Direction: Miwa Nishikawa
Country: Japan
Japanese writer-director Miwa Nishikawa (The Long Excuse, 2016) worked for three years on the script of Under the Open Sky, an adaptation of a novel by Ryûzô Saki, the author of Vengeance is Mine, made into a cult film by Shohei Imamura in 1979. However, and despite an interesting premise, the object of this review fails to satisfy as Nishikawa’s inspiration dwindles with time. The film periodically descends into cloying while the tough and sweet sides of the protagonist come to the fore.
Speaking of protagonist, the multifaceted actor Koji Yakusho (13 Assassins, 2010; Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, 2011) is the underlying cause for most of the film’s appeal. He plays a short-tempered former yakuza who, released from prison after 13 years, has trouble integrating the society. This man, abandoned by his geisha mother at the age of four, spent his childhood in an orphanage and worked for crime families since his teens. Now, in his fifties, he’s determined to get a decent job despite being seen as an outcast. Some old and new friends are his hope.
Mired in forced sentimentality, the film never really builds up a great deal of steam but infuses some bursts of anger and humor here and there, leaving a meaningful message to the community and a glimpse of hope for the ones looking for an opportunity to change. Anyway, it’s all too patchy to be classified as a prime work.
