Ryutaro Ninomiya's understated sensibilities may project a languidness to some yet quietly smoldering underneath the enigmatic narrative schematics of his latest feature - Minori, On the Brink - lies a pensive and affecting portrait of ennui. The title character Minori is introduced as a maelstrom of youthful angst and feminist fervor, a character whose frustrations about the performative nature of social exchange and the implicit normalization of masculine privilege in Japanese culture has left her rightfully combative. Minori's discursive strategies are rooted in forthrightness and bitter honesty, finding herself consistently at odds with the cultural norms rooted in politeness and subversion of conflict. She is simply unwilling or incapable of putting on a performance about her own epistemological experiences, fearful of becoming complacent and thus complicit in the cultures normalization of feminine passivity. Never interested in expounding meaning, Ryutaro Ninomiya's latest film quietly observes and slowly excoriates its central characterization to reveal a poignant portrait of repressed emotions and the fear associated with socio-cultural-personal stagnation, illustrating in its understated naturalism the symbiotic relationship between truth and action and its counterpart deception and stagnation
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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