Three Extremes. "Box". by Takashi Miike. R3 HK DVD. Review.

Miike briefly decended into relatively light-hearted David Lynch mode in 2003's Gozu, and returns here with a much more sober, subtle and confusing short film : the first part of the "Three...Extremes" anthology from 2004. All that's missing to let us know when we are reality and when we are not is something so out of the ordinary as a goat-headed man, or something similar.

That's only the beginning...

The film is a 35 minute (give or take) feature, packed and layered with sophisticated story telling. Kyoko and her twin sister Shoko are initially young balerinas and magicians assistants in a small travelling circus tent. The main man is their step father, who seems to favour Shoko over Kyoko, even though there is little between them in every respect.

Kyoko continues her life and transforms into a reclusive writer of novels. She is successful, she is alone, and she has a sparse apartment which more closely resembles a rundown office block. Shoko is a little more difficult to pin down, and this is where the confusion sets in.

Miike has managed to successfully direct a gentle yet intricate tale where each scene can either be taken as reality, dream, fantasy, nightmare or any given combination of these. To be honest, it's bordering on unrealisticly confusing. I have to say though it's clearly not confused, just confusing. You can quite happily watch the film, taking each scene as you percieve it at the time, only to reach the end and have every perception about every element within it shattered completely.

The sparse and very effective use of locations, dialogue and music allow the visuals to be rich and beautiful. The film is clearly entirely shot during winter, and the use of white, blues, greys and blacks intially suggested to me a cold present day following tragic events which occur during childhood.

Alternately, the apparent past is shown with rich oranges, browns, reds, and black. When you see the "behind the scenes" short in the extras you notice how bland and everyday the location are, and its a great achievement to manage to show what must be the most colour and contrast-rich film that I have seen from Miike. Colours may be limited and they may be misleading but it's a very visually driven film which also makes great subtle use of music, and sound to an extent that is an additional basis by which this film is short but incredibly solid.

There's element of ghost story slipped in there too, which gives the confusion as to the existance of Shoko. But the major thing for me about the film was the ambiguity layered through the whole narrative. I went through it thinking i had a reasonable grasp of it, then the final scenes ripped the carpet from under my feet and i was left frankly confused, but very very impressed.

The title of the film is ambiguous in itself : which box is her refering to? is he refering to the concept of the box? is it metaphorical? is it literal?. it could be any or all : it's a clever title.

It is possible Miike is infact showing how closely tied the twins are, and even though one is gone she emotionally has a massive draw on her sisters mind, and through that, he way of life. Kyoko can't and potentially doesn't want her life to be without her sister. Her past, in every way, rules her present and the two begin to melt with her step-father apparently making and un-aged appearance as an apparently different person.

Many of the elements of the story aren't explained in any way that i have on first viewing found easy to spot. Some are semi-explained and feel reasonable formed in my mind, and others are torn between my percieving them as either real or unreal.

The "making of" featurette, i was hoping, would shed some light on the story. Instead you get a 15+ minutes camcorder shot reel taken by someone hanging around on set so it's not cohesive. There's a brief interview in there (shot in short sections and spliced together) which gives some opinions on Miike's technique and her interpretation of the story. It also reassured me not to be too downhearted that i don't entirely understand the story. If she can be involved for the length of the production and be reassured about it's content, yet not totally get it, then the viewers shouldn't be too unhappy when they've come to the end only to be left in a similar state.

Disc one is the films, two is the trailers for the anthology version and the extended version of "Dumplings" - the Fruit Chan section (which is second in the anthology after this, and before "Cut" from Chan Wook Park). Also, a brief overview of the story is contained, but it is cursory and superficially overviewed here, and doesn't spoil or resolve anything.

The mastering of the discs is equal to that of the HK "Dumplings" disc; there may be deeply hidden minor technical faults but at the level of someone watching the film theres nothing to cause distraction - no artifcating or scratches on the print, nor is the sound lacking in any way.

Disc two give us the short making of featurettes, of which i have only watched the one for "Box". I would love to hear other peoples opinions on the "ins and outs" of this sections once peoples discs begin to arrive; i plan to try to put something together about Chan Wook Parks "Cut" after i have watched it (tonight hopefully).