JIFFest: Unmei Janai Hito (2005)

When watching a film, the story had my highest point of appreciation. If a story was engaging and compelling, the film would only needed a little less of good ingredients here and there to made my day. Unmei Janai Hito was one of the such.

The film was begin with unmistakeable sense of dull drama between two strangers who had their share of misfortunes. Maki (Reika Kirishima), an introverted woman who just decided to leave her fiancee when she found out about his infidelity and Miyata (Yasuhi Nakamura), a nerdy blue collar worker who can't get over from his failed relationship six months prior with a sassy, and sexy Ayumi (Yuka Itaya, pictured above) shared a table, courtesy of Miyata's junior high school friend, who was an unlucky private investigator, Kanda (Sou Yamanaka). Together, plus a hard-time yakuza, Asai (Kisuke Yamashita), these characters would revolve around an incident with a suitcase full of money on a single long Friday night events. The film would often revisit a scene from different character's point-of-view. And this dejavu-esque technique that keep the story engaging. However, the film was also wise enough to stay on its course by being light and funny. The re-shuffled scene was very apparent that only little guessing needed to comprehend the entire original timeline of the film.

As with every other good Japanese films, i had no complaint with the casts, introverted Maki, nerdy Miyata, carefree Kanda, sultry Ayumi, and intrepid Asai were all live up to their role that none of them grew boring. Some of them even had depth as it was apparent with Maki, in which she had to face with difficult choice. The soundtrack played nicely swinging from this mood to other in a coherent way. Can't believe that this film was coming from the first-time director, Kenji Uchida.

I was blind buy the ticket to this film (just because it's Japanese), but i was ultimately rewarded, and so far, this has been my best money well spend during the festival.

Unmei Janai Hito, 2005 (US: Stranger of Mine)
Directed by: Kenji Uchida
Running Time: 98 mins.
My Rating: ***1/2 / **** (Engaging)