Toilet and Women (2012) / どんずまり便器

I've watched a fair few weird^[1] films in my time - some have been good, some have been great and some have been absolutely rubbish. As the name suggests, this is a film about a toilet and a woman. There is a bit more to it, but how much?

The film opens showing a schoolgirl and boy lain on the ground and the girl pulls her pants up. It is fair to assume they are post-coital. Rather oddly, she then asks for 300 yen (this is the equivalent of about £2, a small sum in Japan) which he thinks is weird but then gives it. Moments later, they are at it again. The girl, called Narumi (played by Nanaha) does not seem to be enjoying it and it does seem pretty transactional but then there is the tiny sum involved - so it can't really be that. A few scenes later, you can see the girl, who is the main character, talking to a doctor in a lab and then stealing a test tube from him. The contents of the test tube? Just some semen. It is a pretty weird film.

The opening of the film closes about 3 years later showing Narumi leaving prison (it is not clear what for) and returning home to her home and younger brother. Their parents have passed and she's not best pleased to see another person in their home - her brother's girlfriend. "not best pleased" is one way of putting it, but is it just a simple jealousy now that her brother has found a girlfriend?

Low budgets do not have to mean low quality and the low budget aesthetic is worn on the sleeve of this film. It does not feel like there are many things to get in the way of the story which is quite refreshing. Of course, this puts a greater burden on the quality of the story and the acting. I think it just about gets away with it.

The main actress, who has to go through a form of breakdown at parts, is compelling throughout with burning eyes but often quite a blank face. As a result, you do feel she is on the edge quite a lot and the early scenes do set up a film where you know quite bizarre things can happen. Her brother, who has a little less screen time, is also an engaging watch and so their relationship at the heart of the film is similarly engaging.

In many ways, this is classic indie fodder - dealing with things in a matter of fact way even though they are not necessarily "standard", and I can see why some have difficulty with almost normalising behaviour. I found it to be thought-provoking but not too pretentious, and providing no answers at all. That kind of film is not to everyone's taste but, as a short film, it might be worth the risk. If you can handle the indie sensibility, I'd say it is well worth searching out.

 

You can see the trailer here: 

^{1. Most of the very oddest and most interesting of these films, conceptually at least, have been Japanese, From the blancmange ending of Akira to the rent-a-family oddities of Noriko's Dinner Table, these ideas have stuck with me for longer than most..↩}