Woman Of The Photographs

In the early 2000´s i watched a lot of horror films from Japan. You could probably say it started in the late 90´s with the very well known Japanese horror film known as Ringu ( 1998 ), but it was in the early 2000´s when cinemas across Sweden really gave Japanese horror film a bigger platform than we were used to see here. Even though i watched most of these films on VHS to begin with i did pick up some on DVD as well. One of the films though i remember watching in a cinema in the city of Gothenburgh, was the 2002 horror film known as Ju-On: The Grudge. At the time i have only read about this film in British movie magazines ( i used to buy a lot of them back in the early 2000´s ) and i did read some reviews in Swedish newspapers as well. A horror film that looked quite different from other horror films but also had a very interesting background story. Ju-On: The Grudge begins with Takeo Saeki ( Takashi Matsuyama ) who murders his wife Kayako Saeki ( Takako Fuji ) after discovering she is in love with another man, also killing the family cat, Mar, and his son, Toshio Saeki ( Yuya Ozeki ). The nurders create a curse that revives the family as vengeful ghosts. Who ever enters their house in Nerima, Tokyo, is eventually consumed by the curse. Ju-On: The Grudge from director Takashi Shimi is still today one of the true Japanese horror classics and is still kind of creepy in certain scenes. There are several sequels and of course an American remake from 2004, and even if i don´t mind the remake i still think the 2002 film is still more effective as a horror film. If you have not seen Ju-On: The Grudge i highly recommend you pick it up on DVD. Japanese films in general have proved to deliver a lot of quality films over the years such as Akira Kurosawa´s Ran, the animated classic Spirited Away and many more. I recently picked up a Japanese film called Woman Of The Photographs on a Blu Ray release from Epic Pictures, a film that i have heard of quite a while. Since i am a fan of Japanese film i thought i would give this film a chance. Is this a must see this summer or is Woman Of The Photographs not as interesting as i was hoping it would be?

A local photographer named Kai ( Hideki Nagai ) helps his clients to make each photograph perfect by trying to fix pictures that his customers wants to be improved. One day as he is out in the forest to take photographs of insects, he meets the mysterious girl named Kyoko ( Itsiku Otaki ) who have been bruised from a tree. She follows him to his photograph studio and is fascinated in his work. He agrees to take her photos and she post some pictures online. It seems that her wounds make people fascinated in the photos, and the bigger the wounds are the more likes the pictures get. Kyoko always wanted to be loved on social media, this could be her chance to become even bigger.

To call this a pure horror film would be misleading if you ask me since Woman Of The Photographs feels more like a drama horror, where the drama is definetely more detailed than the actual horror influences. This is the kind of film that will definetely not be appreciated by an audience who expect jump scares or intensive horror. This is what you would call a slow burner that takes it´s time to introduce the characters, and tell a story without rushing anything. One of the most important subjects that this film bring up is how affected we might be by social media to be loved. That we have to get plenty of likes to be accepted in society, and we have to stay on top no matter what it takes. I feel that they manage to capture the addiction of physical looks as well as addiction of social media in this film in a effective way, and still make the story interesting enough. The cinematography from Yu Oishi looks really good and i love the strong colors in certain scenes. Before we get into some other positive details that i enjoy about Woman Of The Photographs, there is especially one thing i need to talk about. There have been claims that this film is inspired by the work of David Cronenberg and i can see that in certain scenes. But i have to be honest and say this is nowhere near as good as the David Cronenberg classics, without being disrespectful to director Takeshi Kushida. I do like the idea behind this film and the clear image of being obsessed with your own looks. But it takes a very long time for this film to become really interesting, and it feels longer than the 90 minutes that it has in playtime. I think director Takeshi Kushida should have focused more on the darkness of the obsession of physical look even further and i actually think this film would have been even more interesting. There are just a few characters in this film but one of the most interesting characters is without a doubt the photographer Kai ( played by actor Hideki Nagai ) who doesn´t say a word in this entire film. To be able to act good without using dialogue is a challenge and Hideki Nagai handle this very well. He only speak a little bit in the last 5 minutes of the film, but other than that no dialogue at all. Actress Itsuki Otaki as the influencer Kyoko give a realistic performance of a young woman who is clearly too obsessed with being popular. Woman Of The Photographs is a fascinating film that´s really focused on photography and how much a picture can say without any words. If you are a fan of Japanese films then you should definetely give this film a chance. Imagone it took this film 3 years to really reach out worldwide. Whatever the reason may be it was worth the wait.

Rating: DDD