Wednesday 3 August 2011

2LDK

2003 by Yukihiko Tsutsumi - Japanese

At times we come across movies which are quite strange but brilliant. We would find it difficult to agree with the plot or the characters but we would strongly feel that the movie is brilliant. It could be quite opposite too, we would find everything adorable, but would not want to say this is a great movie. 2LDK is one such movie in which there are many factors on which I want to disagree, but there is no question on the fact that it is simply a unique and brilliant piece of cinema.

Two aspiring actors are sharing a flat. Both have been shortlisted for the role of a wife, after the audition and are awaiting the final call. Both have quite different backgrounds and characters, that petty feminine disagreements and jealousy brings out their envy out and turns into a ridiculous fight. 

There are only 2 characters here. One a city bred, brand user and spend thrift, the other from a rural region amused by the lack of 'life' in Tokyo. Looks like the agency who is conducting the auditions put them up in this luxurious flat, which makes the village girl feel a little bit alien. The first half of the movie when both these girls spend their time together, doing evening chores, talking to each other is brilliant. For every dialogue of one girl, we have this dialogue from the other girl, which is like her mind speak. That was extra ordinarily brilliant. It felt nearly like a case study of 2 females, about their jealousy, envy, meanness and everything. Then shortly they start fighting and it really gets physical and will shock us.

This second half is stunning. Even if it is not a sudden change, how they get physical, when they start getting physical it is almost like rude shock and before we realise it, it gets really bad. For me, it felt like the plot was intended to have this violence and hence it turned so. Especially the village girl getting violent and destroying things, which she quite knew for whcih they might be accountable for, was a bit over board. But still its beautifully shot and we would want to forget such questions.

Excellent performances by both these actors and this is clearly a directors movie. This movie was shot as a challenge to complete a movie within a week, with only 2 characters ending up in violence with at least one dead. If not for this challenge, I doubt if anybody can imagine this kind of a plot.

While watching the movie there were few moments I thought, this is clearly the heights of imagination.

2LDK in Japanese refers to a 2 bed room apartment with kitchen.