Following the excellent “Hana”, Mai Nakanishi presents another stylized horror short, that has already won an award from Tampere.
“Swallow“ is screening at Across Asia Film Festival
The film begins with Mimi, a young woman, taking the elevator in a luxurious apartment complex, where another woman, Xue Lan has invited her to have lunch. It is soon revealed that both are actresses, and about to star in the same movie. Xue Lan, however, despite her seemingly polite demeanor, is actually condescending and uppity, flaunting her relationship with the producer and director to her co-star, as much as the difference in their status within the industry. Mimi smiles through it, but eventually a sharp comeback leaves her lips, hitting the other woman right where it hurts: the fact that she seems much older than her guest. The discussion leads to the second part of the movie, where Mimi has invited Xue Lan in an underground restaurant of sorts, where the recipe of her everlasting youthful skin is to be revealed. It turns out, however, that this is not exactly your regular gourmet cuisine.
Starting from the beginning, Mai Nakanish frames her thriller excellently, creating a sense of tension that derives from the violin music, the snarky comments of Xue Lan and the mysterious smile of Mimi, who manages to emit danger even if her demeanor seems completely different. Another aspect of the movie, pretentiousness, is also revealed from the start, as exhibited by the wine, the red-polished fingernails of Xue Lan and her overall attitude of snarky politeness, and the gourmet food, an aspect that actually carries on in the second part of the movie. in general, it is easy to say that the job done in the cinematography by Wei Tz-Yang is top notch, with the framing, as exhibited in scenes like the view from the balcony door, the entrance to the restaurant and the very finale, and the coloring, being of the highest level.
Also of interest is the way Nakanishi presents the antitheses of her two protagonists. Mimi is dressed in a western attire while Xue Lan in a traditional kimono, one is calm and the other snarky, one is there just for the meal while the other tries to ascertain her dominance, one extends an invitation to a penthouse on a skyscraper, the other to an underground restaurant. Their differences is actually one of the main elements of the narrative, with the finale highlighting the fact and who the winner is in the most eloquent and stylistic fashion. At the same time, the comments about the eternal search for youth and beauty, which is particularly evident in the movie industry and even more so for women, the competitiveness of the field, and the way stars look down to the rest of the cast in movies are also well presented, adding even more to the context of the short. These aspects also benefit the most by the acting, with Han Ning as Mimi and Dai-Ying Liu as Xue Lan depicting them with gusto and a sense of measure that fits the overall aesthetics perfectly.
The combination of horror, well-handled pretentiousness, subtle sexuality in the way all women act like femme fatales, to a point at least, and the excellent cinematography deem “Swallow” a truly excellent movie, one that is evident that it could easily become a feature, something I eagerly await from Nakanishi in the near future.
