Takamasa Oe has become worldwide famous as the co-writer of “Drive My Car”, but also has a noticeable career as a filmmaker, with titles like “Nice to Meet You” and “Athlete” being the ones that stand out. Now, he comes up with his newest work which he has both directed and written along with Kaito Kikuchi, “Whale Bones”, a dark story that explores the world of social apps.
“Whale Bones” is screening at Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival
One day, Mamiya is informed by his girlfriend that there is someone else in her life, essentially breaking up with him on the spot, and to his shattering surprise. Mamiya cannot handle the whole thing and falls into depression, a status that a colleague who seems to be the closest thing he has to a friend, immediately realizes and tries to help him. His suggestion is to check a dating app, which is what brings Mamiya meeting Aska, a highschool girl who eventually sleeps with him. To his surprise, though, when he gets out of the bathroom, the girl is dead after committing suicide. In his desperation, he decides to take the body and bury it in the woods, but the body disappears. In the midst of the chaos, Mamiya meets a group of individuals who deal with an app called Mimi, who presents videos of people on it only when someone uses it in the particular location the video was taken in. Rin, one of the influencers of Mimi, explains to him that Aska was also one, and the people dealing with the app are searching for her.
Takamasa Oe directs a movie that unfolds in three narrative axes. The first one has to do with loneliness and depression, and the way people try to cope with them through technology. In that fashion, dating apps and SNS essentially create a world people who suffer from them can live in, particularly in Japan where both the particular psychological statuses and the addiction to technology are quite prevalent. Oe shows how technology can be a solution on occasion, but how the obsession with it can essentially destroy people's lives, in the aspect that is the main source of drama in the movie.
The second one revolves around the mystery surrounding Aska and her disappearance, with the way the people who deal with Mimi search for her connecting it with the previous element. Her presence, that actually looms over the protagonist, is somewhat confusingly implemented, since on occasion Mamiya begins to think that maybe the whole thing was just a figment of his imagination. Oe plays with the concept, in a way, though, that becomes annoying after a fashion, with the conclusion of it being the apogee of this issue.
The last axis revolves around Mamiya and the way all the aforementioned events and concepts shape him, in a downward spiral with very few bright moments, that also showcases how companies deal with their employees and how mental illness has become a major issue for the country. Motoki Ochiai is quite convincing in the role of a man whose situation has made him unstable and even violent, but the casting is not particularly great, since Oe presents him as a man beautiful girls like intently, and his appearance and overall demeanor does not justify the concept. In the same fashion, Mayuu Yokota as Rin emits a charisma that fills the screen every time she appears in it while ano as Aska is entertainingly mysterious, with her performance also benefiting the most by her distinct voice.
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Shin Yonekura's cinematography is probably the best aspect of the movie, with a number of night scenes and the way he captures the meeting points of Mimi's users resulting in a series of images that are bound to stay on the mind of the viewer. The noirish sense the movie emits on occasion is also dictated by his excellent work. Michihiko Nishiyama's editing results in a fitting mid-tempo, but the overall writing does not help with the flow of the movie, which ends up overextending its welcome, even at 88 minutes.
“Whale Bones” is a beautiful film as presented through the cinematography and the overall appearance of the main female characters, and some of the comments Oe makes are well presented. At the same time though, the lack of any kind of tension for such a type of movie is an issue, while as a whole, and just like the protagonist, the film does not seem to go anywhere in particular.
