Full disclosure; I watch Art Movies. I love Art Movies! I'm happy to go with Art Movies. I don't mind a lack of narrative arc - so long as something else holds it together (example; Herzog "Fata Morgana"). I don't mind poor (or deliberately cranky) cinematography - so long as something else holds it together. I can put up with a lot of things. But what I can't put up with is faux.
Sadly Japon is faux. It isn't anything.
Added to the fact that Japon is faux, it has no narrative arc and has deliberately cranky cinematography. It adds up to a very frustrating watch.
What is hinted at is an observation of the human condition. The first 20 minutes of Japon are promising in this regard. But then it goes off into - well, nowhere. It's incomprehensible. It's gratuitous. It passes the point of being artfully ugly or even artfully brutal, and enters the realms of playing pointlessly with the sensitivities of the viewer. In short a film with no real objective aesthetically, artistically or as a description of the human condition.
Sadly Japon is faux. It isn't anything.
Added to the fact that Japon is faux, it has no narrative arc and has deliberately cranky cinematography. It adds up to a very frustrating watch.
What is hinted at is an observation of the human condition. The first 20 minutes of Japon are promising in this regard. But then it goes off into - well, nowhere. It's incomprehensible. It's gratuitous. It passes the point of being artfully ugly or even artfully brutal, and enters the realms of playing pointlessly with the sensitivities of the viewer. In short a film with no real objective aesthetically, artistically or as a description of the human condition.