Pretty Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Director, Uchida claims that this was originally intended to be a comic film but that now only the first half has humour. Well, I didn't notice it. We begin with the heroine as a child and being ignored by her family and are suddenly thrown with an incident at her school involving a very violent movement with a floor mop. I think I actually gasped. As an adult she develops an unusual lifestyle, not very amusing and more tan a little scary, selfie with a dead and deterorating old man anyone? I have to admit that the lady herself finds all this very amusing and speeds about with her bicycle and binoculars with a manic grin on her face. In the second half things become even more crazy, disconcerting and violent as the true horror of this film become evident. Not an easy view, this is very well made with great performances in very unusual and difficult situations but I won't be rushing to re-visit it for a little while.

Despite her best and increasingly desperate efforts to attract attention, little Nami is starved of affection, or indeed acknowledgement, from her parents. As she grows into an attractive teen (Kumi Takiuchi), she inherits great wealth, listens to appalling rock music and becomes increasingly possessive of her lonesomeness. She calls herself a Solitarian, She spends her time seeking out other Solitarians, the most extreme case being an elderly man who lived an isolated life before dying whilst watching pornography. Before reporting the incident anonymously, she takes a smiling selfie with his calcified corpse on the floor of his rubbish-strewn living room.Mr Shiomi (Takashi Sasano) is her next solitary obsession. Glorifying in observing his isolated life, Nami is then appalled that this heart-broken, faded man finds love and acceptance from his family and vows to punish him for taking away her 'property'.As events drift away from one level of bizarreness to another, and then another and another, not only does it lose track of its initial premise, but becomes little more than a series of darkly comic moments of violence and incident. The whole thing appears designed purely so the audience can scratch their collective heads and wonder what they are watching – which is exactly what happens, at least in my case. As a lesson in not ignoring your children, it's obscured by how … obscure it is. As a drama, or a comedy, or a horror, it's too fragmented to succeed. On its own terms, however, it is a film you won't forget in a hurry. There is an attempt in the last scene to marry up events with the perils of ignoring your children, which is pretty pointless considering that things have by this time run away with themselves to such an extent they cannot possibly be reasoned with – which seems to be the point, if there is one.

Neglected as a child, an independently wealthy young woman spends her time spying on individuals who she considers to be as lonely and isolated as her in this decidedly offbeat film from Japan. The movie initially plays out like a quirky comedy with lead actress Kumi Takiuchi grinning from ear to ear all the time while riding her bicycle, camping on rooftops and taking notes on the lonely citizens she enjoys watching, whom she terms "Solitarians". The plot thickens though when one such "Solitarian" turns out to be less cut off from the world than she thought. First, he lets himself be smitten by Christian missionaries, then his extended family keep popping by, and things turn very horror-like as Takiuchi takes drastic measures to ensure that the man remains the "Solitarian" that she initially identified him as being. The structure of the film is hardly perfect. The young actress who plays Takiuchi as a child is equally effective, if not more so, and the film could have benefited from spending more time on her traumatised childhood, while the horror angle comes extremely late in the piece - something that results in the second half of the film feeling far superior to the first half. Never to mind, Takiuchi never falters throughout and the film is full of neat touches, such as the constant use of upbeat music to highlight her delirious view of the world, smiling as non-Solitarians are hit and assaulted. Takashi Sasano (playing the man she becomes obsessed with) holds his end up very well too, almost becoming just as irrational as her as all the madness spirals towards a close.

Nami (Kumi Takiuchi) is a lonely young girl prone to outbursts of left field violence, due to being ignored by her poverty-relief obsessed mother who leaves one day, leaving her with her depressed father and older sister. Nami's dad takes on a mistress and still ignored and with her sister now with a boyfriend, Nami seeks constant solace in in an inane shopping channel, captivated by the gadgets and bargains offered by the smiling host.Years later, Nami, now a young woman has a peculiar hobby in which she observes and takes notes on sad and very lonely elderly people, who she calls "Solitarians". There's the angry middle aged man who barges by everywhere rudely bumping people aside, and there's the crazy homeless looking guy who feeds the pigeons, all collectively becoming Nami's muse and a source of endearment. One specific solitarian catches her attention. He's Mr. Shiomi (Takashi Sasano) an embittered old man, who once empowered with former status, is now alone, lonely and angry, going through each day with a grumpy, dreary resignation.Nami is captivated by this with Mr Shiomi providing her with much entertainment. One day however a Christian missionary woman Su Yong (Khobbi Kim) visits Mr Shiomi and asks if he'd like her to engage in bible reading with him. Suspicious at first, Mr Shiomi eventually agrees and a hesitant friendship begins between them with Mr Shiomi, becoming less bitter and finding a new appreciation for life.Nami is not amused. Mr Shiomi's new found zest means he's no longer a "Solitarian" thanks to Su Yong's meddling. What's to be done about this state of affairs? One thing's for sure, Nami will not have anyone messing with her precious hobby or her viewed from afar subjects...Grateful Dead is well, pretty great actually with it starting off like a typically quirky Japanese comedy before slowly but inexorably getting darker & darker until veering into outright horror territory toward the third act. However, it's really a (very effective) mixture of genres, combining comedy with drama and some social commentary to boot, before its demented conclusion.A highly recommended little gem it should be sought out by any horror/genre fan or anyone who likes offbeat films in general.A strong 8/10, just a highly satisfying and nicely demented (but not at all demented for the sake of it) film.