FilmFan
11-23-2009, 11:38 PM
http://www.hotmoviesale.com/dvds/84078/1/Man-Woman-and-the-Wall.jpg
Man, Woman and the Wall aka Kikareta onna no mirareta yoru
Running time: 84 minutes
Directed by: Masashi Yamamoto
Starring: Aoi Sola
IMDB rating: 6.2
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1236242/
This is one of those films that jumps right in from the first scene. It doesn't begin slowly or spend any time letting you get to know the characters. I think that's a good thing, as the film wouldn't have gained anything from a detailed introduction to someone's character. A side-effect of this is that we don't really know anything about the childhood or relationship history of the main character, but this doesn't really matter in my opinion. We get to know him well enough because of the events that take place.
Ryo has just moved into a new apartment, and next door to him lives an attractive young woman. After realising that the wall between them is thin enough that he can hear much of what is going on there, he starts to listen to what she's doing and imagine what she looks like. A while later, her boyfriend comes by, and soon after our protagonist closes his eyes, listens in and pictures what she must look like having sex. This is a pretty hot scene. I checked the credits afterwards, and apparently a different actress was involved for this part, which is a shame. I'm not quite sure why though, as the lead actress has posed with her clothes off several times in real life, and she appears naked later on in the film anyway. Maybe it was to slow the difference between his fantasy version of her and the real thing, but they were very similar anyway.
He later follows her as she takes her rubbish bag downstairs, and then grabs it as soon as she leaves. Back in his apartment, he's delighted to find some nail clippings. He tracks down where she works (a diner, which I assume is a particularly American/Western oriented kind of place, as everyone seemed to be eating burgers and fries). He goes in and orders fried bananas and cherry coke (aka the David Tua special) and gets a better look at her.
He engineers a meeting between the two of them, and they end up becoming somewhat friendly towards one another. He doesn't make a move on her however, preferring to bide his time (or maybe he just prefers the role of voyeur).
After using a microphone in order to hear what she's doing more clearly, he notices that he is getting some disturbance when listening in on her, and contacts a friend of a friend who is particularly tech-savvy. This leads to the discovery that she has been bugged and that there is already someone else secretly spying on her.
Unsurprisingly (and thankfully), from this state of affairs it doesn't develop into anything mundane or predictable, and the unusual storyline and occassional sex scene help to give the film a nice edge.
The film is a bit twisted, and there may be some who find it hard to buy into some of the events that take place. I'm not one of them. You only need to spend 5 minutes on the internet to realise that there's a lot of weird people in the world, and a few of them existing within the same area isn't particularly unlikely.
I doubt anyone would approach this movie expecting a masterpiece, and they'd be right in that assumption. Although this (like a lot of Japanese film and TV I've seen) has some mildly strange elements, it combines them with linear storytelling. I like that combination.
This film is probably best suited to you if you're a bit of a perv, but it's not the sex scenes that make the film good, more so the way the plot develops and moves along at a good pace, and the fact that the events that take place are pretty intriguing.
7/10
Man, Woman and the Wall aka Kikareta onna no mirareta yoru
Running time: 84 minutes
Directed by: Masashi Yamamoto
Starring: Aoi Sola
IMDB rating: 6.2
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1236242/
This is one of those films that jumps right in from the first scene. It doesn't begin slowly or spend any time letting you get to know the characters. I think that's a good thing, as the film wouldn't have gained anything from a detailed introduction to someone's character. A side-effect of this is that we don't really know anything about the childhood or relationship history of the main character, but this doesn't really matter in my opinion. We get to know him well enough because of the events that take place.
Ryo has just moved into a new apartment, and next door to him lives an attractive young woman. After realising that the wall between them is thin enough that he can hear much of what is going on there, he starts to listen to what she's doing and imagine what she looks like. A while later, her boyfriend comes by, and soon after our protagonist closes his eyes, listens in and pictures what she must look like having sex. This is a pretty hot scene. I checked the credits afterwards, and apparently a different actress was involved for this part, which is a shame. I'm not quite sure why though, as the lead actress has posed with her clothes off several times in real life, and she appears naked later on in the film anyway. Maybe it was to slow the difference between his fantasy version of her and the real thing, but they were very similar anyway.
He later follows her as she takes her rubbish bag downstairs, and then grabs it as soon as she leaves. Back in his apartment, he's delighted to find some nail clippings. He tracks down where she works (a diner, which I assume is a particularly American/Western oriented kind of place, as everyone seemed to be eating burgers and fries). He goes in and orders fried bananas and cherry coke (aka the David Tua special) and gets a better look at her.
He engineers a meeting between the two of them, and they end up becoming somewhat friendly towards one another. He doesn't make a move on her however, preferring to bide his time (or maybe he just prefers the role of voyeur).
After using a microphone in order to hear what she's doing more clearly, he notices that he is getting some disturbance when listening in on her, and contacts a friend of a friend who is particularly tech-savvy. This leads to the discovery that she has been bugged and that there is already someone else secretly spying on her.
Unsurprisingly (and thankfully), from this state of affairs it doesn't develop into anything mundane or predictable, and the unusual storyline and occassional sex scene help to give the film a nice edge.
The film is a bit twisted, and there may be some who find it hard to buy into some of the events that take place. I'm not one of them. You only need to spend 5 minutes on the internet to realise that there's a lot of weird people in the world, and a few of them existing within the same area isn't particularly unlikely.
I doubt anyone would approach this movie expecting a masterpiece, and they'd be right in that assumption. Although this (like a lot of Japanese film and TV I've seen) has some mildly strange elements, it combines them with linear storytelling. I like that combination.
This film is probably best suited to you if you're a bit of a perv, but it's not the sex scenes that make the film good, more so the way the plot develops and moves along at a good pace, and the fact that the events that take place are pretty intriguing.
7/10