It's 4am, and I've just been woken up by the people upstairs playing music too loud. It can't have been a party, because when I rang their doorbell no one came down to see who had arrived - they just turned the music down. However, now I can't get back to sleep so I thought now would be a good time to talk about a film I recently saw, “Oto na ri”. I chose it because I'm on a bit of an Aso Kumiko trip at the moment, after seeing her in Jikou Keisatsu and Instant Swamp.
The story is about two neighbours who can hear what each other is doing, and the bond that grows between them even though they never meet. It's nicely told story, with some clever touches. When a woman comes looking for her boyfriend in one flat, the good-natured argument sounds like love-making in the neighbouring flat.
It's a shame that the story relies on such an improbable series of coincidences to bring our heroes face to face, rather than have them just knock on each other's doors, but never mind. There are some great moments through the film. Overall, I found it a pleasant film, which is about living the life you want rather than hoping that by chance the life you want will fall into place. At least, that's what the sub-plots are about. This is slightly undermined by having a chance occurance solve a large chunk of the main story, but the rest of the film is so good I can forgive it.
Oh, and the song that keeps appearing through the film is “Kaze wo Atsumete”, which is one of the only Japanese songs I know any lyrics to, so that was nice.
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