Mirrored Mind

An actress is playing on stage and loses herself. She cannot tell the part from the person. She leaves Tokyo. A plane, a boat, and then an island. She stays on a tropical coast in Thailand. There is a woman there; someone who resembles her, perhaps herself. Time does not run straight; the same scene repeats in different forms and it is not clear which was lived. Water, light and the body are its main elements. There is a return at the end, but the question of who is returning stays closed. Gakuryu Ishii directs; at the time the director was known as Sogo Ishii. Miwako Ichikawa has the lead; Kiyohiko Shibukawa and Kou Machida are in the cast. It is a Japanese production. The film was shot in Thailand and exteriors make up most of it. The narrative builds no plot; the story proceeds through image and sound. The director had been known for fast films close to punk aesthetics; this work is far from that vein and quiet. The matter it treats is the dispersal of identity; the actor's trade is the ground for that dispersal. The film has an experimental structure and gives no explanation throughout. The photography rests on natural light and the water scenes are held long. The narrative does not steer the viewer; interpretation is left entirely outside. Its limit is accessibility; there is next to no story, the pace is very slow, and the ending closed. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese experimental cinema and films without narrative. Who it is not for: it is very slow, closed, and the ending explains nothing.