Ikinai

 ((DRAMA -- JAPANESE))

By DEREK ELLEY

A Nippon Herald/Office Kitano release (in Japan) of an Office Kitano/Bandai Visual/TBS/Tokyo FM/Nippon Herald production. (International sales: Celluloid Dreams, Paris.) Produced by Masayuki Mori, Yasushi Tsuge, Takio Yoshida. Directed by Hiroshi Shimizu. Screenplay, Dankan, based on a novel by Fumio Nakahara.
 

Ikinai" is Kitano Lite, without the guns. Neat idea of a dozen Japanese who hire a tour bus with the express purpose of committing communal suicide partly succeeds as a stylized, existential road movie, but an underdeveloped script leaves the viewer with too much time to ponder the story's loose ends instead of being engrossed in the characters and ambience. Still, this highly tooled debut by Hiroshi Shimizu, a.d. on Takeshi Kitano's past four films, should get his name launched on the festival circuit, with some specialized sales likely.

Adapted from a novel by Fumio Nakahara by lead thesp Dankan, a Kitano regular , "Ikinai" (which literally means "Cannot Live") has much of the same formal visual style and occasional jet-black humor of Kitano's pics, without the criminal settings and sudden explosions of violence. In that respect, it recalls the more tranquil moments of "Sonatine" and "Hana-bi" --- tranquillity haunted by impending tragedy --- but signally fails to achieve the sheer spiritual depth of Kitano's one-off, violence-free meditation, "A Scene at the Sea."

Elliptical beginning has the permanently glum, besuited Aragaki (Dankan), an archetypal salary-man, planning a coach tour of Okinawa island that will pass by a spot well known for auto accidents. Everyone on the bus, including the driver and perky female guide, have financial or other reasons for doing themselves in; and all have taken out life insurance so their loved ones will benefit by their deaths. But just as the bus is about to leave, a young woman, Mitsuki (Nanako Okouchi), climbs on board with a ticket intended for her uncle.

In expected fashion, Mitsuki's life-enhancing presence slowly has an effect on the suicides-to-be as they proceed, with almost military precision (and occasional goading by Aragaki), on their three-day sightseeing tour that will end on Jan. 1, 1998, with the bus plummeting over a cliff. Aragaki decides that Mitsuki, who thinks it's a genuine tour, must die with them, otherwise their relatives won't collect the insurance.

The picture has some fun as a black satire on Japanese conformity, pack mentality and the habit of thinking in straight lines, with a precisely framed visual style and fixed camera that mimics the attitudes Shimizu is joshing. On the eve of the planned "accident," Aragaki reveals the truth to Mitsuki, and the shaggy-dog tale enters its final stanza, with at last a measure of tension as to what the outcome will be.

Though the audience gradually learns individuals' reasons for joining up, there are no huge surprises or really engaging moments to give their decision any tragic resonance. The characters essentially function as a group throughout the pic, and remain constrained by Shimizu's visual style, which favors medium and long shots over close-ups. And there's no spiritual or mystical dimensions to the otherwise unremarkable events to give the movie an extra lift. Shimizu's direction is surprisingly hard-edged in this respect.

Instead, the viewer is left free to ponder questions such as why Mitsuki's uncle gave her his one-way ticket to oblivion, how the whole idea evolved, and so on --- distractions to what Shimizu is trying to achieve.

Tech credits are top-drawer, and performances and casting are fine within their limits.

Camera (color), Katsumi Yanagishima; editor, Yoshinori Ota; music, Maya; art director, Norihiro Isoda; sound (stereo), Susumu Take. Reviewed at Locarno Film Festival (competing), Aug. 10, 1998. (Also in Toronto Fim Festival --- New Beat of Japan.) Running time: 100 MIN.
 

With: Dankan, Nanako Okouchi, Toshinori Omi, Ippei Soda, Yoichi Nukumizu, Great Gidayu, Hiroyuki Kishi, Takashi Mitsuhashi, Mitsuo Togioka, Misayo Haruki, Ichiro Ogura, Taro Ishida, Takenori Murano.