Summary
A film that’s almost impossible to classify, this speculative erotic horror piece is also frequently funny while exploring alien otherness in Japan.
Have you ever been unable to decide whether you’ve just witnessed a work of outrageous genius or utter madness after watching a film? Now, have you ever had that feeling multiple times in the first ten minutes of a film?
The fifth feature from Ken’ichi Ugana (Wild Virgins) is an expansion of his short of the same name. Indeed, many places list this as EXTRANEOUS MATTER-COMPLETE EDITION (異物-完全版-) for clarity. As the title might imply, it deals with an alien otherness that integrates into the everyday.
In the abstract plotting, a woman in a sexless relationship encounters a squid-like creature in the cupboard. If you are at all familiar with the traditional conventions of tentacles and Japanese film, you might guess what happens next. Soon the phenomena is spread across Japan, with the creatures becoming a part of regular existence, a bit like a pest that you just get used to. At least until that all takes a bit of a turn.
If EXTRANEOUS MATTER was playing at a physical festival, there would be walkouts almost immediately — and that’s just one of the film’s many charms. Yet once you get past the tentacle sex orgies (even if the film never really does), there’s a lot to unpack here. In a year when we’ve gone from the shock of a global pandemic to normalising physical distancing and mask wearing, watching salarymen casually stepping over street squid feels somewhat familiar. One character carries around a squid in a bowling bag, and we all know that one guy who would do that.
The title — which can also translate to ‘foreign matter’ — also speaks to a cultural attitude to otherness. With title cards like ‘Coexistence’ and ‘Propagation,’ one reading of the film could be about immigration rather than simply pandemics. As a character begins to understand one of the creatures, he believes it is asking for help and expressing a desire to live. In one of Ugana’s most indulgent moments, there’s a straight tribute to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial — complete with glowing finger. What is that if not Spielberg’s ultimate tale of the migrant experience?
Film in stark black and white by Masashi Komino, there’s a clinical quality to the film that somehow makes the world feel more lived-in and alien at the same time. Filled with overlapping dialogue and many close-ups, it’s also an ASMR lover’s dream at times. Even if the subject matter is not to your taste, it’s a remarkable technical achievement that would be just as at home as a gallery installation piece as it is a narrative feature.
Even in this ‘complete edition’ it’s a compact exercise, coming in just on the one-hour mark. Unlike the otherworldly creatures, it knows when to make a discreet exit. Almost a week after watching this, the imagery and sounds still lingers with me, and one suspects it will for some time to come.
2021 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Ken’ichi Ugana | WRITERS: Ken’ichi Ugana | CAST: Kaoru Koide, Shunsuke Tanaka, Momoka Ishida, Kaito Yoshimura, Makoto Tanaka | DISTRIBUTOR: Vandalism, Nippon Connection (GER) | RUNNING TIME: 61 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1-6 June 2021 (Nippon Connection)
