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.