Kakera (A Piece of Our Life)
Haru (Hikari Mistushima), a college student, wakes up in her boyfriend's bed. He treats her like a piece of meat to take advantage of, or to make fun of, anytime he wants. She is too weak to stop the relationship and accepts any humiliation.
One day Haru, half-buried in oversized somber clothes, meets pretty, perky and sleek Riko (Eriko Nakamura) and is instantly fascinated. Riko is a medical prosthetist who has a knack to recognise people's traumas and an invincible desire to help them out. The two become friends, but shortly after Riko confesses that it's not friendship she's after, but love. Haru is torn between her stale boyfriend and her new girlfriend, sexual confusion add to her passiveness, once again she can't make a decision for herself. Until life, in the shape of a group of university mates, knocks on her door and Haru has no choice but to grow up...
The daughter of celebrated Japanese director Eiji Okuda, young Momoko Ando's debut (seen at Raindance Festival last year) is subtle and enjoyable albeit uneven. Whilst it describes female desire and homosexuality in a very delicate fashion, through quick glimpses at the protagonists' "pieces of life", its treatment of male characters is surprisingly clumsy and over the top: Haru's boyfriend quasi-rapes her as he watches real war scenes on TV - one would expect him to suddenly grow cloven hooves and red eyes.
Not having read the manga the film is taken from, "Love Vibes", it is hard to see whether this lack of balance belongs to the original story or it's a directorial choice.
The same doubt applies to the destiny of the supporting characters: the film opens with a few matter-of-fact sequences full of pleasant freshness as we are introduced to the Haru and Riko's everyday lives at home, at work, at school; but gradually, as the director chooses to concentrate on the increasingly clashing love story between the girls, realism slips in and out of sight and supporting characters gradually become thinner and thinner.
It seems that the subject was too complex for the director to handle properly, although she makes commendable efforts to keep all the elements under control: the photography is airy and crisp, the costumes often reflect the moods the girls are in.
But dialogues are sprinkled with metaphors that sometimes fall flat, like the obvious line "You shouldn't overeat the food you love" uttered by a friend of Haru's. James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins provides a bizarrely schizophrenic soundtrack that combines poppy cuteness and sudden explosions of distorted guitar.
All things considered, Kakera is full of good intentions - but these are watered down to a sometimes tedious two hours and weighed down by totally unnecessary sequences. Momoko Ando is probably a talented filmmaker, but she badly needs a merciless editor and a lesson in concision; a quality in which her father excels. Let's hope her sophomore effort confirms her skills.
Kakera at the ICA, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH on April 2nd
