There is nowhere on Earth quite like Tokyo. Vibrant and incessantly bustling, there’s an energy that flows through Japan’s capital city streets and surrounds anyone and everyone in its path. A fascinating juxtaposition of cultural tradition, rich history, progressive technologies, and cutting-edge fashions, Tokyo is a place where anything becomes possible. Astutely exploring the darker side of this idea and its shadowy implications comes Vise (aka Manriki), the feature film debut from Japanese director Yasuhiko Shimizu.
As the film begins, there’s an immediate sense of surreality and intentional absurdism that unfolds through trippy visual effects, heavily stylized lighting, and abrasive sound cues while introducing the film’s first main character known only as The Girl (Julian Koike). A struggling young fashion model, The Girl left her family and rural hometown in an effort to pursue her dream in Tokyo. Rejected again and again at modeling auditions, The Girl supplements her income by working at a local grocery store and obsessing over her perceived flaws. Despite continual support and compliments from her boyfriend, The Girl becomes convinced that her lack of success in modeling is due to her “big face.” Although clearly an internal issue of body dysmorphia, The Girl becomes adamant in her belief as it begins to overtake her.
Using all the filmmaking tools at his disposal, Shimizu helps us get into The Girl’s head by playing with light, heavy sound design, harsh editing cuts, and visual distortions. Complimenting these visual cues, Koike’s performance accentuates and captivates with convincing ease. Witnessing countless other models turn to cosmetic surgery through social media and personal interactions, The Girl begins to look into the process of bone readjustment surgery. Sure that a “smaller face” will bring her the jobs and self-confidence she craves, she gathers up the courage to finally visit the Manriki beauty clinic. There she falls under the intoxicating spell of the handsome, young Surgeon (Takumi Saitoh).
Drenched in heavy haze, blue lights, and complementary angles, the Surgeon’s physical beauty and reassurances wash over The Girl as he explains his procedure is less about the outside and more about activating inner self-confidence. While this all sounds well and good, things quickly spiral as The Girl finds her head pressed between a literal vice. Carried out with impressively effective cinematography and practical effects, the Surgeon and his assistants (played by writer Nagano and Nobuaki Kaneko) exhibit their true colors as they find a sort of morbid enjoyment in slowly crushing The Girl’s head. Surviving the procedure, she becomes noticeably deformed, but initially happy with her new, smaller face.
While this storyline alone is enough to propel the film, it merely exists within the film’s first act. Quickly following The Girl’s unfortunate conclusion, the film pivots as it begins to follow the now wanted Surgeon accused of performing dangerous and illegal medical procedures. Deftly executing the character’s fine balance of black humor, internal dissension, and disturbing behavior, Saitoh’s performance becomes the engine powering the film through its remaining runtime. As the Surgeon encounters a variety of colorful characters along the way, these moments act as opportunities to explore a wide array of societal issues. Peppered commentaries on Western cultural differences, the hypocrisies of accepted societal norms and taboos, our voyeuristic existence, ageism, and the subjectivity of beauty all exist within Vise’s frames. However, don’t for one second think that these issues are portrayed in any way that you’ve seen before.
Much like Tokyo itself, Shimizu reveals a new trick around every corner. Coupled with Kaneko’s heavily glitchy, industrial-infused electronic score, the film becomes a rapid-fire cinematic experience that assaults on every sensory level. Unexpected shots, character development, irregular appearances of visual effects, and abrupt storyline shifts result in more than a few WTF moments. And yet, it all seems to make sense in the version of Tokyo that Shimizu and Nagano have created. Defiantly unique and comedically bleak, Vise throws a multitude of heavily stylized societal issues at its audience while leaving the ultimate verdict for them to decide.
