Kanae's works are considerable dark as to be expected if your a fan of her works. She isn't afraid to address human's connect with death or suicide to the extent of borderline madness. Night's Tightrope falls into this category instantly based on the synopsis. I then watched the film's trailer and it got me so excited to see the film in full. The plot tells the stories of two high school girls who are damaged almost beyond repair. Their damage was created from in school bullying as well as living conditions at home. The viewer is taken along for the ride through their darkness that seems never ending. Suicide comes hand and hand with bullying so it's concept is explored greatly in this film. Through suicide there comes death but what is the true meaning of death? The characters search for the answers to this question as they walk a tightrope that could snap at any second. What ruined this film for me was the expectations the trailer put on the film. I was expecting a dark insane madness of a film that I didn't get unfortunately. There's a dark tone that dress up the plot but take that away and your left with another simple drama inspired film with strange characters. The plot does well explaining why these characters are so strange which makes for a fun experience. It even connects the dots on how some characters are connected to one another. Sadly, none of this shakes off that main fact that this film didn't live up to the greatness that the trail created for it. Once the conflicts that the characters experience in school go away because of their summer vacation, The plot starts to drags a little bit. Introduction of new characters, especially the two little boys was interesting but it doesn't take the place of you wanting some dark incident of death to happen. More of a horror element was needed in this film in my opinion. The trailer had me believing that the film would focus solely on suicide. An effort to add a little thriller element was attempted just to have the effort diluted by a normal drama genre film's progression. I enjoyed how the film resolves the two main character's problems in the end. Its not what I came for though. Deep down I honestly want a film that was as good as Confessions. So far this has yet to happen... Well, Confessions was close to a masterpiece in my opinion.
The characters are girls who go through events that make them think death is an option. They are fascinated by the process of death as well. Honda's character pretends to be cold hearted. She doesn't get too emotionally involved with people but she loves writing. Her down fall was the most hurtful to watch because she acts like she on top of all her problems. Yamamoto's character is friends with her and comes off as a much more weaker person. She hides her talents to stop the bullying that she constantly receives from jealous classmates. Both actresses show there talent in bringing these two characters from the pages of a novel to reality. Both characters are hurting on the inside and must find a place of solace to learn to live again.
This film was shot in a morbid kind of style. A shadow feels like it was cast over many of the shots. Daytimes shots also look like a storm rolled in bringing in cloudy skies. This all would have been great if the film's plot unfolded the way Confessions did. I believe the dreary scenery was to symbolize the emotional war happening in each of the characters hearts because the scenes leading up to the film's conclusion showed the sun. Outside of the school scenes, you witness a lot of walking through small neighborhoods, typical Japanese river bank(that never gets old.) and farmland.
Night's Tightrope was an alright film. I'm just not over the fact that I wanted something more and it wasn't given to me. The trailer messed up my overall experience of this film really badly. DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER BEFORE WATCHING THIS FILM! Watch the film without looking at the trailer at all.
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