It’s Only Talk
Yawarakai Seikatsu
credits:
Director: Ryuichi HirokiProducers: Ryuichi Hiroki, Akira Morishige
Writers: Haruhiko Arai, Akiko Itoyama
Cast: Shinobu Terashima, Etsushi Toyokawa, Shunsuke Matsuoka, Satoshi Tsumabuki
Japan 2005 | 127 mins | 35mm | Japanese w/E.S.
No duo captures the inner emotional world of contemporary Japanese women—or, for that matter, of today’s lost generation—quite like director Ryuichi Hiroki and actress Shinobu Terashima. The two swept through the festival circuit with their award-winning VIBRATOR (2003), but their underrated follow-up, IT’S ONLY TALK, may be even better, as unassuming as it is honest and deeply, hauntingly poignant.
Terashima, in an arresting performance, plays Yuko, a manic-depressive mid-30s woman who walks away from her job and moves to a suburban town looking for a low-key life. There, random men provide her company and amusement, ranging from the platonic to the purely sexual: a gentlemanly pervert, a young yakuza suffering from depression, and a former college classmate with erectile dysfunction. One day her cousin Shoichi, recently separated from his wife, arrives at Yuko’s doorstep just before she plunges into near-paralyzing depression. Shoichi becomes caregiver to Yuko, as she finds his warmth gradually filling the crevices in her heart.
A veteran of the erotic “pink” film genre, Hiroki is a master at evoking intimacy. He’s also drawn to drifters and outsiders on the fringes of modern society, where his characters seek a tangible connection to others in a world of uncertainty and alienation. With a surprisingly light script and fluid cinematography, Hiroki infuses the film with a relaxed, almost effortless aura, asking us to let go and allow people to seep into us. In his empathetic gaze, IT’S ONLY TALK works like a sip of tea to soothe a heart that’s caught a cold.
—Taro Goto
