Sion Sono has already made an appearance on this blog – as you may remember, I reviewed his "Love Exposure" in February 2021. Because of that, I had already expected "Red Post on Escher Street" to be truly wild ride. And I wasn't disappointed.
More, I loved it.
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| Sono's craziness my beloved. |
Similarly to "Love Exposure", it's hard to describe the plot of "Red Post on Escher Street". While it isn't that long ("only" 2,5 hours), there's still a lot of happening. It tells a story of a new movie of Tadashi Kobayashi (Tatsuhiro Yamaoka), a very known and liked director. Kobayashi decides to cast amateurs instead of experienced actors and organises a giant audition. It catches attention of many people, who'd love to star in the film, including an independent theatre troupe, a little loony Kobayashi's fanclub, Yasuko Yabuki (Sen Fujimaru), a lady who stopped giving a fuck about anything some time ago, and Kiriko (Matsuki Kohira), a widow, who wants to follow steps of her deceased husband, an actor. As expected, during the audition (and later filming) chaos ensues, additionally fuelled by Kobayashi's own struggles with screenwriting and his battles with selfish movie producers.
Thanks to the overall idea revolving around auditions, there are many characters introduced. Actually, two thirds of the movie are basically character introductions. However, all of them are developed, have a unique backstory and serve a certain role in the plot. And while the huge number may seem hard to follow at first, thanks to them all being fleshed out and very different from each other, it's impossible to confuse them. All of them also have some impact on the finale, which ties all
storylines and provides a very satisfactory ending to the whole movie.
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| Sono really did the impossible here. |
This all wouldn't be possible without a good pacing. The movie is dynamic, but doesn't advance too quickly, allowing viewers to focus on important plot points and learn better about the characters. There are also some elements that repeat from time to time, like sending a letter via the titular red post or recurring subplot with construction workers blocking the road, which offers something familiar in the clusterfuck of events and helps organize it. Because of that, while there's always a lot happening, it's not tiring or overwhelming.
The acting is great too. Whole cast brings the best out of their quirky characters. They're very emotional and often overdramatize, but it matches the tone of the movie. It is supposed to be loud and overdramatized... Similarly to the film made by Kobayashi – from the fragments we can see, there's a lot of shouting and exalted behaviour in it, which may be a some kind of a meta joke about Sion Sono's own works.
In general, this movie is one, big meta commentary on filmmaking. Sono actually admitted, that some of the subplots were inspired by his own experiences – the arguments with producers being the best example. Kobayashi himself is also a good example of a realistic portrayal of an artist – he wants to create, but is burned out, struggles with artblock (which is why it's later Katako, his friend, who takes over writing the script for his newest movie) and has to fight with expectancies of other people and their attempts of meddling with his work. I have to admit that the scene, where he finally loses his shit, is extremely relatable to me – there's nothing worse than when you're trying to work, but others are constantly disturbing you...
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| Being an artist is hard. Period. |
"Red Post on Escher Street" is a one wild movie. It's loud, colourful and, at the same time, just full of love. Despite the difficulties, Sion Sono loves what he's doing and you can feel it in this movie. I don't want to go into cheesy claptrap, but this work is an awesome love letter to the cinema as a whole. An absolutely enjoyable one.
I just love it.
Image sources:
All stills were screenshot by me from the official trailer and belong to Hikoki Films International and AMG Entertainment.
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