Actresses play against type in macabre Japanese coming-of-age drama
Tsubasa Honda and Mizuki Yamamoto, both former models, are hesitant about the extent to which dark storyline of their new film, Night’s Tightrope, reflects realities of Japanese society
Night’s Tightrope is not your usual Japanese coming-of-age drama – nor are its stars your usual actresses. Rather than talk up the morally dubious and intermittently grisly film’s portrayal of humanity’s dark side, in a story about two high-school best friends fascinated with the notion of witnessing the moment a person dies, they flatly downplay it.
“Our characters’ urge to see death for themselves probably just stems from the curiosity inherent in all 17-year-old girls,” says Tsubasa Honda ( Blue Spring Ride ), 24, as her 25-year-old co-star Mizuki Yamamoto ( Sadako vs Kayako ) nods in agreement. “It could be death that they are eager to see, but it could just as well be something else altogether that they’re fascinated with.”
Then again, it is perhaps not so surprising that two young model-actresses who value their pristine image are uncomfortable discussing the murderous deceit and cold-blooded revenge that mark the writing of Kanae Minato, from one of whose novels, Girls, the film is adapted. The story involves domestic abuse, compensated dating, gruesome suicides and a violent stabbing by a small child.
A crime-fiction writer, Minato is renowned for her twisted mysteries, which have been turned into such notable films as Tetsuya Nakashima’s Confessions (2010), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Penance (2012) and Yoshihiro Nakamura’s The Snow White Murder Case (2014).
“I believe her stories do reflect the state of Japanese society,” says Yamamoto. “But ... I also think they have been exaggerated for dramatic effect.”
