Life: Untitled
LIFE: UNTITLED - THIRD WINDOW FILMS
Life: Untitled is the directorial debut of writer and director Kana Yamada, who adapts her own stage play of the same name into an incredibly influential, dynamic, and poignant film from behind the camera.
Think Reservoir Dogs with Japanese sex workers — that entails a more or less similar aesthetic to Yamada's Life: Untitled. The feature follows a multifaceted group of young directionless Japanese sex workers, primarily in one setting. It is a strong-suited directorial start for Yamada who portrays intimacy, personality and voice, as well as managing space brilliantly.
Kana Yamada’s life in stage theatre is integral to her success here with Life: Untilted, on a multitude of levels. One of many is how the writer-director balances the sheer amount of characters on screen. At any point, the film has on average five characters present with four of them given dialogue and interaction. Nevertheless, the film never feels overly stuffy or crowded. Made more impressive is that none of the character arcs overlaps or outreaches the other, with each having their individual voice.
Each character having a unique voice significantly increases audience engagement, but also caveats as a distinctive personality to said character. Thus, the performers display emotional range and skill impressively. Sairi Ito, in particular, stands out in his incredibly rich and complex role with a strong visual externalisation of the inner turmoil of struggling with work and life choices.
It is this very thematic weight Sairi Ito expertly delivers, which is arguably the crowning glory of Kana Yamada's feature. Themes of empowerment, misogyny and gender roles are peppered in and out, and brewed away in the background, only to boil and consequently be unleashed in a passionate fury. Inciteful and intense moments of self-exploration and acceptance of identity are grappled with, in dear and magnificently furnished touches. Yamada’s film has a sweeping and delightful execution of production design, in which it expertly crafts a replication of mood present that the characters experience. The room opens up in moments of acceptance and fruitful conversation, yet darkens and deepens in a claustrophobic fashion.
These effective elements reinforce that not only is director Kana Yamada one to watch but puts directors —decades in the making — to shame, by showcasing such a standard of skill.
