Offbeat Cops (2022 Japan)

Naruse is a capable, demanding and unscrupulous detective. He boasts prowess on dealing with dangerous criminals, but he is wanting in many other ways. At work, he openly expresses contempts for today’s police department, and is unanimously disliked by his juniors, superiors and peers. At home, the relationship with his daughter is in crisis due to his neglect, and he was increasingly exasperated by his senile mother. In the middle of investigating a series of murder targeting the home alone elderly women with savings, he was demoted to the Police Band for aggresive behaviours. Despite of the initial rejection and frustration, Naruse devoted to his new role. He bonded with his daughter over music, learnt the difficulties of the lesser police work and taught himself humility.

The film is a statement about the positivity of compliance. Naruse found happiness in performing the roles given to him, whether as a father or a drummer in front of an audience. By the end of the film, he no longer insists on being a detective and was respected as well as rewarded for it. Naruse’s changes also positively influenced almost everyone around him, except for the old ladies in his life. Previously, Naruse covered his mother’s living area with handwritten reminders, whose bluntness is near to cruelty. This has not changed when the film ends, and her only consolation seems to come from watching her son playing the drum like when he was young. Similarly, the old lady that befriended Naruse and the whole band before him became a victim of the said crimes. She was compensated by having music played solemnly to her literally dead ears, by the whole police band with tears in their eyes. At this point, the facade of positivity breaks in front of me, who hitherto had consented to the film’s contrivances, “well, perhaps she would not have died if Naruse continued working on the case, instead of picking up his childhood hobby.” When it comes to getting its own way, the film has as much regard for the old ladies’ lives as the anonymous criminal group do when it’s time to make a buck. It refuses to respond to any lurking assumptions that the audience might have had. It does not explore and debate what nurtured Naruse’s bad temperaments, neither does it leave room for doubts regarding his newly found inner peace. Like its final scene, this film is a recital played to, rather than a dialogue to have with its audience. It puts Naruse down and lifts him up freely as it sees fit, just like the police department that fully controls him.

The film uses Naruse to flag personal happiness as the goal and demonstrates how it can be achieved. By making its characters archetypal and leaving them with no options, it refers to and folds upon itself. It is a spokesperson that is behind that camera, not a visionary.

Manchurian Tiger (2021 China)

“Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down.”

Our hero is silent, like the manchurian tiger shut in a zoo. One of the zoo’s patrons explained that it is due to the lack of companions in its/his surrounding. Having a mistress, a wife and a baby on the way does not soothe his lonlieness; he bonds more with his dog and the guy who butchered the said bog out of desperation. He wants to go to the south to watch the girls in bikinis, an end that implies the erasing of his current life, which his wife was driven to attempt after learning about the extramarital affair. But the killing of herself and him was not done, so life went on for them, and for the guy he bonded with on whom life has also miraculously loosened its rein.

My question is, are we all to hope for mercy from life? and does hope not require ingredients other than waiting?

The Young Man (1994 Korea)

“Let them photograph your soul, memorise your alleys on an endless roll”

what i saw: Lee Han is a a free, lively and vigorous young model that wishes for fortune and fame. This invigorating, innocent hope transformed to be a monster that feeds on his person when he submitted to his agent’s demands for sexual favours in exchange for opportunities. When the museum director friend of his procured him a gig with great potential, Lee Han descended to steal the contract that binds him to his agent. When confronted by the agent with aggression, he strangled her and disposed the body secretly. In the morning of the shoot, after knowingly driving past the waiting friend, Lee Han crashed into a truck; when he briefly recovered consciousness, he got up to put on the sunglasses before laying down to die.

Some details I’m not sure of: Did he smirk when driving past the waiting friend? Did he take his eyes off of the road in order to check himself in the mirror? Was he reluctant to introduce the alcoholic girl friend to the museum director? and was he relieved on discovering that the museum director was kindly disposed to his wild-mannered friend?

what i thought:  “I’ll do anything” is a cliche line for desperate characters. People of principles can’t say it, neither can Lee Han, so he waited for the proposal and complied. He did not know how much he wanted this until he chose to sell his body and to dispose another later on. There is an irreparable rift between Lee Han’s self image of a healthy, carefree young man that eventually gets what he wants, and the exploited, desperate and aggressive one in reality. The videotape that documents Lee Han’s day-to-day rituals started off as truth, then degrades to instagram highlights as he strives to realise his dreams.

Quote from “Aspects of the Novel” by E.M.Forster

“ ..we can know more about him than we can know about any of our fellow creatures, because his creator and narrator are one...‘If God could tell the story of the universe, the universe would become fictious.’... ”