Continuing this summer´s trend of showing positive portrayals of eavesdropping (see: "The Dark Knight"), "Man, Woman and the Wall" is an attempt by writer/director Masashi Yamamoto to showcase the flipside of the oft-talked about practice. It´s more than that, too, as reporter Ryo (Keita Ohno) becomes fascinated with his next door neighbor Satsuki (Aoi Sola) thanks to a very thin wall separating their small apartments. The more he hears, the more he creates the world Satsuki lives in from an impossibly kitschy apartment to her amorous boyfriend, Yuta.
"Man, Woman and the Wall" doesn´t much bother with the moral or legal questions surrounding listening to a neighbor. No, the screenplay allows Ryo to poke fun at himself a couple times, commenting to those around him he is taken with Satsuki. He´s a voyeur, masturbating to the sounds of Yuta and Satsuki having sex. He´s a daydreamer, imagining the events on the other side of the wall. He´s even a good guy, in the long run. A little odd and obsessive, sure. But not someone to be feared.
As the next door beauty received harassing phone call after harassing phone call (the caller wants to screw her, in those words, if the subtitles are to be believed). It´s fairly obvious after the first on-screen call and her subsequent actions who the perp turns out to be. The movie revolves around hat Ryo hears, how his feelings grow despite a lack of contact with the object of his affection. A little breaking, a little entering, some scripted theatrics…ah well, there aren´t any twists or turns in the film. Not even a who-dun-it or a good softcore porn flick, the plotting brings us from one inevitable scene to another, all of which add up to…something.
Yamamoto´s mission, according to the making of featurette, was to create a good film with a low budget. Utilizing a handful of sets an even smaller number of characters, he is able to distill the story down to its key components. This isn´t a standard chase film or a detective story. The script isn´t concerned with those aspects. Rather, it becomes a slow meditation on the imagination and how it helps people relate to one another. Each piece of the film is borne out of what has come before. Even the ending "fight" scene turns out to be a natural extension of the relationships we´ve been following. In that sense, Yamamoto succeeds in bringing his vision to the screen.
In talking about the theme, we have to discuss the actions taken by Ryo and Yuta. Ryo´s role in this escapade has already been mentioned: he listens and, in essence, saves Satsuki not because he sets out to, but because something interferes with his enjoyment. There is no altruistic method behind his proverbial madness, nothing to suggest to anyone he is anything but a pervert. Yet Yuta, with the mini-camera he uses to spy on his girlfriend, is demonized. All he does, to play devil´s advocate, is get a thrill from being a visual (instead of auditory) voyeur. Is there any real difference in their actions?
Both invade a woman´s privacy, albeit through different means. Both are more concerned with themselves and their pleasure than her life. Both men end up breaking into her apartment. Is it only the eventual outcome which redeems Ryo and vilifies Yuta? By all rights, Satsuki should be terrified of living in that apartment again, knowing what has gone on in it. The screenplay doesn´t necessarily concern itself with that way of looking at the story. It is on a single track designed to change the way eavesdroppers are perceived, no one bothers with the flip side. Ryo isn´t a good guy in the conventional sense; he is just as much a pervert as Yuta.
Perhaps, I will concede, Japanese culture is different than that in America. I´ll even admit my own take on the material may not be how it is seen in Japan, by the actors or intended by the script. That is always a distinct problem when taking in art from a foreign creator. What societal norms are they assuming and wanting the audience to assume? Should we, the foreign audience, simply go along with the ride, regardless of how our own system of beliefs and values tells us to respond? I don´t know.
One saving grace for the production in this regard is the actors. The three leads in the featurette don´t hint at any trepidation concerning the material. In actuality, they are very happy with the finished product, signing on after being enamored by the script. Could it just be my American-ism rearing its ugly head, preventing me from fully embracing the film?
Audiences may have trouble with the distinct lack of anything kinetic happening for the majority of the film. We watch Ryo listen to Satsuki. We watch as they go about their daily lives. We watch as Yuta comes into the story. In a sense, we are just as guilty of being voyeuristic as Ryo is. Already clocking in at a slim 84 minutes, I can´t help but wonder if "Man, Woman and the Wall" wouldn´t have worked better as a short film, somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour. Certain segments seem to creep by in slow motion. Part of the problem turns out to be the rather bland characters.
We´re never given any reason to like or identify with them. What is it, aside from the thought of being with her, that Ryo finds appealing? And what about Satsuki? Yes, she is good looking, but is that all there is to her? A pretty face? The complaint, succinctly, is a lack of depth and development to the characters. On one level, it is easy to sympathize with Satsuki, her privacy crudely invaded. But in another, she is merely a pawn in the film to be moved around by the story itself, and not a three dimensional person.
VIDEO:
The 1.77:1 non-anamorphic transfer has certainly seen better days. For one, it´s not 16:9, a standard all films should be held except in the most extreme of circumstances. And two, the actual look of the film is akin to a VHS tape. Bright scenes don´t betray their problems quite as badly as the night ones do. Chief among them are grain, a lack of good black levels and murkiness in those shots. This film was released just last year. It wasn´t shot on a miniscule budget like others on disc recently-"Hell´s Ground," anyone?-so what´s the excuse?
AUDIO:
TLA Releasing gets a major thumbs up for continuing to present foreign films in only their native language. The only audio track we get here is Japanese 2.0, a mix which left me quite pleased. (No dubbed version, thank heavens.) As Ryo moves closer to the titular wall and presses his ear to it, everything he hears is magnified through the speakers, as if we are in the room listening with him. It´s an audio effect I noticed a couple times during the film; it works to great effect in each instance.
Other ambient sounds are crisp and clear-Satsuki eating or licking her lips, for example-providing a good showcase for the mix. There is the occasional background distortion evident on all low budget films, though it doesn´t obstruct the dialogue in most instances. English subtitles are included in the Special Features menu.
EXTRAS:
A rather useless 21-minute making is the headlining bonus feature. I wish I could say it was as immersive as other pieces on foreign films have been on TLA discs ("Meatball Machine" or "Strange Circus," for example). The featurette gives the barest of information about the actually making of the film, opting to intercut seeming press kit interviews with the director and leads with behind the scenes action-the latter of which isn´t subtitled, strangely.
A selection of photos (a dozen in all) comes next, followed by a handful of trailers: "Man, Woman and the Wall" (1:39), "Strange Circus" (2:19), "Pistoleros" (2:13), "The Living and the Dead" (2:06) and "Next Door" (1:53).
PARTING THOUGHTS:
"Man, Woman and the Wall" could have been an important film, tweaking current American policy toward wiretapping and the invasion of privacy. It chose not to go that route and, instead, finds itself oddly championing and wagging its finger at the same behavior. Which side is it: good or bad?