JAPANESE STORY
Australia, 2003, 105 minutes, Colour.
Toni Collette, Gotaro Tsunashima, Matthew Dydtynski, Lynette Curran, John Howard, Bill Young, Reg Evans, George Sheptsov, Justine Clark.
Directed by Sue Brooks.
An Australian film for Cannes' Un Certain Regard.
The plot is fairly straightforward for most of the film: wealthy Japanese businessman is taken on a tour of Port Hedland, Mount Newman, the Pilbara and the desert by a reluctant geologist. They become bogged in the red sand and, as we anticipated, the relationship develops into something deeper. It was during this section that the men in the audience were restless. Were they identifying with the Japanese man who was manifesting a fairly inscrutable thinking manner but was obviously out of place (his formal clothes for a start) in the outback and seemed incapable of being flexible in his behaviour and decisions. He might have thought he was in command of the trip, but to the audience it was obvious that he was not.
When they became stranded, he could not lose face and use his mobile to get help. It was his error in not heeding advice. He had to rectify it. But Toni Collette's Sandy was the one who knew what she was about.
Sandy was not at such a good place in her own life. She was a talented geologist but seemed to be unlucky in relationships and was living at home with her mother. She had no wish to be traipsing off from Perth to the northwest. And she found the Japanese man quite condescending to her, considering her as merely the chauffeur. She warned him about the hazards but he took no notice. She warned him how to behave in the desert, not leave the car, keep warm during the nights.
In the isolation of the desert, with the prospect of trying to get the four wheel drive out of the sand, Sandy and Hiromitsu discover their deep need for intimacy. Sandy seems to be more affirmed in who she is, a strongly feeling woman. With Hiromitsu, he is able to let go of the formalities of his cultural norms and their expectations as well as his own very objective manner. He discovers less formal love. He discovers, especially after he humbly admits he made a mistake about this part of the trip, underestimating its rough difficulties, that he has a gentle and, especially, a playful side. When they get going, they are able to join in a somewhat off-key rendition of Willie Nelson's On the Road Again.
The executives at the mining companies show that they respect Japanese formalities and customs. Many of them have learnt to speak some Japanese. The challenge to the Australian kind of casual attitudes and behaviour is to respect a culture that seems too proper to be believed. But the challenge to the straight-laced culture is to relax and to acknowledge and be one's true self, especially the more spontaneous and carefree self.
I thought that the film was going to end here - but, when I looked at my watch, there was another 30 minutes to go. How could they fill it out? If you intend to see the film and have not heard anything of its plot, it would be better to stop reading now and resume after seeing Japanese Story. Otherwise, read on.
Hiromitsu suddenly dies, playfully diving into a desert pool, hitting his head in the shallows. Sandy is appalled. The rest of the film gives Toni Collette the opportunity to show us what emotional distress is truly like and the reality of grief. I sat up during this part of the film and was sorry that those men had left.
Suffice to say, that Sandy's wanting to be involved with the funeral, a universal need but strong for an extravert, her profound sympathy for Hiromitsu's widow and her gracious courtesy to her (which was reciprocated) is a fine dramatising of grief. When the widow looks at the photos of Hiromitsu and Sandy in the desert and then offers Sandy an envelope, we expect it to contain the photos. What is in there is a letter that Hiromitsu had written, beautifully expressing how this formal and rather sad Japanese man, this Thinking man, had discovered his inner child and would be the better husband and father because of his sharing with Sandy. It really is a tender film.
1. The romantic appeal of the film? Cross-cultures? Insight into Australians, into Japanese? Interactions? A film for a women's audience, men's audience? The initial quirky Australian comedy, the serious and sad drama in the latter part of the film?
2. The Perth locations, homes and offices? The contrast with the Pilbara, the West Australian desert, Port Hedland, Mount Newman, the desert? The small desert towns? The musical score?
3. The title and its focus, on Tachibana Hiromitsu? The focus on Sandy?
4. The focus on Sandy, her work as a geologist, her skills, software? Her private life and its confusion? Her partnership with Baird? Their working together? Her friendship with Jane? Her living with her mother, her mother's cut-out books of obituaries - and the request that Sandy put her obituary at the end? Their clashes? Her future?
5. The arrival of Hiromitsu and the request of Baird and Partners to look after him? Baird unable, Sandy having to do it? Her unwillingness? Flying north, the Hertz van, late at the airport for him? His treating her as the chauffeur? The reasons for his visit being enigmatic, the money behind him, his phone calls to his father and to the company? His company loyalty?
6. The character of Hiromitsu? Age, formality? Japanese reticence? His attitude towards women, towards Sandy? The visit at Port Hedland, the explanation of the plant, his observing it? The drive to Mount Newman and his looking at the open-cut, the explosion? His decision to go into the desert, forcing Sandy to take him? The drive, the communication? The being bogged? His reaction to the failure, his unwillingness to phone? His blaming himself - and the eventual confession and apology to Sandy? The attempts to dig out the van? Staying the night, his collecting wood? The advice that she gave about isolation, staying with the car, the heat? His reading the book?
7. Sandy, her feeling put down by him, her Australian casualness in meeting him, approach, meals (and his being unable to eat the food)? The driving, the unwillingness to go, the sand, being bogged? Her inability to get the car out of the sand? The night?
8. The next day, his apology, her change of heart, sharing, music, the beginnings of conversation between them? Photos? The build-up to the intimacy between them? The effect on each? The lyrical scenes, the driving, the scenic aspects, the photos? Her discovering that he had wife and children? The quietness, the discussions about improving English, the joke about desert and dessert? Her running into the pool, his diving and her wanting to stop him?
9. The sudden impact of his death on Sandy - and on the audience? Her inability to do anything, trying to rescue him after finding him? Dragging him out of the water, sitting and grieving? Taking him to the van? To the town? Trying to get information, the man at the bar being casual, discovering the man with the refrigerator? Her attempts at explanation? Storing his body?
10. The latter part of the film and Toni Collette's demonstration of distress and grief? Baird and the others coming with the lawyer and the doctor? The formalities? Taking the body back to Perth? Her listlessness in the office, wanting to be involved? Baird and his letting her become involved, the preparation for the funeral, the arrival of his wife? Sandy and the impact of seeing his wife? The reality of his death, sending the clothes and the camera back?
11. The funeral, Sandy's speech to his wife? The wife's courtesy? The wife seeing the photos? At the airport, giving the package to Sandy? The indications that the wife understood what had happened, especially as she looked at the photos?
12. Sandy and her reading of the letter, Hiromitsu saying that he would be a better man and a better husband and father from his encounter with her and on his return to Japan? A last testament for her? Enabling her to face the future?
13. Her return home, the relationship with Jane (and Jane's apologies for not being able to answer the calls from the desert)? Working with Baird? At home with her mother? Her perceptions changed by the experience in the desert and with the man from another culture?
