Summary
A curious debut that delves into the changing nature of relationships, duality and how we become different people at various stages in our lives.
The idea that someone important to you could vanish and be replaced by a stranger is the stuff of Lynchian nightmares. Indeed, the duality that inhabits director Tatsuya Yamanishi’s esoteric debut has been widely compared with Haruki Murakami in the way it sedately examines fragile personas through the lens of this unusual relationship.
Casting agent Norio (Kou Maehara) and his girlfriend Mari Tanabe (Nao) lead a seemingly perfect relationship. They’ve been dating for three years, and their affection and easy-going intimacy are evident from the opening scenes. One day, Norio returns home to find something is amiss. Mari is asleep on the couch, but as the sun’s rays eek their way into the apartment, it becomes clear that it is no longer Mari.
Not the Mari he knows at least. This other person, who also says her name is Mari (Hana Amano), says that she lives there now and the original Mari has gone away. Norio discovers that his Mari has left her job and her friends and family are none-the-wiser. Gradually, the new Mari becomes part of Norio’s life, even if a part of him is still unable to accept the change.
The often dreamlike vibe of MARI AND MARI (彼女来来) can be interpreted in several ways. There is, of course, the most literal one, arguably indicated by one translation of the Japanese title (‘she came’): the literal replacement of one person for another. Yet you don’t have to scratch too far beneath the surface to see this might also be a film about the different people we become at different stages in our lives. Norio is content with as little change as possible, indicated early in the film by their routine. Mari’s evolution as a person, albeit one we scarcely get to see, is interpreted here as a physically different person that Norio doesn’t know what to do with.
Yamanishi doesn’t make it easy for us though, keeping the audience at arm’s length for much of the picture. Long takes of apparent stillness are intercut with Norio’s rooftop conversations with his co-workers, ones in which he presents a very different face to the world. Recurring motifs of the colour red — sunsets, drinks — punctuate the dim colour spectrum Yamanishi and cinematographer Shin Yonekura play with. Rei Miyamoto (as Vampillia) provides an often discordant score, an audible indicator of life out of balance.
What’s evident by the end of the film is that none of this is a linear process either. The changes relationships go through are sometimes impermanent, and can settle back into something altered but the same years later. As the runner up of this year’s scaled-back MOOSIC LAB [JOINT] 2020-2021, Yamanishi has already made a mark on the Japanese indie cinema scene. It will be interesting to see that if his cinematic journey mirrors that of his fictional creators, growing into something different but familiar.
MARI AND MARI is reviewed as part of our coverage of JAPAN CUTS 2021.
2020 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Tatsuya Yamanishi | WRITERS: Tatsuya Yamanishi | CAST: Kou Maehara, Hana Amano, Nao | DISTRIBUTOR: Nikkatsu, JAPAN CUTS 2021 | RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 22 August – 2 September 2021 (JAPAN CUTS 2021)
