It's Only Talk

Hiroki Ryuichi is an experienced and talented director. A recent example of his ability to capture erring people with atmosphere is his film Vibrator. He made this equally entertaining, yet very different film with the same lead actress, the impressive Terajima Shinobu. A film that seems more cheerful, but in the end is possibly even more melancholy. Terajima plays Yuko, a woman aged 35. Unemployed. Unmarried. Being treated by a psychiatrist. She seems to live from one day to the next. She is not tied down, but has relationships with four different men. She seems cheerful and nonchalant. She is attractive and funny. Yet not far under the surface, dejection and restlessness battle for supremacy. The power of the film is that the life of a woman wrestling with her manic depression takes shape with the lightheartedness of a comedy. The four men in Yuko's life each has a different and rather strange character. Yuko seems like a different woman, depending on which man is in her company. All four differ greatly from each other and each has his own problems. Basically they all want to be helped by Yuko. What they don't see is that her problems could be bigger than their own. (GjZ)