Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Express News Service
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Guzen to sozo) received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize on the 71st Berlinale this yr. Over the final yr, we’ve seen an countless barrage of anthologies. Here, Hamaguchi comes up with a three-film anthology that packs magic and coincidence, age and innocence, fellowship and camaraderie to look at tiny nuggets of human behaviour with a canvas bigger than what the movie seemingly permits. At the centre of the three movies are ladies, adopted by dialog that evokes a lot shock and shock to overawe us into shopping for into their tales. Here is lastly an anthology movie that maintains a typical thematic essence and offers us tales so not like one another, parachuting us into a brand new movie whilst we battle to resolve what to make of the one which got here earlier than.

The first one is titled Magic or Something Less Assuring. With the ghost of Hong Sang-soo throughout it, meals and conviviality intermingle with advanced feelings. It is about Meiko (Kotone Furukawa), a mannequin who has a protracted dialog with a colleague Tsugumi (Hyunri) within the backseat of a cab. Hamaguchi needs us to look at them as fading metropolis lights disappear on the edges and Tsugumi is telling Meiko a few man she had simply met, how they spent fifteen straight hours collectively.

We don’t get a whiff of it, however Meiko is slowly fed clues in regards to the man and he or she’s already zeroing on who it may very well be. Tsugumi will get off and a cheerful Meiko turns sombre in matter of seconds. Where the story goes from right here is predictable, however the journey is bewitching for we uncover a brand new dimension to Meiko; the mannequin we met within the automotive, who was speaking about intercourse on first date, all of a sudden transforms into this intricate lady whose story wants a characteristic size movie.

Every movie in Wheels of Fortune and Fantasy has this factor about it – by the top, we’re content material but in addition need extra. That’s precisely the fantasy of longing that Hamaguchi goals for. It’s much less assuring however arresting, nonetheless.

The second is known as Door Wide Open and staying true to the title, the story blows free just like the wind with out a care on this planet, coming into open areas and testing boundaries of belief. Segawa (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) is a French professor within the college and a stickler for guidelines and ethics.

At least, that’s the little we’re in a position to glean from what we’re proven. Nao (Katsuki Mori), a senior pupil relationship certainly one of her juniors, is a fan of Segawa’s well-received new ebook, and the junior who was ousted from the school on account of a run-in with Segawa asks Nao to a lay a honey lure for the newly well-known professor-novelist. In Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, this fantasy goes one step additional and we’re ever lucky for it.