Reviews

This film is elegant and made with intelligence.

Unlike the histrionic over styling of "Somersault" or "Lantana", "Japanese Story" tells an epic story with intelligent and complex motivations -- and a sense of real uncertainty and darkness about the character's yearnings and predicaments.

The camera is simple -- few camera tricks to illicit our visceral emotion -- most of the work is smartly given to Collette who injects real pathos and hum our into her characterization which could have otherwise been a post-modern metaphor for ephemeral cross-cultural love.

There is the feel of "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and a strange (and humorously 'sandy' quality about the design) mixed with a sort of wry tongue in cheek nod to feminist dialogue about the woman stranded with a "Feminised" Asian man. The cliché in this film is intentional and cleverly spotted -- from a jar of Promite and instant coffee to bland Australian airport locations -- this film could almost be titled "Gidget becomes a geologist and loses the love of her life." I wish "Somersault" or "Lantana" could have been half as sophisticated in their director's palette -- there is chaos in this film amidst the rigidity of camera that allows the moments to breathe and take on their epic dramatic qualities (which could have easily been cut to pieces and made into television or a t.v commercial at the hands of the wrong director).

I recommend.

John Waters has made the most effusively buoyant, heartfelt, dark, personal little film I think I've ever seen (well maybe Fast Food Fast Women comes in close second) The directors vision is untainted...the narrative is whimsical, the characters are personal and odd reflections of family and his own inner life ...the tone never forced or stylistically over-arch.

There is no pretentious shot design, ennui, or magazine grading....Martha Plimpton is amazing as the sister..Eddie furlong is inspired casting. A grandmother with a talking Mary, tea-bagging, recycled clothing, yesterday's garbage becomes today's art -- and the lesson of the film is that the most important thing we can value is family ... and a humble life.

The dialog in this film is incredibly speakable -- in response to Mephisto -- and I think what you are unhappy with is it's camp melodramatic style -- which on a critical level is achieved with sophistication and panache.

Kerry Walker is a stand out as the mannish blossom -- ripening with rebellion and uncertainty -- the perfect counter to her mother played by Ruth Cracknell. Ruth's performance is genius -- the timing for black humour I have only seen seconded by Kathleen TUrner in Serial Mom.

This film is beautifully shot. The camera moves with deft purpose -- never feeling television or obvious -- but a secure mix of voyeurism and arch photographic signposting (appropriate to the camp postmodern genre) Australia (along with Spain, USA and Brazil, NEW ZEALAND-- thanks to ALmodovar, Waters and Jackson) is home of the CAMP aesthetic -- and culturally we've been balking at this over the last few years. But what's really going for us -- is something that uniquely expresses our nation's ironic plight of being a little America.

WALK THE TALK, LOVE SERENADE, SWEETIE are also worthy notables.

Alright this was quite a sensitive little number but I can't help thinking I've seen it before. Reminds me of another VCA film I saw at Poitier called "THE OTHER DAYS OF RUBY RAE" Also had specks of "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and "Ratcatcher" and Lynne Ramsay in it's execution. Which is not to say that they're not tasteful references...just that they feel very modern and very fashionable...which makes me feel like this is closer to advertising (as an approach in style and story) than the work of an original and authentic auteur to come.

The cinematography is just...too perfect for my liking. Too coral filter (or charcoal) for my liking...too archly framed 12mm. Therefore the entire impression left me a little distant -- beware of art that proclaims itself too readily! The french (they are a conservative bunch) seemed to buy it as did the jury however... but Cannes short film selection is notoriously conservative compared to it's feature selection although I wonder what's been happening in the last few years.

this was solid poetic drama. lovely rhythm but why do short films always have to concentrate on moments of high drama? especially Scandinavian drama... But Kaurismaki is my one exception. He is great!

It is my guess...that they think they provoke something by charging it in your face. I'm not so sure. I think subtle manipulation and suggestion of intellectual and emotional themes is far more powerful.

Fabulous acting. But my one thing here is: I didn't really feel a unique or original voice. It felt far too academic. Like a Bergmann study or a muse on a dictionary definition.

Hitting with the pillow...the deaf man...HM....its OK but again...sensational.

This film is OK.

It positions itself safely in the territory of Lantanaland...earnest, frank, emotionally charged and sometimes tawdry.

The shots are uninspired as are the ideas the story is dealing with. Grief is sad....but can we go deeper? Can we dig a bit more and discover something truly perverse or honest about ourselves. Maybe his friends don't really care all that much. Maybe his mother is just a tad less likable. I am not sure. In the end...it all seemed a bit cinematic ally safe.

Everything made too much sense. Everything had been worked over far too much. LIFE is a great film about AIDS. SAFE and POISON are great films too. This is good but feels a bit like movie of the week.

This film is astonishing.

Brutal, Disturbing, Sexy, Mystical, Ethereal, Eerie, Empty and Yearning.

A musical journey into the AIDS block of a prison. The emotional landscape and dream world of John Brumpton's character is depicted as though a lucid dream. It is fragmented and sickening, incomplete and arresting in its movement from moment to moment.

Reminds me of Jean Genet.

This filmmaker should keep making dangerous work like this. I look forward to the next drama from Mr. Johnson.

I saw this maybe 5 years ago and something today reminded me of it.

A view from a window no less.

There is something haunting about this minimal film. The elliptical dialogue serves the loneliness of the characters well and smartly, the director has left the actors with room to imbue their actions with uncertainty and truth, rather than signposting any obvious reactions.

I wonder if Maire is still making films and hope that she is. We could certainly do with a good new feature from Australia after the bland effort of somersault.

Well done.

This short film is the most stunning thing I have ever seen. It is beautifully performed, the images are delicious, like felt and primary colours and pools of black and dust. Their journey into the marshlands is like the most picturesque adventure, amidst decay and debris they find a young crow egg to take back to their mother. The director must do some more work. She has such an innate sense for timing and poetry of film that it suggests s a real talent. I would like to know how she achieved such lovely performances from the children and if they are actors or not?

I am yet to see the most beautiful man in the world and i would also like to get a copy of this film. Well done. It is so rare that a short film can have such a lasting emotional and intellectual impact.

Profound and Complex. This film is tender and absolutely heartfelt. Every moment is layered with poetry, from the imagery of the diabetic mother, sugar in the veins, the bleating lamb, the sensual gaze to memory, loss, new life, her son.

I'm not sure where the filmmaker stands in this personally -- but it feels very truthful. Is the son talking to a man....is he looking for his father figure in a lover? His frustration with his mother seems so genuine and soft, reminding him of his own ticking clock, mortality, his own desperate fear to reach love before it passes him by as well.

Bravo. This short film deserves much acclaim. I cried and was moved to think...a rare feat for a little film to achieve.

this film is astounding. i saw it at a local festival a few years back and i loved the texture of it. It was ominous and thought provoking, mature and psychologically thought provoking. You don't normally see this kind of thing out of AFTRS so I must say well done to the director.

If you like this also check out Mairi Cameron's "Milk" also an excellent graduating film. They both make Cate Shortland short films, "Joy, "Pentuphouse" look like style over substance. I hope this man, Heng, goes on to make some more work. There is something going on here and it's worth checking out.

This film was shockingly bad.

I Came upon a tape through a friend, who was judging for a festival in Europe (I wont name it) -- and needless to say..the film did not get a look in.

This might have been charming if it was for high school matriculation, made for nothing...but at the end we discover a logo to say it was financed by a government institution. Unbelievable. HOpefully they've learnt their lesson.

Terrible acting, bad sets, flat lighting, hokey dialog...did anything go right? I like the title, the howling dog and the boy on the guitar.

I advise this director to stop making movies and get into market research, children's television or ...become CEO of a company. You obviously have excellent business sense to get the government to pay for a crap movie like this one.

What is with the big push for this filmmakers work? I find it contrived and overly referenced (Nan Goldin/Bill Henson references everywhere made it feel contrived in a similar way to "High Art" Lisa Chodenko's late 90's disaster).

Some lovely locations and good performances are lost with an overly visceral camera, eager snappy editing and wan casting of the lead girl. Abbie C (who does her best) looks like a sports-girl model in a snowflake jumper and freshly glossed hair....red goggles, red gloves.....I mean...really. She is not the vision of an insecure teenage girl from a lower class background. But maybe the film is not meant to be naturalism? I wish it wasn't. But there is nothing dreamy, sickening or nightmarish like a dream...all of the dialogue is heavy handed earnest exposition. The bisexual subplot is really hokey and Sam Worthington .although handsome and solid ... is lost in this film.

Why the push for this filmmaker I ask? It seems so damned middle-class. i saw some fabulous AFTRS films from around her time..namely Mairi Camerons "MILK" and Heng Tang's "THE OTHER SON"...why isn't the government pushing to give these guys money to develop their features?