Review | Midnight Swan movie review: transgender drama starring Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, once of SMAP, from The Naked Director’s Eiji Uchida
- A middle-aged transgender woman’s life is upended by the arrival of a teenaged relative. Reluctant to take responsibility, she finds the will to nurture her
- Uchida has dedicated his career to championing marginalised voices, and with this film he appears to have struck a chord with mainstream audiences
3/5 stars
Winner of the best picture prize at the 2021 Japanese Academy Awards, Eiji Uchida’s Midnight Swan tackles the taboo subject of transgenderism in contemporary Japan, and has proven a surprise box office hit in a country not known for its progressive attitudes towards sexuality.
After Ichika’s abusive, alcoholic mother (Asami Mizukawa) is reported to child services, the introverted teen (newcomer Misaki Hattori) is sent away from Hiroshima to live with her uncle in Tokyo. Only upon arrival does she learn that he now lives as Nagisa, a dancer and hostess at a trans bar.
Reluctant to take on her new-found parental responsibilities, Nagisa nevertheless accepts Ichika into her squalid home. At school, Ichika is bullied about her guardian, but discovers an after-school ballet club, where she shows immediate promise. However, her need for money sets the girl on a treacherous path of her own.
In a marketplace dominated by blockbuster manga adaptations, Uchida’s original story took more than 500 million yen (US$4.5 million) at the Japanese box office, a remarkable figure for a low-budget indie film despite Kusanagi’s star appeal.
As its title might suggest, Midnight Swan identifies strongly with the themes of identity, transformation and acceptance found in Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake – Ichika’s dance routine of choice. It also echoes Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling in the way Nagisa eventually nurtures her young ward to become something beautiful in spite of the latter’s doubts.
Nagisa’s journey towards becoming the woman she has always identified as thus becomes tragic rather than cathartic.
While Midnight Swan is undoubtedly a step in the right direction and deserving of applause, it goes to show that representation is just the first step on a much longer road towards acceptance of transgenderism.
