Review for Sawako Decides

Introduction

We're still feeling the after effects of those horrific riots a few months back. One small incident in North London was the torching of the Sony DADC replication plant and warehouse. That single incident dealt a crippling kick to the collective gonads of the independent film distribution industry in the UK, wiping out back catalogues and throwing a monkey wrench into future release plans. Only now are some companies getting back on their feet. Third Window Films have finally got some back catalogue stuff in the market again, and you can pick up some choice titles online. Unfortunately, Blu-ray release plans for the immediate future have been put on hold (No Villain Blu-ray), but if like me you've been twitching like a drug addict without a fix, October's release slate will come as welcome relief. We get not one, but two releases from Third Window Films this month, the comic anthology Quirky Guys and Gals, and this Sawako Decides. The riots may have shown us a British society where the have-nots feel justified in kicking in a shop window to keep up with the Joneses, but Sawako Decides has a far more positive message to impart about being a member of the lower rungs of society. Now if we can get these hoodies to watch DVDs instead of burning them…


Five isn't Sawako's lucky number. She's been in Tokyo for five years, is in her fifth job, and on her fifth boyfriend. It's a demeaning office job for a toy manufacturer, where she's dating one of the toy designers, single father Kenichi. She's drifting through life, aspiring, if that is the word, to be average. It's a life with no dreams or ambition, where her catchphrase is 'it can't be helped'. Kenichi has dreams of living an eco-friendly lifestyle, and is not too subtly trying to recruit her to be Kayoko's new mother, while Sawako and Kayoko don't exactly get along. Then she gets a phone call that her father is critically ill.


The phone call from home implores her to return. As sole heir to her father's freshwater clam business it's her responsibility now, but Sawako isn't inclined to return. It's when Kenichi quits his job, packs his and Kayoko's stuff and insists that they go and build a new eco-life in the country that Sawako has to comply. But there's something that she hasn't told Kenichi, there's a reason why she left five years previously. By returning home to the place that she struggled to flee, she's forced to confront her past, forced to take responsibility, and forced to make the decisions that will make her reengage with her life.

The Disc

Sawako Decides gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer on this DVD. It's an NTSC-PAL standards conversion, a little soft and with the typical blended frames, but free of significant ghosting and judder. It's a fairly realistic look to the film, shot mostly with natural light and on the film stock usual to Japanese cinema, a little drab and pushed more towards blues and greens. The audio is your basic DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese track, with optional English subtitles. The dialogue is clear throughout, and the music, while sparsely used, is eclectic and quirky, some odd but effective choices to drive the story's tempo.

Extras

The disc gets a static menu, and you'll also find a trailer for Sawako Decides, as well as 20 other Third Window Films titles trailed on the disc. Should you choose, you can watch the film with a 30-second introduction from director Yuya Ishii, or you can dive straight in.

The big extra on the disc is the interview with writer/director Yuya Ishii. It lasts 27 minutes, and kicks off with a warning about background noise. Sure enough there is an annoying whine, but that vanishes a few minutes in. The director speaks about the film, his career, and the sorts of films that he wants to make, balancing an independent mindset with a professional directorial career.

Conclusion

Miserable things happening to miserable people… That sounds so much like Eastenders that under any other circumstances, I'd be using this disc as a clay pigeon. But this is Third Window Films that we're talking about. Surely they wouldn't do that to me, would they? Indeed, from practically the first frame, where we meet Sawako in the process of having her colon irrigated, it becomes clear that Sawako Decides is misery seasoned with a delicious helping of black comedy. It's a delightful little drama, an exploration of character and small town life, and I found much to appreciate during its runtime. I have to say though that it was a hard slog, especially at first, when we got to know Sawako, and saw the life that she was leading and the situation that she was in.


It's the story of her journey in reclaiming her life. She couldn't wait to leave her father and the small insular town where she grew up, and as soon as she left high school she headed for the big city. But as with so many people with big dreams, nothing much came of it, with a series of dead end jobs and unsuccessful relationships. As so often happens, she found herself in a rut, wondering where her life was, just drifting along, trying to maintain some semblance of normality, and facing every adversity with resignation and acceptance. With such a mousy, submissive personality, it's no wonder that her employers are contemptuous of her, and her relationships fall apart. When she gets the call from her uncle to come home and take over the family business, she's just drifting along in her job and her latest relationship.


The one thing she doesn't want to do is return home, but even then, Kenichi's insistence on heading to a 'better' life compels her to drift along. But there is a reason why she left, and going back means facing that past, the father she abandoned, the friend she betrayed, and the memories that she has so meticulously forgotten. Whereas the city allowed her to fade away into anonymity, the first thing she faces in such a small town is the small-town gossip, the scandal with which she left, and the new scandal with which she arrives, with a different man and a daughter in tow. With everyone in the processing plant looking down on her, and her faults laid bare for all to see, Kenichi can't handle the truth, and it seems more misery is due her. But the pressure cooker of that small town environment also finally induces her to take hold of her life and realise that while some things can't be helped, some things can and should be.


We've all been told lies by our parents, by our teachers, by the movies that we watch and the books that we read. We've been told that we are all special, that we have an infinity of possibilities within us, that if we put our minds to it, put the effort and time in, that we will achieve greatness. We're all going to be pop stars, movie stars, astronauts, cowboys, Presidents of the United States. It's all a crock. The truth of the matter is that for the majority of people, life is going to be average, a nine-to-five job that you will most likely detest, co-workers that you tolerate during work, but can't wait to get shot off when it's time to go home, most likely to a family, a partner and children for whom you do the job that you hate, and your life will be disappointingly small, occasionally punctuated by little moments of joy, and little moments of grief. There's people above average, whose lives are marginally better than this, and below average like Sawako, who gets more than her fair share of grief, and is too numb to notice the joy when it does arrive. These lives never get on TV or in the movies. Too often we chase escapism and shy away from the prospect of seeing our own lives writ large.


Sawako Decides is a realistic fantasy. It isn't a soap opera, but it does show our lives on the screen. It shows the below average, the lower-middle as the director puts it, lives which aren't fulfilling, which aren't the lives that we dream of, but rather the lives that we live. Sawako may be a 'loser' she may have had an unfair hand dealt to her, but as she learns, not being good enough, being a failure is no reason to not engage in the world around you and to not value the richness of life. For even Sawako's lower-middle existence has much to it that is positive, much for her to appreciate. That's the message that Yuya Ishii eloquently delivers with Sawako Decides, and I found this film to be a delightful breath of fresh air.