Summary
This ‘ripped from the headlines’ story doesn’t go quite where you think it will, rapidly shifting tone between tears and laughter while skewering the rise of trial by (social) media.
Emerging in the online festival circuit this year is a perfectly timed bit of commentary on our quarantined existence. As we spend more time at home, the quirks of our neighbours become more apparent. Yet as Rear Window taught us, the gaze goes both ways.
Miyoko Kawahara made headlines back in 2006 when she was imprisoned for blasting rock music at her neighbour for over two years. Chihiro Amano’s MRS. NOISY (ミセス・ノイズィ) doesn’t so much as tell this story as rework it from multiple perspectives in the age of social media.
Six years after giving birth to a daughter, novelist Maki Yoshioka (Yukiko Shinohara) struggles to find her writing groove again. Interrupting her concentration is neighbour Miwako Wakata (Yoko Ootaka), who insists on loudly beating her futon and yelling at odd hours. The latter’s seemingly irrational response start a war between the two, one that inspires Yoshioka’s writing and goes viral online.
The first half hour of this film, and the seemingly lighthearted title, might lead you to believe that this is going to be a merry ‘bad neighbours’ style film. Even though I was having physical anxiety reactions to Yoshioka’s behaviour in the first act, there’s a surprising tonal shift partway through that aims to change one’s perspective.
The film escalates initially when Nako (Chise Niitsu) goes briefly missing and it turns out Yoshioka has taken her without permission. Writer/director Amano whips the rug out from under us by then going back and showing the film from the perspective of the titular noisemaker. Revealing more about her own husband, and a tragic past, the story becomes a mixture of pathos, tears and unexpected comedy.
As the social media elements of the narrative come to the fore, Amano almost goes too far into the dark side of the medium. It also paints Yoshioka and her relationship with her husband in a far more negative light, questioning whether she is righteously outraged or just self-centred. At one point she goes so far as to remark “Shouldn’t we try and correct the tone of the media?” Subtle it is not, but it’s a point well made.
When the merits of ‘cancel culture’ are generating almost daily think-pieces, MRS. NOISY may not be the most nuanced examination of trial by media. Still, it earns some props for at least trying to be the Rashomon of neighbourhood dispute films. Having said that, I’ll think twice before reporting that fellow in my apartment building who only plays three Hilltop Hoods songs at top volume next time. Subtweeting is still fine, right?
2019 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Chihiro Amano | WRITER: Chihiro Amano | CAST: Yukiko Shinohara, Yoko Ootaka, Takuma Nagao, Chise Niitsu, Taichi Miyazaki| DISTRIBUTOR: JAPAN CUTS (US), Hikouki Films International (JPN) | RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 17-30 July 2020 (JAPAN CUTS)
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