Hong Kong International Film Festival features the
lead actresses from my favorite part of the triptych
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Japan, 2021)
- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Galas program
- Ryusuke Hamaguchi, director and scriptwriter
- Starring: Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri, Katsuki Mori, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Shouma Kai, Fusako Urabe, Aoba Kawai
Despite Ryusuke Hamaguchi having already won a number of accolades internationally (including at Locarno) as well as his home country, I wasn't familiar with his work prior to checking out this offering from him which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at this year's Berlinale. But after viewing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, I don't only reckon the award was richly deserved but also am making a point to remember his name and look forward to checking out other of his works.
A short film triptych, all of whose segments feature female protagonists and fate playing a significant part in their stories, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy begins with an intriguing opening chapter entitled Magic (or Something Less Assuring) which has a young model (Kotone Furukawa) discovering that her best friend (Hyunri) has fallen for her ex-boyfriend (Ayumu Nakajima) whom she still harbors strong feelings for. While she doesn't disclose this past connection to her best friend, she does go and confront her ex-boyfriend with this fact. What he decides to do with this information is interesting to behold, and so too are the actions she decides to take after seeing his reaction to her.
The second chapter of the film, this one entitled Door Wide Open, also has fascinating plot developments which are imaginatively constructed yet appear to easily be within the realm of possibility in the real -- not just reel -- world. In this case, the scenario in question involves a mature student (Katsuki Mori) who, at the request of her young college student lover (Shouma Kai), seeks to set a "honey trap" for a professor (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) she admires but he bears a grudge towards for having failed him in the course he took with the professor. Suffice to state here that the extended interaction that she has with the professor in his office made for riveting as well as pretty amusing viewing (and, if one's not dependent on subtitles, listening) -- and that I, for one, would have been fine with it having gone on for several minutes longer than in fact was the case!
The sense that the stories he presented are too short is strongest for me with regards to Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy's third and final chapter. Once Again has a lightly sci-fi premise, in that it's set in a (near) future -- or alternate reality? -- where a computer virus which has disabled most of the internet. But what matters far more is that it's a gentle, beautiful story about two middle-aged women (Fusako Urabe and Aoba Kawai) who mistake the other for an ex-schoolmate, then continue to share confidences and emotionally connect even after realizing their identification errors!
Even if the chance situations they end up in can see a bit contrived, everyone of the characters in the movie come across as very "real" -- and, especially in the case of the two women in Once Again, worth spending more time with and getting to know. I wonder if Ryusuke Hamaguchi is thinking of fleshing out these short stories and making feature length films out of them? If he did, I, for one, would happily view them!
I'd also be curious to find out how much of a part the director-scriptwriter had in casting this film. This may sound on the strange side but I was struck by how the cast all have really interesting faces and physical traits! In particular, fashion model-actor Kiyohiko Shibukawa has the kind of look (at least in this offering) and facial expressions that made him ideal to play the eccentric professor character he did in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. In addition, the way that Fusako Urabe was made up and dressed in this offering caused her character to give off the sort of not entirely conventional, and maybe even "doesn't quite belong", vibes that made her particular story all the more touching.
My rating for this film: 8.5
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