Glimpses from TIFF (2)

This woman from Tokyo comes back to a smaller city and start to present her friends with awfully big sums of money, one by one. But troubles occur. How will it end?


.../me not sold.


But that was one of the few movies on the festival with tickets still available, and I needed a break from my writings.

Still, when director Morita came on stage with two male lead characters, I started to regret my decision. Morita was boring and the two other men were obnoxious. Then we had a video message from the lead actress, which sort of blew as well.

This screening wasn't into a good start.

But things got better once the tape was rolled.


"It's On Me" (Watashi Dasu Wa) surprised in a pleasant way. A smart, deliberately paced piece. Instead of overacting or campy drama we get an intelligent and funny look at modern Japan through inhabitants of the northern city of Hakodate.

God knows I wasn't expecting it. I was sure to get a typical Japanese emotional disaster, with an incurable illness, lots of unrequited love and a running scene at the end. I didnt. Well there was the illness I guess. But the sleepy yet magnificent in every detail vision of director Morita (I'm sorry I thought bad of you first, sir) was so fresh I couldn't believe this is a new, mainstream Japanese flick.

And Koyuki, whom I never was a fan of (the curse of "Last Samurai", perhaps?) delivers big.

Great characters, great climate: a film brilliant in its sleepy climate, that only emphasizes all the valuable lessons to earn.



And here is the special trailer version with aliens. Too bad no aliens in actual movie.





Polish summary // Tytul oryginalny tego filmu to "Watashi Dasu Wa", po angielsku to jest "It's on Me", a po polsku pewnie "Ja zaplace". Duzo lepsze i trafniejsze byloby "Ja stawiam", ale wiadomo, smichy chichy i jak to powaznie traktowac widownie no. A film dobry. Swiezy. Ladny.//