Dragons and Tigers
  The Volatile Woman
Kihatsu Sei no Onna
[VOLAT]  

Japan, 2004, 80 min, DigiBeta (NTSC)
International Premiere

Directed By: Kumakiri Kazuyoshi
PRODS: Narita Naoya, Higashi Yasuhiko, Kamei Toru
SCR: Ujita Takashi, Kumakiri Kazuyoshi
CAM: Hashimoto Kiyoaki
ED: Kumakiri Kazuyoshi
MUS: Akainu (Matsumoto Akira)
CAST: Ishii Mitsuko, Sawada Shunsuke
  
 Film Resources 
  Kumakiri Kazuyoshi got noticed with his art-school graduation project Kichiku (a splattery riff on Evil Dead with inner demons instead of ancient Sumerians) and has been struggling ever since to live down his reputation as an overgrown gore-hound. The Volatile Woman is his first fully successful grown-up film, a quirky variation on The Postman Always Rings Twice which has two interesting central characters, a happily unpredictable storyline and a very distinctive tone. Easy to imagine this played as a noir thriller, but Kumakiri and his two fine lead actors take it to another level entirely. It suggests that another graduate from Japan’s huge indie sector is ready to knock on the door of the Pantheon.

Widowed young, Masuda Etsuko runs a small-town garage/gas-station on her own. Nervous bank robber Sawada (he keeps throwing up when stressed) enters her life pretending to be a customer, and takes the meagre contents of her till at knifepoint. But his getaway is thwarted by the appearance of a cop on the forecourt, so he hides in her backroom and ties her up overnight. This turns out to be the start of a bizarre "odd couple" relationship, in which they alternate between attacking and wounding each other and dressing each other’s wounds. As advertised in the title, Etsuko’s emotional volatility (rooted in her possessiveness, which the script links with a passion for butterfly collecting) has a major bearing on the unexpected outcome.

Kichiku (97), A Hole in the Sky (01), Antenna (02)
 
Screening Schedule
 Date Time Venue Tickets 
 Mon, Oct 3 6:00 pm Granville 7 Theatre 5 $9.50   
 Tue, Oct 4 1:40 pm Granville 7 Theatre 5 $7.50   
   
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