Chiwawa

Throughout the film, I kept having this feeling that it was a work of two very different people with opposite points of view. The premise and the storyline is by someone who clearly has critical yet empathic statements to make about youth, liberal capitalism, superficial acquaintanceship and information culture -presented in an interesting sort of coming-of-age angle. And then we have the director, whose decisions regarding cinematography, editing and sound/music clearly feel like coming from an opposite spectrum. Flashy, immature, shallow, cringe-inducing - a straight-up non-ironical embodiment of the culture that is being critiqued, complete with item dance numbers, colorful mixed media collages, extended slow-motion exploitative shots of nubile young bodies. There are (always have been) many Japanese directors who know how to critically show all of this stuff, without glorifying the very things they are being critical about. But this film is not one of them. There are, though, occasional moments where it almost feels like it is very close to reaching a balance, a sudden welcome shift of mood, but it never quite gets there. The performance of the cast is commendable, given that they were being directed by someone who clearly does not have enough maturity and experience.