Rating: C-
Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Star: Hiroki Hasegawa, Masami Nagasawa, Ryuhei Matsuda, Mahiro Takasugi
Not quite what I expected from the director of Pulse, or The Guard from Underground. This is an alien invasion movie, admittedly. However, it is an alien invasion movie of a thoughtful and particularly languid kind. It has to be respected for taking a very different approach to the topic, far more interested in personal drama than apocalyptic spectacle. At one hundred and thirty minutes though, it definitely outstays its welcome. The final half-hour is more of a slog, especially if you have worked out where this is going to go. I’d not have minded seeing some popular local landmarks being reduced to rubble, simply to keep me from dozing off.
Instead, the invasion is a small-scale one consisting of three entities who operate by possessing human hosts (it’s a lot more budget-friendly that way, certainly). They are here to scope out the situation, and to learn how humans think. To this end, they have the ability to absorb concepts like “property” or “work” from people. The catch is, the person providing the concept no longer understand it, which can have unexpected effects. A boss who doesn’t know what work means, for instance, is going to go off the rails. Operating as the aliens’ guides are Sakurai (Hasegawa), a journalist who happens to encounter one of the alien hosts, Amano (Takasugi), and Narumi (Nagasawa). Her husband Shinji (Matsuda) has also become home to an alien, and as a consequence is acting very oddly.
I wonder if the alien trio are intended to represent the three parts of consciousness: the id, ego and superego. They certainly behave in radically different ways, ranging from the scientific to gleefully violent. I was also a little surprised how easily both Sakurai and Narumi end up helping the would-be invaders. The latter has more obvious emotional motivation: it is her husband, after all, albeit one who had recently cheated on her. Sakurai, though, is a hard-bitten journalist. Maybe that cynicism is why he seems to be almost enthusiastic at the prospect of welcoming our new alien overlords. It would certainly give him the scoop of a lifetime, although not sure the Pulitzer prizes will still be awarded post-invasion.
Although it’s initially intriguing, it may well peak with an impressive opening which combines murder and vehicular mayhem in an effective way (top). It’s then a fairly effective mystery, as we discover what’s going on, and the impact of the aliens on those from whom they draw knowledge. However, it feels like the script runs out of ideas, and it also becomes increasingly apparent where things are going to go. If the resolution ain’t quite up there with War of the Worlds as a cop-out, it’s not far off, though to Kurosawa’s credit, it’s played out in greater depth. The director revisited the concept in greater length for a five-hour mini-series, Foreboding: Before We Vanish. While it’s possible this might have worked better, it’s not going onto my watch-list.