Review | Berlin 2021: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy movie review – erotically charged Japanese anthology a pleasant surprise
- Three devilish tales about infidelity and desire form this thought-provoking film by auteur filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi
- Beautifully characterised, and both playful and provocative, the film is shot on location in and around contemporary Tokyo, giving it a modernist sheen
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4/5 stars
Given its world premiere at this week’s Berlin International Film Festival, Wheels of Fortune and Fantasy is the latest work from Japanese auteur filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Asoko I & II).
A triptych of short films, they were originally conceived as part of a series of seven dealing with the theme of “coincidence and imagination”, the director says, although that’s just scratching the surface of these devilish tales about infidelity and desire. Had it not already been used by Ang Lee, the title Lust, Caution would feel apt.
The first, titled Magic (Or Something Less Assuring) stars Kotone Furukawa as Meiko, a model who shares a taxi home with a colleague, Tsugumi (Hyunri), who reveals she’s just shared an intense exchange with a man. “I didn’t know conversations could be this erotic,” Meiko marvels – but soon changes her tune when she realises that Tsugumi has been flirting with her ex-boyfriend, Kazuaki (Ayumu Nakajima).
The second tale, Door Wide Open, delves into the power of the erotic even further, when a married but unfaithful student, Nao (Katsuki Mori) decides to lure her prize-winning professor Segawa (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) into a honeytrap – slinking up to his office to read out loud a highly charged passage from his latest book. The electricity in the room – even with his door left open – is palpable.
The final episode, Once Again, is set in a world where a computer virus has caused everyone to stop using e-mail and return to letters and telegrams. Amid this, an unemployed system engineer, Natsuko (Fusako Urabe), heads to a 20-year high school reunion and, at a railway station, meets a woman (Aoba Kawai) she believes she was at school with. They return to the woman’s apartment for some surprising revelations.
Delicately written and deeply thought-provoking, Hamaguchi’s anthology feels like it’s been adapted from a novel, such is the exquisite nature of the characterisation. While the final episode is slightly less engaging than its predecessors, the quality remains high throughout. The performances – particularly of Furukawa and Shibukawa – are faultless. And despite the distinct nature of the stories, they feel part of a unified whole.
Shot in and around Tokyo, lending the film a modernist sheen, it’s a film that shows Hamaguchi in both playful and provocative mood. He signs off his director’s statement in the film’s production notes: “Please enjoy being surprised by the unexpectedness of the world.” It’s good advice for a film that teases audiences with its characters’ inner lives to the very end.
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