Eiji Uchida is a filmmaker who can’t be tied down. His film The Specials, which will soon play at Fantasia, is a movie that must be seen to be believed. In the meantime, I’m checking out Night Flower, which will soon screen at New York’s own film festival, Japan Cuts. It’s more of a social crime drama about poverty and desperation, following people on their last legs who are trying to escape their circumstances.
Keiko Kitagawa plays Natsuki, a woman desperate to escape the grip of a local drug boss who has her more tightly wrapped around his finger than she’d like to admit. The film is unflinching. It shows a side of society rarely seen in film, let alone in animation, through a protagonist hoping to find freedom.
Misato Morita plays another figure who needs to find her own way out. And I’m not alone in finding the chemistry between Kitagawa and Morita key to understanding this film. She plays Tamae, a boxer who wants to get back to the top. When they meet, it’s to sell narcotics for their bosses. These men don’t want to dirty themselves, so they leave it up to the women to do the job.
Their relationship shows the humanity needed to prove that, together, they can carve out a freedom neither could find alone. At the same time, this film won’t be for everyone. The emotional investment is heavy, and you have to understand why these two women matter. This quick review is likely a sharp contrast to what Uchida’s other film can potentially represent. But until I see more, what I say isn’t for certain. I’m in research mode to learn why his stories matter.
What seems to resonate more is for those viewers who appreciate emotionally demanding dramas in the vein of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s work, or the grittier side of contemporary Japanese cinema. Instead of a fast-paced crime thriller, what’s presented here goes beyond slice of life. Some may call Uchida a punk-to-mainstream Japanese director, and if that’s true, the films he makes deserve further viewing just to make sense of it all.
3½ Stars out of 5