Manji is really weird and pretty gay. Thank goodness for that! This is one of the most interesting films I’ve had the pleasure to have watched. This movie is so moody. There’s little buildup before jumping into the meat of the plot. It makes sense as thematically, our protagonist is thrown into a weird state suddenly. Sonoko Kakiuchi is our protagonist, played by Kyōko Kishida. She is a pretty interesting and also relatable character. She’s, in a sense, under a trance. Sonoko’s not using her best judgement, but she has an awareness of this. She is good at realizing what people are thinking or doing, though she sometimes isn’t so good at that, as her emotions are often controlling her more than her brain. Mitsuko Tokumitsu, played by Ayako Wakao, is delightfully devilish. It’s often hard to place what she’s really doing. Her exterior is often very sweet, but not always. It’s easy to see how people are interested in her, despite how problematic she is.
The directing is solid. There’s a comfort and mundane quality to it at times, when the director wants everything to be normal. When things get weird, so does the lighting or other qualities. The main way of portraying this is with the actors, who can emote a lot or very little and do a great job of expressing a range of emotions. Sonoko’s husband is Kotaro Kakiuchi. He is level headed and composed, but you can hear his true feelings under his voice or see his true feelings under his face.
The plot, while bonkers, doesn’t go too bonkers to the point of losing the audience’s engagement, though some parts can confuse. “Why did Character X do that?” A common problem in film is when a character needs to think or act one way for the plot to work, but then they need to act in a contradictory fashion. That happens a little here, but these complaints aren’t too big of a deal. A common motif of the film is death. Sometimes its reference doesn’t fit with what’s happening. I was often thinking, “Calm down, this isn’t that big of a deal.” The characters don’t take death very seriously, so perhaps they were being metaphoric. Betrayal is also discussed throughout the film.
It’s fortunate that the Homosexual angles of this film are not emphasized at all. It’s just two people who happen to be the same gender. The film is made more engaging as it’s not focusing on details that aren’t important. If a character said, “Why am I gay??!!”, that would distract from the main plot. The two gay characters are often depicted as carefree and in love. They don’t care about being gay, it’s just how they role and what they do because that’s who they are.
SPOILERS
Rumors are started at an art school that two of its students, Sonoko and Mitsuko, are romantic together. There’s never a reference to them both being women, which was very unexpected and interesting. The concern is that Sonoko is married and Mitsuko is engaged. The two women decide to befriend each other to show everyone who’s boss! Seems strange as everyone already thinks they’re together. Sonoko falls for Mitsuko as they’re together. One particularly striking part of the film is when Sonoko confesses her romantic feelings for Mitsuko. Sonoko pressures Mitsuko to get naked. Most of the film doesn’t depict her as pressuring. Mitsuko is uninterested, but is ultimately persuaded. The two have sex, though the film doesn’t show anything. Is it because it’s gay or because the film just doesn’t want to? Her change in mind is quite jarring. It’s not revealed why she changed her mind, but Mitsuko is portrayed as very manipulative later in the film, so perhaps her resistance was part of that. The filming of this scene is very good. We get good, creative shots from various places in the room. This more thoroughly paints the picture of this situation being a tad odd and frantic as we’re cutting to a lot of angles.
Sonoko greatly concerns her husband by spending almost all of her time with Mitsuko. Kotaro figures out that they’re having a love affair. He doesn’t seem to mind her cheating on him as much as she’s clearly worse off constantly obsessing over someone. His intentions are for her to move on for her own benefit. After being embarrassed by Mitsuko, Sonoko leaves her and seems better off with Kotaro. In a dramatic scene, Kishida overacts a bit when Sonoko tells Kotaro she’ll never see Mitsuko again. Mitsuko’s devilish web pulls Sonoko back in. This is brilliantly done. Mitsuko seems very vulnerable and needing of something small, like friendship, but it’s all to take more. After the two resume their love affair, Mitsuko and Sonoko decide to pretend to overdose on sleeping powder so Kotaro and Mitsuko’s fiancé, Eijirō, will think they died, then the women will runoff together. For whatever reason, they decide to actually take too much sleeping powder, but probably not enough to die. Another of the most striking and disturbing scenes is when the women promise that if one of them actually dies, the other will go with them. There’s a few references to them not leaving each other and killing themselves together.
Sonoko wakes up later to find Mitsuko having sex with Kotaro. We see a little more here than the lesbian scene earlier, perhaps because it’s straight. It was confusing as to why Kotaro did this. According to sources I read, a few chance encounters between Mitsuko and Kotaro made him fall in love with her, but it wasn’t very clear. Why not have the audience get in Kotaro’s head a little whenever he talked to Mitsuko? Why not have a scene of him seeing her and her seeing him and a little click happens? How the film depicts this relationship is very sudden. The scene isn’t done too poorly. Mitsuko has shown an ability to be so tantalizing that nothing can dissuade someone from loving her. Earlier in the film, she complains of pregnancy pain to Sonoko and makes a big scene. She later reveals she wasn’t actually pregnant. Sonoko continued to be on her metaphorical leash.
Kotaro and Sonoko become subservient to Mitsuko. Mitsuko makes them live with her and she treats them like pets. The two understand that they’re being manipulated by her, but they never try to leave. Why? They casually discuss them dying more. Mitsuko is outwardly manipulative at this point. However, a twist comes at the end. The seemingly docile and impotent Eijirō reveals what Sonoko and Kotaro have been doing to the public, killing their social lives and Kotaro’s professional life. Sonoko, Kotaro, and Mitsuko very warmly and positively decide to kill themselves. Sonoko and Kotaro literally treat Mitsuko like a goddess. They seem to have lost their individuality and are tranced by Mitsuko. This is the sum of the whole movie so far. Lots of little moments, such as the “trance” by Mitsuko, is emphasized more here. The filming is stylized. We’re getting shots that show Mitsuko like a goddess. Sonoko and Kotaro act very similarly, as if they lost their personalities and it’s all about Mitsuko.
Mitsuko administers the three of them poison-laced sleeping powder. Sonoko wakes up later, alive and well. She realizes that she was betrayed by the other two. They intentionally didn’t poison her, so she wouldn’t die. Unfortunately, this was spoiled for the audience as Sonoko has been narrating for the whole movie. Why not make the audience think she was talking from a point before the ending or actually have it set before the ending? This was utilized in Forrest Gump. The narration finished up, then there was more movie left and scenes for Forrest to continue the plot. The ending is still effective due to the acting and excellent look of horror on Sonoko’s face. It’s just not as good as it could’ve been. That’s a shame. The ending is better when one thinks about all the mentions of love and death throughout the film. Mitsuko promised Sonoko that if she died, she’d take her with her. One can empathize with Sonoko here.
OVERVIEW
Manji is really weird and very interesting. It’s worth a watch for those that like a mind screw or to feel weird during or after a movie. You’ll think about this one for a bit after watching it, considering every little line or action by a character and how it paid off later. “Was character X always thinking Y?” It’s not a bad movie to rewatch.
The Filme Diary 