The relationship between technology and the self is something that has become more and more relevant in recent years. Technology has the ability to connect us, to aid us, but also it can alienate us. It is something that has been prevalent in Japanese horror in particular since the days of the J-Horror boom of the late 90s/early 2000s. Films like Ring, One Missed Call, and especially Pulse, all used technology to express anxieties about the world. Now we have the twisty techno-thriller, My Mother’s Eyes, the second feature from director Takeshi Kushida.
Mother Hitomi (Akane Ono) and daughter Eri (Mone Shitara) are cellists, living for their music above all else. When Hitomi’s deteriorating eyesight causes a terrible accident that leaves Eri paralysed, she accepts an opportunity to test a new contact lens that will enable her to see again, but that will also allow others to see through her eyes. She uses it to help Eri experience the world through her, but the doctor who gave her the lenses might have less than altruistic reasons for helping…
The eyes are the windows to the soul is the old saying. So when your eyes become someone else’s, whose soul is really behind them? Kushida’s previous film, Woman of the Photographs, was by the nature of centring on a photographer, very much about views of self and a touch of voyeurism. That theme is continued here, and more effectively than Woman of the Photographs, which was well made, but not particularly memorable.
Even before the accident, we don’t know anything about Hitomi and Eri outside of music. The only non-music related thing we see Eri do is play with her VR machine, which later becomes the crux of Hitomi’s efforts to help Eri live vicariously through her. When Hitomi attempts to hook up with a guy via an app, her mind is still solely on her music. The two are not quite codependent, but there is definitely a strangeness to their dynamic, aspects of which become more apparent throughout the film. When Eri starts puppeteering her mother the two almost become blended, the barrier where one ends and the other begins becoming less defined. They are almost living one life in two bodies, but there is the question of whose life is it?
The muted colours and oddly blank spaces, very much an analogue to Hitomi’s character, are such that when we do get a burst of colour, it’s almost startling. It is something highlighted by the cinematography, leaving you feel at times detached in a way that seems deliberate. The soundtrack is unsurprisingly excellent for a story of musicians, and makes for a dramatic backdrop to the drama.
When Hitomi seeks out the doctor developing the lenses and is whisked away to his country house, My Mother’s Eyes takes on an aspect not unlike a Gothic story complete with the remote and beautiful house that hides many secrets. The doctor (Shusaku Uchida) is an aloof figure who operates mainly via his son Satoshi (Takuma Izumi), making for another strange parental dynamic running parallel to Hitomi and Eri’s. It is these puzzles of personal relationships that make up the meat of My Mother’s Eyes.
Things become particularly erratic in the last act (I’m not sure cello bows work that way), but not so much that it baffles, rather than intrigues. Some will find it ultimately unsatisfying, but there is a lot to examine in My Mother’s Eyes that is very rewarding. By looking at each individual part and appreciating them, they all come together to create a fascinating and at times haunting composition.
My Mother’s Eyes
Summary
A rewarding examination of parental bonds and humanity’s ever-growing reliance on technology, My Mother’s Eyes is a fascinating and haunting composition.
My Mother’s Eyes was reviewed at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2023.
