • Carlos Reygadas
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Carlos Reygadas financed the initial shoot of $50,000 himself.
    • Alternate versions
      UK release has 58 seconds (2 scenes of actual animal cruelty) cut out in accordance with the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937.
    • Connections
      Featured in Ayacatzintla (2003)
    • Soundtracks
      Symphony no. 15, OP 141
      Composed by Dmitri Shostakovich

      Performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

      Conducted by Neeme Järvi

    User reviews46

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    Explores issues of man's loneliness
    Japon, a film by first-time director Carlos Reygadas, is a sensual meditation on death and the possibility of transformation in which a gaunt middle-aged man comes to a remote Mexican village with the stated purpose of killing himself. We are given no information as to his name or background except that we later surmise that he is a painter who has come from the city to seek solitude for his final act of self-abnegation. The man with no name and no past is the quintessential existential anti-hero, a character that could easily have wandered in from a Wim Wenders movie or a novel by Albert Camus.

    Reygadas has said that he admires spectators who go to the movies to experience life, not to forget about it. In Japon, Reygadas largely succeeds in engaging those who wish not to forget, showing nature in all its ragged beauty. His images of an unseen pig crying out as it being slaughtered, horses copulating while children laugh, and a bird being decapitated push viewers out of their comfort zone and challenge us to engage life at a deeper, more honest level, similar to the work of Bruno Dumont. Though I found parts of the film to be abrasive, I was pulled in by the stark beauty of the desert landscapes, the authenticity of its non-professional actors, and its willingness to explore issues of man's loneliness and relationship to the natural world.

    After an opening sequence on the freeway that, in its drone of dehumanized images, pays homage to Tarkovsky's Solaris, a tall man (nameless) with a weather-beaten face played by the late Alejandro Ferretis makes his way down the canyon to a small village in a remote part of Mexico. Limping with the aid of a cane, he tells a man offering directions to the canyon floor that his purpose in going to the remote village is to commit suicide. The man shrugs and tells him to get into the van. Since there are no hotels in the area, he is offered lodging in a barn close to an old woman's shack. The woman is named Ascen, short for Ascension which she says refers to Christ ascending into heaven without help.

    Japon is a work of mood and atmosphere; the director's static takes and long periods of silence achieve a tone of somber intensity. Ascen, remarkably played by 79-year old Magdalena Flores, is generous and loving, leaving her house guest confused and not sure that he knows what he wants. He fails at a suicide attempt and then settles in to the routine of living in the desert. He drinks Mescal and gets drunk in the village, smokes marijuana (offering some to the old lady), and masturbates while dreaming of a beautiful woman on the beach. It is only when Ascen's son-in-law attempts to cheat her out of her house that he comes alive and asks a strange favor of Ascen that made me decidedly uncomfortable.

    Little by little the depressed man seems to be engaging more in life and connecting with the people around him. Japon uses an amazing seven-minute circular tracking that employs both natural sound and the sublime music of Arvo Part's Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten to end the film on a note of transcendence. Although Japon is at times vague in its delineation of character and feels derivative of Kiarostami and Tarkovsky, it is a promising first effort and I am eager to follow this audacious director's career.
    helpful•44
    11
    • howard.schumann
    • Dec 20, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 4, 2003 (Mexico)
    • Countries of origin
      • Mexico
      • Spain
    • Language
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Japan
    • Production companies
      • No Dream Cinema
      • Mantarraya Producciones
      • Hubert Bals Fund
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $250,050 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $21,900
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $3,562
      • Mar 23, 2003
    • Gross worldwide
      • $206,784
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 2 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.88 : 1

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