Mitsuko Kankaku / ミツコ感覚

Mitsuko Kankaku is an uneven, but interesting dramedy from first time director Kenji Yamauchi. Yamauchi cut his teeth in acting and writing plays for Tokyo’s Seinendan theatre company. This is the same place where Koji Futada, whose intriguing hospitalite was a critical hit last year, came from. Not only drawing from the same pool of great acting talent, Yamauchi seems to draw from a similar styles and themes as Futada. Case in point is Mitsuko Kankaku. The story follows two sisters, sharing a flat in the suburbs of Tokyo. One, Emi, is an office worker, involved with her boss. The other, Mitsuko, is a young photographer who takes up a part-time job working in a sunaku. Their uneventful and unfulfilled lives are shook up by a strange fellow and his sister (?). Their mere presence sets the ball rolling for a series of tragedies and resolutions that make the plot fly. hospitalite also relied on a trickster character. The cast is impeccable, if a bit theatrical at times – the Beethoven sonata in one scene, atrocious.

Originally published in EL Magazine, December 2011.