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Film Review: Piercing (2018) by Nicolas Pesce

An adaptation mostly addressed to Hollywood viewers who enjoy a bit of graphic violence in their movies, but have never read the book

Our effort to review all the novels and movies deriving from the work of Haruki and for “The Two Murakamis Project” inevitably brings us across non-Asian productions, and in this case upon Hollywood. Let us see how “” was “translated” in American cinema.

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As in the book, the main protagonist, in this case Reed, is a man whose pervasion with using an ice pick to pierce people, becomes evident from the beginning, as we watch him moving around his newborn baby, holding the instrument in his hand. His wife interrupts him, and the depiction of a sociopathic man who has managed to transform his perversion perfectly comes to the fore. This sense is intensified even more as we watch him planning in detail how to kill a prostitute, before his preparations take him to a hotel room, and eventually, face-to-face with an S&M sex worker, Jackie. As the latter is proved equally perverted, the narrative takes another turn towards an inevitable clash, while the borders of reality and sociopathic imagination eventually disappear.

The adaptation of Ryu Murakami's original was a difficult task to begin with, particularly since a rather large part of the book's story is communicated through the protagonists' thoughts and their inevitable clash. Instead of finding a way to depict that on the screen, however, Nicholas Pesce decided to exclude it almost completely. Apart from this, the movie has some things working for it, and some not.

The retro style, which extends in all parts of the production, including the rather artificial sets of block of flats in the background and the fonts of the titles in the beginning, is quite good, and adds to the overall aesthetics. The same applies to the presentation of a number of the grotesque incidents narrated in the novel, which are depicted in all their brutally graphic glory, despite the fact that the coloring somewhat tones down this sense. Both these aspects benefit the most by Zack Galler's cinematography, which captures all the aforementioned through a claustrophobic approach that intensifies the thriller elements of the narrative. The same applies to Sofia Subercaseaux's economical editing, that communicates the sense of disorientation resulting from the paranoia of the two protagonists in the best fashion. Mia Wasikowska as Jackie is convincing in the part, although Pesce decided to focus on her quirky side more than her perverse one. Lastly, the ending, even if different than the book, is quite entertaining.

On the other hand, the contextual richness of the original and the clash between the S and the M (as in S&M) are almost non-existent, with Pesce choosing an approach that can only be described as tamer, and eye-candy like, even if in exploitation terms. The concept of losing the grip with reality is mostly focused on Reed, instead of both, something that also faults the narrative, while the depiction of a creature that seems to have jumped out of “Alien” is truly misplaced, even if visually impressive. Lastly, fails completely to present his character's multileveled perversion and its roots, in a role that demanded a level of acting close to Christian Bale's in “American Psycho”. The fact that he is the main protagonist faults the movie significantly, essentially being the element that does not allow it to move much beyond mediocrity.

Without taking into consideration the level of adaptation, “Piercing” is not a bad film and has many interesting elements going on. However, due to its issues, in the end emerges as a movie that is chiefly addressed to Hollywood viewers who enjoy a bit of graphic violence in their movies, but have never read the book. Personally, I would love to see someone like Takashi Miike or Murakami himself adapting the book.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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