It
sounds like a Cosmo punchline, but it
is acutely human. For millennia, mankind has only survived as remnants within
androids. Yet, by the year 4015 that little piece of humanity has started to covet
luxuries again. Designer shoes are in particular demand among fashion-conscious
androids, but Kai is one of the few artisans capable of crafting something
worth obsessing over. Her perfectionism also manifests itself through obsessive
behavior in Inchul Lee’s darkly beautiful science fiction short film, Highheels (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Highheels must be the most
fashionably fabbest science fiction since Luc Besson and Jean Paul Gaultier
collaborated on The Fifth Element.
For proof, check out the ensembles donned by Blue, Yellow, and Red, three
customers of Kai’s retro-retro showroom (you should be able to tell which is
which). When Blue commissions Kai to make a custom-made shoe, the
android-shoemaker produces something so elegant, it catches the eyes of both
Yellow and Red. Of course, Kai will keep faith with her original customer, so
she’d better appreciate it.
This
is a terrific speculative short that takes a rather dark turn, but that is what
you get when human nature reasserts itself. Frankly, this would have been a
great selection for MoMA’s current Future
Imperfect series, because it is very definitely an example of science
fiction exploring the question of what it means to be human. Plus, it has the
star-power of Rinko Kikuchi, who amazes as the increasingly driven (and perhaps
consequently human) Kai.
Highheels also looks
incredible thanks to Remi Yanai’s eye-popping, runway-worthy costumes and producer
Mutsumi Lee’s carefully crafted art direction. This is a triumph of
mise-en-scene that might be described as Fifth
Element with dashes of Bladerunner and
Black Swan, but the action is
entirely confined to the carefully controlled environment of Kai’s boutique.
