This year's online version of the Nippon Connection presented the new film by Kaizo Hayashi. “Bolt” deals with the Fukushima disaster using an experimental cinematic concept. Divided into three episodes, it offers three unequal parts in form and content.
Bolt is screening at Nippon Connection
The setting of the first part is in one of the reactors of the nuclear plant. A group of five workers and engineers have the task to tighten a bolt causing the leak. The instructions are clear; no one should expose himself more than one minute to the scene. A longer exposition will be life-threatening. But if the bolt is not fixed, the reactor could explode. This is why one of the engineers overdoes it, still finally not being able to solve the problem. Then, as we all know, the explosion eventually occurred.
The second and third episodes follow solely this former engineer. He now gets along with some smaller jobs. For example, he helps cleaning up the house of an old man located in the evacuation zone in Fukushima. From time to time, he gets an official mission still related to the nuclear plant. But we learn that, in the meantime, his own radioactivity has reached a scaring level.
It is interesting that the director wrote and directed all the three episodes, but each of them has a different style. Each part evokes a different atmosphere. Actually, Hayashi filmed them separately in different years, from 2015 to 2017. What all of them have in common is the main actor. Masatoshi Nagase has the role of this taciturn and somehow mysterious hero. He seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. Even though on the story level the film lacks of rigor and pace, Nagase's performance definitely stands out.
“Bolt” is not the first movie to deal with Fukushima. It is difficult to find an original approach, without drifting into too much pathos. The way the film shows the catastrophe on itself has some highlights. The bolt the men have to fix is attached to a construction that reminds of the form of an octopus. At the centre there is a body and tubes like arms spread in all directions. We get the impression that there is something alive in the reactor, a bit of a monster, actually.
The visual concept of this episode is impressive. The men are wearing suits that resemble that of astronauts. Their helmet is illuminated and underlines the spacial atmosphere. The long corridor they have to pass through and the different sluices could as well be on a spaceship. It is certain that the director put a big effort in thinking of the details of this experience. This is also the case for the sound effects of the movie, that are very suggestive. You hear alternately the heavy breath of the men and the sound of metal rattle.
Still, at some point the dramaturgical elements are repeated a bit too often. This is why the whole narrative gets redundant. The first and second episodes are the most convincing. The sound effects in the second episode are also stunning. While the second part is very touching, the third lacks relevance. It has a more ironic and very surreal tone that doesn't really fit with the rest. All show the wish of the director to experiment with the means of film making. Lighting, framing and sound mix to a visually very well crafted film.
The loose story and script are not as important as the aesthetics of “Bolt”. It is more an art film, than a feature with a narrative concept.
