"Who's Camus Anyway? カミュなんて,知らない" (2005)
Director: Mitsuo Yanagimachi
Rating: :)
Lately I've been unable to watch films in English because they don't hold my interest. I love subtitles and watching a Japanese film with English subtitles was very engaging and kept me just wanting more. I think it's that I can understand most of it, and then I compare the spoken words to the written words that I see. Its a lot to concentrate on but oh, so worth it.
Who's Camus Anyway is a Japanese film about a group of film students who are in the process of filming a feature film, "The Bored Murderer". From the start of the movie its indredible self-referential, as in it continues to inform the viewers that they are watching a film about the making of the film, therefore letting the viewers know that they are the third party observers. The opening shot runs for exactly 7 minutes and within the scene, characters refer to other movies who have used the same technique (Altman's "The Player")
While watching, I started feeling so nostalgic. The film is about a demographic that often goes misrepresented in Japanese cinema: the creative youth. They live in Tokyo and draw their inspirations from their surroundings. The Japanese hipsters. Before watching this one I watched a different Japanese film "Kabei" and contrasting the difference between the two is fascinating. The movie is also full of cinematic and literary references. Being able to detect those references really made this an enjoyable watch.
Who's Camus Anyway never got slow. Its mixed genres (coming of age, murder mystery, love story) all blend together perfectly in this engaging film.
As a side note, for anyone wanting to reconnect with their Japanese speaking abilities, watching subtitled Japanese movies is great. It all comes back.
