GFF 2010: Kakera

 

Haru is a placid college student whose feminist academic interests somewhat conflict with her increasingly distant relationship with a boorish lout. Her quiet nature attracts the attention of Riko, a confident prosthetist, and before long, their friendship has blossomed into something more, something Haru cannot reconcile with the feelings she still has for her man, and that Riko simply cannot live without. Aesthetically owing much to Wong Kar-wai, Sofia Coppola and Tom Tykwer, first-time director Ando wants Kakera to be a sensual, ethereal story where the pains of love and female passion bleed from each frame. Unfortunately, she comes across like a juvenile Jane Campion, her exploration of femininity never rising above shallow waters, with a script that takes ludicrous and contrived turns. Characters appear from nowhere simply to fulfil a thematic function or take part in a self-admiringly symbolic sequence, while the central protagonists prove to be increasingly unlikeable to the point of irritability.