I think there must be some kind of mistake because when I found A Snake of June, it was in the horror section of the TLA next to some better known Japanese classics of the genre such as The Ring and Pulse so I wasn’t entirely out of my mind to assume that this film was going to follow in a similar vein, which I thought would be perfect to help diversify my 31 Days of Horror countdown to Halloween. What I got this evening, very much to my surprise, is what I could best describe as ‘artsy horror’, which despite not being what I had in mind is fine by me and, in any case, I am relatively sure that this site has already been condemned as ‘artsy’ anyway.
A Snake of June can not be directly compared to any film I can think of and thus can hold the proud rare title of being truly original. I suppose the easiest way to describe my experience in this film is that it is what Hostel would have looked like if it had been a good movie, which is a rather funny comparison considering that A Snake of June has literally no more blood than a nose bleed in the entire film. Director Shynia Tsukamoto executes to almost perfection the extremely difficult task of making sexuality uncomfortable without going to extremes by the way of Salo; rather, he is able to take us on a journey into a nightmare –like fantasy which will make you squirm in your seat at times.
In short, Rinko and Shigehiko are a seemingly happily married couple save for their sexuality, which will be brought into question upon the arrival of a stranger who interrupts their lives via a telephone he mails to Rinko. If you are thinking Eyes Wide Shut by this point, you aren’t off track, but be careful to rent this film if you think you are going to fall on an erotic descent into people’s dark and sexy fantasies because where Kubrick’s masterpiece can be seen as an exposé of sexuality to the backdrop of a fairly realistic New York City, Tsukamoto’s A Snake of June chooses a much darker tone mixing surrealism with sexuality.
The background to this film is one of its many qualities, the entire film is set to the back drop of a mysterious and never identified Japanese city where it never seems to stop raining and the entire population exists in an almost dream-like state. Couple this heavy atmosphere with the choice to film the entire movie in a monochrome blue and you have the stuff bad dreams are made of. Some of the set pieces are also astoundingly impressive, where most of the horrific sadism takes place- terrible to look at but only because you can feel your ego and superego tearing at your brain in a battle for how to react creating a discomfort which is difficult to explain. I find this point particularly interesting because the movie is, of course, rated R; but according to the MPAA this is only because of some nudity and ‘violence’ to which I can only reply ‘what violence?’ This film is as calm as a kitty cat and yet showing so little has caused us to feel so much that it seems we can only define it as ‘violence’.
This is the exact reason why Tsukamoto deserves so much praise here: cinema is a visual media, designed to show you things and if in traditional horror the ultimate compliment is to make you turn away in fear or disgust, I am not sure what kind of film you are trying to make because accomplishing that goal seems relatively simple. What Tsukamoto does so well is make us feel the conflict of wanting to turn away but feeling somehow unable to do so.
A Snake In June is also pleasing in a number of other ways: the character development is spot on and the villain has a perfectly reasonable logic which ultimately makes you sympathize with him if not flat out feel kind of bad for him at the end, blurring the almost always crystal clear line of good and evil in a film of this genre, and the ending has a surprisingly touching conclusion which is redeeming though at the same time wonderfully open to interpretation.
The acting is air tight, the music works for the little bit that it is there and, on a final note, sound effects get little credit these days but it should be said that they keep the atmosphere where it should be in this film and if you are into those sort of things, this is a great example of a film that uses the ‘little details’ to accomplish its desired effect.
I originally was going to say that A Snake of June was a good film though perhaps not exactly a Halloween film but upon further reflection, if Halloween is supposed to be somewhat about dabbling in the dark side, with things that go ‘bump’ in the night, and coming face to face with our fears, I don’t see why this movie couldn’t qualify. When I think of my worst dreams from a bad day in hell, I remember them in Tsukamotovision.
Either way, A Snake In June is a solid film and should not be missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment