[#268 Review]

A Dramedy for a Working Jill’s Day: A Stranger of Mine by Kenji Uchida

by Lee Hyeon - ock

  After a long day of work, I would have perhaps rather sat in front of the TV or gone to bed as early as possible, like a normal, exhausted working woman, than have been in the front row amongst VIPs and film celebrities (not as one of them, mind you, but as their translator) dozing off through various politicians’ addresses, award ceremonies and other formalities at the closing ceremony of the GIFF 2005.  My participation was not quite planned, and I was neither ready nor awake enough to appreciate or scrutinize every single scene and dialogue I was introduced to during the closing film, “A Stranger of Mine” by Kenji Uchida.  “Screened in the International Critics’ Week section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, ‘A Stranger of Mine’ exhibits the director’s delicate dramaturgy with three episodes that are precisely interwoven...”  For me, a “Jill” for whom films in general are just for fun, and not even a keen filmgoer who memorizes the filmographies of my favorite directors and actors, this simple introduction was already somewhat intimidating, especially when confronted with words like “critics,” “Cannes Film Festival,” and “delicate dramaturgy,” let alone the title itself -- not merely “A Stranger” or “The Stranger” but “A Stranger of Mine.”  Furthermore, my ignorance concerning this low-budget film and its young director, who had been unknown outside local indie film circles before his rather sudden entrance to mainstream film society through the Cannes festival, weighed upon my already-onerous duty to review it.  This lack of knowledge, at the same time, automatically put the “meaning-building circuit” in my mind in operation.  Na?ve to the normal jargon of film critics, however, I had to rely solely on my literature-trained mind?if it was still in existence after a year or more working “outside the track.”

  My “reading” of the film was launched with the first bits of information from the introduction to the film through screening them against my “map of meanings” by which I understand the world, and which might not be that different from many Jacks’ or Jills’.  The film was invited to be shown at Cannes, “the world’s most prestigious film festival” (according to Wikipedia); would this, then, be a guarantee of its “quality” and “popularity” in the mainstream sense?  The “critics” obviously liked it, and gave it the Young Critics’ Award.  I was not sure how to interpret this without knowing the young critics’ criteria, but, would their approval imply a certain “edginess” to the film?  It was also given the SACD Screenwriting Award, suggesting the plot would involve more than a suave, handsome hero saving the world from “The Axis of Evil,” (whoever they are), unless the same screenwriting award was also presented to the “007 series” at some point in its history. 

  From my observations, the audience at the closing ceremony seemingly had no difficulties following the “precisely interwoven” episodes, as the spectators laughed and clapped occasionally, and later loudly applauded the film as the credits reeled by.  The laughing, at the same time, was not a reflex action to mere slapstick or farcical action, but seemed to be a recognition of the unexpected exposures of “realities” that the director intended to deliver from differing points of view.  Consequently, now I cannot imagine any better way to deliver these realities than how the director chose to, through the genre of film.  Had it been through written media, it would not have been as neat and accessible as it was through film.  In a word, the simple introduction, which I originally thought was a collection of clich?s to impress the audience when I first heard it parroted by a beautiful young singer (not that I didn’t enjoy her performance as a MC), did indeed now make sense.  For that reason, I found myself having difficulties searching for something other than my own clich?s to package and deliver the same contents in the form of a film review.

  Leaving the technical analyses of the film to more serious critics and film connoisseurs, I would like to cautiously build “a” meaning of the film, embedded in its title and embodied through its structure.  The title, “A Stranger of Mine,” can be read as a simple re-working of the phrase “a friend of mine.”  The fun of this re-working lies in that nobody would actually call a real stranger “a stranger of mine” as they would call a friend “a friend of mine.”  There is no stranger who is one’s “own,” and he/she would be no more a stranger once you could call him/her “yours.”  This contradictory joke, however, seems to carry the realities that the director wanted to expose to his audience: “a friend of mine” ironically may be “a stranger of mine,” or vice versa, as with Miyata and his ex-girl friend Ayumi, or Miyata and his best friend Kanda. “One is alone in the world” as a dumped fianc?, Maki, who later “deceives” Miyata, repeats to herself.  By depicting the same event through different narratives from the differing perspectives of each character, the director reveals to the audience a series of closely enmeshed relationships between strangers and seemingly distant incidents, as well as the reality of alienation between close friends and couples.  Everybody can be a stranger to each other with totally different narratives, and multiple realities different from one another can coexist among strangers. 

  As I look back on the evening of the closing ceremony, an episode comes up to mind that has a certain linkage to what I mentioned above: The violinist Eugene Park gave a rather stunning and energetic performance for the closing of the film festival.  While he was performing, I could see from the corner of my eye an old woman shouting at the young violinist, and assumed that she was some over-enthusiastic, aging groupie or a slightly deranged fan.  To the excitement of the audience, the violinist leapt off the stage and hopped amongst his cheering fans--the “genius performance” that I had often heard of via the media. Then, suddenly, I noticed the older woman yelling at him, “Eugene, bow, bow!”  Hearing her, the “genius” turned around and bowed to the audience.  Then, as he headed backstage again, the woman now gestured to him, shouting “Eugene, kiss!  Kiss, Eugene!”  Dutifully, he turned back to the audience and blew kisses to his fans.  Only then did it dawn on me! The “old woman,” the deranged fan, was his mother!  Immediately, the whole image that I had of this “young genius musician” collapsed, and I could see only a big-headed, cheerful boy, manipulated like a puppet by his hyper-energetic mom.  I have no intention to besmirch his reputation as a great musician, or even insist that I am revealing a big secret about him.  I do not know whether they always work together like that, or what he is like in reality.  All I want to say is that this episode is essentially what an audience of “A Stranger of Mine” will experience, especially in the possibilities of multiple narratives and realities that can often be encountered, perhaps unnoticed, in our daily lives.  

  With the film’s numerous comic touches, such as the Yakuja boss who strives to “save face” and manage his organization through its financial difficulties by putting on a show with bundles of fake yen, and all the other actors’ exquisite performances, this dramedy did not seem to leave the audience in the dry or dismal reality of existentialism, but in a pleasant and subtle mood of awakening.  In the end, it was quite a good film to finish off my hard-working day, and let this Jill tumble down the hill?to bed.