Dir: Takeshi Kushida
Japan, 89 mins
Star: Hideki Nagai, Itsuki Otaki, Toshiaki Inomata, Toki Koinuma
A misogynic photographer discovers for the first time in his life the joys of loving a woman, this one confused about her self-identity and self-esteem, by helping her in her perceptions of herself with his photographic retouching skills.
Director statement
Photography has changed immensely with the development of social media. At one time, photographs were taken so we would have memories. Now, they are taken to show others ideal views of ourselves with the help of advanced photo retouching technology, and we can become not our natural selves but idealized versions of ourselves. And life becomes difficult as we try to make our lives into our idealized versions of it, losing all reality and sincerity.
I believe that what we should say in a film in this era are the following: to love oneself for what we are, and to build our self-esteem on truth, to cherish our inner values that others might not see in us, to love ourselves together with the existence of others. People often vacillate between their natural selves and their idealized selves. We cannot hope to become everything in our ideals, that would be too much for us. However, in attempting to do so, we fall into confusion and despair, distress and hopelessness. We lose the way and the true meaning of life. This film was created to celebrate humanity through our attempts to find our true selves in this complex world.
Trailer
Why we picked it
Is this horror? We didn’t think so when we read the synopsis. But it’s far from the whole story. There’s a significant feeling of Cronenbergian body horror here, with elements of both Crash and, especially, The Brood. Though subtlety is very much the order of the game here: this is, literally, skin-deep.