On August 14, “La Mélancolie” arrives in theaters! You must not miss this Japanese gem carried by a magnetic and captivating young actress.
If Alien Romulus is likely to monopolize the releases of August 14, 2024, a nugget from Japan also deserves to be in the spotlight. In a completely different register, Melancholy arrives in theaters and will not fail to move you in addition to questioning you.
The second feature film by Japanese filmmaker Takuya Katô, Melancholy introduces us to young Watako. After the sudden loss of her lover, she discreetly returns to her married life, without telling anyone about this accident.
When the feelings she thought she had buried resurface, she understands that her life can no longer be the same and decides to confront all her problems one by one.
From theater to cinema
Playwright and theatre director, Takuya Katô has made a second infidelity to his heart with the production of La Mélancolie, his second feature film after Grown-Ups in 2022. Born in 1993 in Japan, in the Osaka prefecture, the artist began writing for television and radio at the age of 17.
In 2011, he moved to Italy to study directing. Upon his return to Japan, he founded the Takumi Theatre Company, where he wrote and directed around twenty plays, which earned him several awards. Before directing his first film in 2022, he wrote the 8-part series Kirei no kuni for Japanese television.
“Perhaps we could say that what theatre and cinema have in common is that they allow us to look inside spaces that are usually private, to which we cannot generally have access unless we are invited. These are feelings that can be staged in both arts.”says Takuya Katô.
Art HouseThe importance of staging
With its elegant and stylized staging, its disconcertingly natural actors and its way of depicting an authentic daily life, La Mélancolie recalls certain atmospheres created by great Asian filmmakers like Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hong Sang-Soo.
The director explains that he took care to give the impression that we are spectators of the intimacy of this young woman and of the characters in general. For Takuya Katô, it was therefore important that we do not find ourselves too close to her.
“I felt that this distance was important because it should allow the viewer to ask themselves what they are feeling in return. Generally, as soon as there is an emotion in a film, the camera tends to be closer and closer to the person it is filming. I made sure to maintain a certain distance so that the viewer has the space to ask themselves questions, to wonder what the character might be thinking.”analyzes the filmmaker.
Art HouseThe color of feelings
Watako's character, played by Mugi Kadowaki, is captivating. According to Takuya Katô, she is a character who is in denial, who pretends not to see many things, “Like the fact that her relationship with her husband is falling apart, the one with her mother-in-law who asks them why they don't have children, or the fact that her husband has a child with another woman. These are all realities that Watako refuses to see.”
Through Watako, the director brings together different themes such as loss, mourning, fear of being hurt, being locked in one's own discomfort and lack of communication. “Opening the floodgates of feelings would mean for her, having to face the depth of her wound. This is what she wants to protect herself from.”explains the director.
Moreover, by exploring Watako's denial, Takuya Katô wanted to talk about this tendency in today's Japanese society to look away, to not want to see things in the face. The filmmaker believes that it is these small individual stories that allow us to talk more broadly about society.
“It was the question of communication that was especially central for me. The question of the verb, of the word, was also very important. Can dialogue help resolve problems? Can the fact that the two spouses have a conversation be enough to repair things between them?”asks the Japanese director.