Direction: Yujiro Harumoto
Country: Japan
The protracted drama A Balance, the sophomore feature by Japanese helmer Yujiro Harumoto (Going the Distance, 2016), is generally more wobbly than balanced, and not just regarding the handheld camera. Although the film ultimately achieves its function of exposing sexual abuse at school and make the Japanese society alert, its documentary-like representation fails to stir emotions consistently. Unfortunately, Harumoto doesn't touch our hearts as much as he thinks he does, creating a cinematic object that is problematic in various aspects. This story about sexual crimes, cover ups, and lies is not devoid of interest, but following a decent buildup, falls apart in subsequent scenes bathed in inertia, with nothing fresh or exciting about them.
At the center, we have documentarian Yuko (Kumi Takiuchi), who, through her camera lens, seeks the truth about a presumable case of sexual harassment at school that ended in double suicide. She’s impartial and righteous, exposing the truth and the impact that the case had on the victims’ families. But when facing a similar case that implicates her own father (Masahiro Umeda), who runs the cram school where she teaches, her moral consciousness becomes blurred and her behavior questionable. It’s not a dichotomy between fiction and reality that one finds here. It’s more about truth and falsity.
The performances hit the right notes and both the scenario and the moral dilemma are credible, and yet they lost the battle with 152 minutes of slow pacing and silences that cause a certain boredom. The whole filming technique is also documentary-style but the path that leads to the ending is not as strong as it should be. A Balance seems more like a product of an appalling naivety.
