He also presented some great images, like the one in the subway between Rika and Kozo. This realism benefits the most by Makoto Sigma’s cinematography, who did a great job of depicting the era, both on interior scenes like the ones inside the various houses and the bank, and on the exterior ones. This realism extends to the way the employees function in the highly antagonizing finance world, with intrigues, secrets, and the higher-ups taking advantage of those below them in the hierarchy, even for sexual reasons. The depiction of that era and the way the banking system worked, mostly with handwritten material instead of computers, is very realistic, and provides a logical frame for a low-employee to embezzle all that money. The film is set on 1994, shortly after the burst of Japan’s economic bubble, where banks were desperate to attract new clients, with house calls being a regular tactic towards that cause. Frustrated by her self-centered husband’s ignorance and non-appreciation for her, he lets him go by himself to Bangkok, where he is offered a job, and she proceeds in indulging every wish her young lover has, by embezzling money from her clients and the bank. The people in the bank start to appreciate her more, while she meets Hirabayashi’s grandson, Kota, with whom she strikes an affair, after he pursues her relentlessly but briefly. However, once she convinces Kozo Hirabayashi, a slightly perverted older rich man, to buy a very expensive bond, her life changes radically. She works part-time at a bank doing house calls to sell bonds and other banking products and, in general, lives an utterly conventional life. Based on the novel “Kami no Tsuki” by Mitsuyo Kakuta, the film tells the story of Rika Umezawa, a timid woman in her forties, who lives with her husband, although they do not have any children. One of the best films of 2014, Pale Moon is also a great specimen of contemporary Japanese cinema. A married woman in her forties becomes an unlikely criminal in order to indulge her young lover…
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |