Amazing performances
Story that had me like "Yea, I understood everything... and nothing."
I went into this with absolutely no expectations and Shun... straight up speechless; gone are the days of HYD for sure.
This is DEFINITELY NOT a movie for everyone so be warned. While watching, the story for some reason reminded me of 'Love in the Time of Cholera' (another great movie I would totally recommend). This is something that you just have to watch because there are no words to really describe it.
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The context.
Dazai Osamu is a well-known writer in Japan, one of the most important writers of the 20th century, actually. But because of these facts, if you don't know nothing about the literature of that time, about the "buraiha" group and the story of Dazai and the other writers, you maybe will not enjoy this movie overall. Due to all of this, it's easy to understand because occidental viewers who would enjoy dorama, japanese cinema and even would know a lot of japanese culture in general, would not see this film as a good movie. But, in fact, it is. Oguri Shun is a perfect Dazai Osamu, the story they want to tell it's so real that is hilarious that thing like that could happen.If you are interested in japanese literature, I totally recommend see this movie. And if your aren't, just do a research after see it. It's amazing.
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The lead actor was amazing, with a top-notch performance and flawless acting. The rest of the cast did great as well, as expected from a stellar cast of notable and popular actors and actresses. However, the movie had too many characters that were overlooked, and overshadowed by the main ones.
Another factor that the movie handled perfectly was the cinematography. From the scenery with the flowers, mount Fuji, the cherry blossoms, to the era-appropriate settings and costumes. The camera work was brilliant and the overall result was just like reading a book.
However, the story was weak. Even though it is based on the popular and renowned book, the movie felt like it was focused on the main hero and his love for women. The ending was a bit confusing with the final scene simply erasing what had happened to the rest of the sequence. So, storywise, the movie didn't handle the material as well as they did with the cinematography and performances.
So, overall, five out of ten.
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Asshole
Sure, lots of writers are famous for being self destructive, substance abusing assholes (Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, and Norman Mailer, to name a few). But a biopic should not simply be a portrayal of an asshole writer doing lots of asshole things in cliched romantic ways as if to excuse his being, oh you know, an asshole. It should be somehow revelatory as to who he is as a complete, fully faceted human being. Even if he's unlikeable, we should still feel the authenticity of his humanity. This movie, however, has not given us a human being. It has given us a caricature.And let's talk about the dialogue, which is god awful and packed with exposition. Characters continually have conversations that are exclusively designed to give us a cram-course in their backstories. The only thing worse is the dialogue delivering lectures about the exceptional nature of the Artiste (oh yea, make that a capitol A and spell it French, because that's how cliched it is). Naturally, it usually comes down to the Artiste's special license to be, yep, an asshole.
But I will give praise to the cinematographer. It was shot gorgeously.
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