EUREKA
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Shooting Gallery Director: Shinji Aoyama Writer: Shinji Aoyama Cast: Sayuri Kokusho, Yutaka Matsushige, Ken Mitshuishi, Aoi Miyazaki, Masaru Miyazaki, Go Riju, Yohichiroh Saitoh, Kimie Shingyouji, Sansei Shiomi, Koji Yakusho
An 16-year old MTV fan asked me whether he'd be interested in "Eureka." I told him that this was in Japanese with English subtitles; that it moved slowly along, its director Shinji Aoyama needing to make a specific point by lingering on the landscape; that two of its characters who were about his age hardly spoke at all; that it was in black-and-white-sepia until the final moments; and that it went on for three hours and thirty-seven minutes. "I'm outta here," was his reply, not unexpected. And yet, there's something mighty surprising about "Eureka." Despite what most people would consider a torpid pace with all the other ways that the film is distinct from the Hollywood blockbuster, the three-and-a half hours moves so swiftly that when the picture ended I shook my watch in disbelief. What this means is that at least to some people, a speedy pace with witty dialogue and plenty of comic breaks is not always needed. "Eureka" is a mood- creating picture, on in which the final redemption of its three principal characters requires that most of the frames be bleak in order to the make their ultimate inner peace as glowing as fireworks on the fourth.
Some might argue that this new film is really about the trauma faced by the Japanese population after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which is not a bad guess at all, considering that director Aoyama probably meant to be transcendent--to go beyond a simple description of a trio of ordinary people shellshocked by a hideously crowd, lunatic act.
The action takes place in a small community in southwest Japan, the scene of a bus hijacking. As driver Sawai Makoto (Yukusho Koji, known from the popular movie "Shall We Dance") moves down an empty road with his vehicle, his bus is boarded by a strange character (Rijo Go), who without warning pulls out a pistol and shoots at random, leaving only four survivors. A brother-sister couple who attend a middle school are stunned into speechlessness, not surprising considering that their father was dead and their mother had left them for good to get along by themselves on insurance money. When the driver is unable to continue his career, he leaves his home and moves in with the youngsters, pretty Kozue (Aoi Miyazaki) and sullen Naoki (Masaru Miyazaki). Later the three are joined by a 22-year-old cousin of the youngsters now on college vacation, Akihiko (Yohichiroh Saitoh), an arrogant sort who makes like Tiger Woods--practicing his golf swings by the hour outside the rural home of the children.
Aoyama shows how the three traumatized individuals help each other, the kids by taking in the startled bus driver, and the driver by becoming a surrogate parent of the children.
The austere film, which seems to have been influenced by Alain Resnais's "Hiroshima mon Amour," shows the audience what the world looks like through the eyes of the survivors. This is far from the Japan that tourists flock to see. The landscape is dotted with cows, some people frolicking at a distance, the sea and the sand. The driver seems to have passed up an opportunity to forget his troubles when he an attractive woman unsuccessfully flirts with him. We are privy to some of the firings of the weapon of the crazed gunman, and somehow a plot is shoehorned into this still simple film about a serial killer on the loose, Sawai being a prime suspect of the local detective.
As "Eureka" moves along at its own pace, giving off striking visuals which add to the storyline and to the sense of anxiety and desperation of the characters, "Eureka," one of the grimmest pictures to come out of any country in the past decade, succeeds in involving its targeted audience in a thoughtful meditation on life, on people who try to help one another to summon the courage to go on despite their utter despondency.
Not Rated. Running time: 217 minutes (C) 2001 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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