Written by Eiji Uchida and Hideki Shishido, in a rare case for such a film not to be based on a novel, “Matched” is a thriller that takes on online dating, through a horror/thriller approach that becomes more intense the more the story unfolds.
Matched is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Rinka is a young wedding planner who has very little luck with romance, as the fact that she is planning the marriage of a teacher she had a crush on forever as the movie begins, eloquently highlights. She still lives with her father, while her mother has abandoned them when she was a child, something that has left a trauma to of them. One day, a colleague of hers, Naomi, encourages her (as in she does it herself) to sign up for a dating app, Will Will. The latter's efforts bring Rinka a 97% match, with a man who goes by the name Tom. At the same time, the people behind Will Will, who are trying to boost their reputation after a series of couples who met on the app ended up slaughtered, are initiating a cooperation with the two girl's company.
If you like Matched, check the interview with the director
During the initial meeting, Rinka meets Tsuyoshi Kageyama, a hippy looking programmer of the app. Eventually Rinka decides to go on the date with Tom, who does appear to be even creepier than his photo though, with his attitude after the date, justifying the impressions. Rinka then asks Tsuyoshi's help, with the two coming closer together, but Tom keeps stalking her, additionally telling her that Tsuyoshi is the dangerous one.
Evidently, the plot holes here are quite large, plus the whole script is based on the fact that Rinka does not just run away, instead choosing to keep interacting with a growingly amount of dangerous weirdos. Her need to connect with someone justifies her attitude to a point, as much as the evident effort by Uchida to create a cautionary tale about meeting people online and dating apps in general, but even these two elements do not fill the gaps.
Furthermore, what is going to happen is clear from a mile away, with the twist being as cliched as it could be. However, and the however is quite big here, the way the story ends compensates for everything that happened before, to the point that even mentioning anything would do great injustice to the movie. Let me just say that you will not believe what is happening, with Uchida taking on the most common issues of Japanese films, not knowing where to end, and turning it over its head in the most astonishing fashion. Probably the ending was what was written first with the rest of the story being there just to lead to that, but the way the whole thing ends definitely works. Particularly if one takes the film not utterly seriously, as a realistic story, but as a modern fairy tale concluding in the most impactfully horrific fashion.
Kenji Noguchi ‘s cinematography captures both the realistic setting Rinka and her father inhabit, and the violent, absurd and grotesque everyone else does in impressive fashion, with the occasionally horrific images definitely being the ones that stay in mind. The editing results in a mid tempo that could have been a bit faster on occasion, but in general, suits the story nicely.
Tao Tsuchiya as Rinka portrays her strong headedness and naivety nicely, in a role, though, that could have been written better. The ones who steal the show, though, are Daisuke Sakuma as Tom and Nobuaki Kaneko as Kageyama, as they both emit a very intriguing sense of mystery about who they actually are.
“Matched” is not high art, and the story will probably alienate the fans of ‘true crime'. However, as a fairy tale whose main purpose is to shock and entertain it definitely succeeds
