Kotoko [Blu-ray]

Kotoko is an intensely disturbing and powerful film by Shinya Tsukamoto one of the most important and bold filmmakers working today. His previous films include Tetsuo, Vital, Nightmare Detective, Tokyo Fist and A Snake of June. In this film, Kotoko (played by Cocco) is a very disturbed woman with a baby who experiences double vision and paranoid fantasies. She cannot tell reality from fantasy and as a result is a threat to her self and her child. She self-harms and becomes hysterical and very violent at everyday challenges such as her baby crying or strangers approaching her in the street. As a result of this her baby is taken away from her. She then meets a writer (played by the director) devoted to her whom she begins a masoschistic relationship with. When she eventually gets her son back Kotoko only spins more out of control than ever.

What Tsukamoto does so well is use visual techniques and the performance of Cocco to immerse you in her world. As a viewer you feel like you are inside her head rather than an observer and its a very scary place to be. Between the outbursts of screaming and crying, bloody self harm and fantasy there are moments of serenity and beauty such as when she sings and dances in the rain. There is also humour as when she repeatedly stabs men in the hands with forks. There is one scene of extreme violence against her son towards the end of the film which I found hard to stomach. The performance of Cocco is excellent and natural. She weaves her own experiences into the performance and Tsukamoto shows how well he can direct actors and evoke the emotions he wants from them. The themes of violence, alienation, fear and transformation from his previous films are all present. Visually the film is dizzying at times with hand held camera, dissolves, natural light and some striking use of colour and surrealism.

Kotoko is a serious film and in my opinion an artistic work that deserves the critical acclaim it has received. It is a long way from the mainstream and this should be understood if you intend to watch it. It's worth having some appreciation of the director and his previous films beforehand. For those who like challenging films outside of the mainstream it is vital viewing and comes highly recommended. You might not enjoy it as such but you will certainly appreciate it as a serious piece of filmmaking.

After viewing the trailer to this I thought it looked okay but the main reason I bought this on DVD was because Shinya Tsukamoto is my favourite director. And this beautiful piece of cinema was definitely worth the money. It's about a single mother whose perception of reality has gone askew. She sees double personalities in people which drives her to lash out at those she deduces to be threatening to her child. When her child is taken from her she begins to understand her life as a dark and twisted nightmare, even disbelieving, at times, her own existence.

Once again the director has crafted a very fine film that is both moving and thought provoking. The colour filled cinematography works a wonder to display the altered mind states of Kotoko, played by singer-songwriter Cocco, who gives an extraordinary portrayal of a mother suffering. And Shinya Tsukamoto works his mastery of the camera fusing the horrific and the beautiful. In comparison to his other work, I would say this is amongst his best, having the colour and ferocity of Tokyo Fist with the tragic depiction of an individual's reality that was done so well in Vital. Even for those unfamiliar with the director's work this is a great place to start and a must see for anyone interested in boundary pushing cinema.

Director of Japanese filth and grunge, Tsukamoto, has been missing in action of late. Not really offering his fans much beyond the forgettable. He resolved that with his response to the Japanese tragedy in Kotoko. With a heart-stopping performance from Japanese musician Cocco, Tsukamoto stripped back all the layers to make a lo-fi drama about a woman coping with an increasingly aggressive mental state. Losing her child and meeting a potential lover in Tsukamoto, she tries to cope with life. She doesn't the film is disturbing and touching and reclaims stylized tropes to tell a genuinely disturbing tale. It uses loose camera movement to evoke emotional stress which reaches its peak with some great moments of psychical horror, the high point of which had be verbal express my shock. You'll know when you see it. If he keeps this up, comparisons with the classics of David Cronenberg will be coming thick and fast. As such this one calls comparisons to Dead Ringers and Spider.