That
android is an android—and she acts, to an extent. Geek media sensation Geminoid
F reprises her role as Reona the android in this feature adaptation of Oriza
Hirata’s one-act stage play. It has its issues, but she is not one of them. In
fact, Geminoid F is usually on-screen when the film transcends it limitations.
Novelty is still the primary appeal of Koji Fukada’s Sayonara (trailer
here),
which screens during this year’s Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film in
New York.
Nuclear
disaster has irreparably struck Japan and the nation is toast. There is a
lottery to determine the evacuation order, but the fix appears to be in. As an
ailing South African whose parents were ironically granted asylum, Tanya is
presumably at the bottom of the list. Yet, the listless woman hardly seems to
care. She seems content to catnap through doomsday, while her android helper Reona
does her best to maintain a sense of normalcy.
There
is indeed something deeply compelling about these doomed people keeping up
appearances as the inevitable approaches. Much like the special delivery
android in Sion Sono’s Whispering Star,
Reona often seems more human than her aloof owner. Yet, it is Makiko Murata who
emotionally anchors the film as Tanya’s guilt-ridden friend Sano, whose terrible
crime guarantees she will be the last to be expatriated. Unfortunately, when
her character makes a dramatic exit, it cuts the heart out of the film.
Frankly,
there are times the audience will just want to give Bryerly Long’s Tanya a good
shake. She could at least try to stay awake during her own movie. In contrast,
Geminoid F seems quite warm and endearing. In a further role reversal, it is
Reona the caretaker who is confined to a wheelchair (as Geminoid F is in real
life, because her creators never mastered the engineering of walking), due to
Tanya negligence.
