In case you’ve been living under a rock, or save yourself the tribulations of social media, there’s a lot of emphasis and discussion on how we present ourselves online. From photoshop oversights revealing celebrities’ doctored photos, to studios made up to look like the interiors of private jets for influencers to show off regarding trips that never were. It’s become a hot topic as everyone and their mothers now share photos for the world to see, but there’s always been makeup, lighting, and multiple pictures taken, to ensure we only see “the best” version. This exploration of how we present ourselves is explored thoroughly, if not too subtly, in Takeshi Kushida’s debut feature-length film Woman of the Photographs.
Hideki Nagai plays Kai, a pretty much silent protagonist who runs a photography studio and touches up pictures for clients. These clients include a funeral director who requests photos of the recently deceased to be displayed at funerals, and a young woman who wants heavily edited photos of herself for matchmaking purposes. Kai doesn’t really talk on screen, but due to characters’ reactions, we’re led to believe that he does converse. Making the character mute for the audience laces the emphasis on the film’s visual poetry, of which there is much. It’s a suitably stunning film that captures the mundanity of life in surprisingly beautiful ways.
On an excursion to the woods, Kai is surprised by a woman, Kyoko (Itsuki Otaki), falling from a tree. She was attempting to take a photograph for her social media account, and ends up with a deep cut across her chest. Kai takes her to a pharmacy, and then to his studio, where he takes pictures and erases the wound. As their awkward relationship develops, Kyoko soon finds that it is her pictures with the scar that get her more attention and praise, and she soon starts to make it a feature.
Nagai and Otaki are fantastic in the lead roles. They compliment the painful quietness of the film’s tone and neither give too much away. Nagai captures awkwardness, while keeping a bubbling and unnerving intensity below the surface, while Otaki seems to exude confidence while also channelling insecurity and loneliness. Much like the edited photographs, even their personalities are covering up deeper characteristics. The subtlety of their performances is sometimes quashed by the visual flair that Kushida lavishes over the story. Often it works and comes across as haunting and dreamlike, but sometimes it undermines the slow, quiet nature of the film. Kai has a pet praying mantis, and of course we have no need for an explanation of the predictable metaphorical symbolism that this hints towards.
Woman of the Photographs is immensely powerful in its quaintness. It brings odd and questionable feelings towards the surface thanks to great performances and cinematography that leaves each frame as its own photograph. As for its belonging at Frightfest? It’s certainly chilling in its reflection of acceptance and desire in the modern world, but as more of an internal downer than anything fantastical or scary. Still, there are some moments which tease a connection to body horror and more metaphysical wonders.
Woman of the Photographs was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest Halloween.
Woman of the Photographs
Summary
A chilling reflection of acceptance and desire in the modern world.
