THE WHISPERING STAR

2015 was a big year for director Sion Sono. By far his busiest year of his career so far, the man shot a total of six (that's right, six!) feature films before the year's end. While most of these films were geared towards the mainstream, such as his gangster epic “Shinjuku Swan” and his teenage psychic comedy “The Virgin Psychics”, Sono also found the time to make a low budget sci-fi film entitled “The Whispering Star”. A passion project that he wrote almost twenty years prior, Sono finally decided that now was the time to shoot this film as he would be able to utilise the “no-go” zones of Fukushima (the town destroyed during the March 11, 2011 tsunami), to double as the desolate landscapes of an apocalyptic world where humans are on the brink of extinction.

The story is as low key as you are going to find in a Sion Sono film as it is set in the future where, due to our own faults and carelessness, humans are almost extinct. What is left of the human race is spread out across the galaxy on numerous planets, essentially just living day by day until they finally die. Whilst the invention of immediate teleportation delivery does exist in this reality, and is readily used by most, there are still a few humans that prefer to have their packages hand delivered. To provide this service, female androids are sent across the galaxy in spaceships with the purpose to deliver these packages. The film follows one such android, named Yoko Suzuki (actually all the delivery androids are named this. Our one is number 722), as she is ten years into her delivery run through space, with about eighty odd packages still to deliver. Days, months or even years can pass between deliveries and to pass the time, we witness Yoko doing menial tasks such as cleaning, listening to her past recordings or just the simple process of making a cup of tea. She is all alone with the exception of her computerised pilot flying the ship, that looks like a 1940's tube radio, who may also be on the fritz due to the boredom of their long journey together. After a (long) while, Yoko starts to become curious of the packages that she is delivering and through examining what's inside them and contemplating why they mean so much to the recipients, she starts to become aware of just what it means to be human.

This really is an atypical film from Sion Sono, as it is such a quiet little drama, to the point that you could almost argue that nothing happens throughout the whole film. While this is not actually true, the drama of the film is so minimalist, and the pace so slow, that I can not see “The Whispering Star” ever finding a large audience. Do not get me wrong, this is not a bad film, it is just an incredibly minor one. In fact there is a lot of good within it, not least of all its stunning black and white photography from cinematographer Hideo Yamamoto. It is obvious that the film was shot on a very low budget but I think to combat that Sono and Yamamoto have decided to make the shots as beautiful and classical as possible. I also loved the “home-made” quality of the effects and the ship itself. The fact that the onboard computer is an old radio is brilliant and I got a kick out of seeing that Yoko was powered by AA batteries. Also the old style kitchen, taps and cupboards, not to mention that the ship looks like an old cottage with some engines attached to it; it gave the film its own little identity.

 Yoko Suzuki is played by the director's muse and wife, Megumi Kagurazaka, and does so in such a quiet and subtle manner. In fact to prove this is unlike any of the director's previous film, Kagurazaka actually underplays the role to nice effect. Her presence gives the film a calm atmosphere, which actually makes it easier to go with the film and its snails pace. I must admit though, I wasn't exactly sure what Sono was trying to say with this film. There were moments or ideas that I liked such as the fact that by having a teleportation device, it made the world feel flat. To me this is how I feel about the internet these days and how easily available things are to us, to the point it feels like you can touch it immediately. The waiting for something or the searching for something, the anticipation, is often more exciting than the receiving itself and this is being taken away from us more and more each day. I also liked the notion that the act of receiving a package is like conformation that there is someone out there thinking of that person, and it is this notion that I think attracts the android.

Other than these points, I found little to invest in with this film. The film moves too slowly, with not enough “action” to sustain it's 100 minute running time. I didn't understand why everyone whispered in the film, and there where things that I just didn't think worked well at all. While I appreciated the fact that for the most part there was no score, there is a moment in the film when the images suddenly become colour and music just swells; it is obviously a big moment for Sono but I could find no point at all for it. It seemed so odd and just didn't work. Also while using the devastation of Fukushima as a post-apocalyptic landscape may have sounded like a good idea, to me, I always felt like I was in Japan, not some strange part of the galaxy. Constant Japanese signs and a window advertising Visa just ruined the illusion for me. The biggest thing that didn't work for me though was the use of time in the film. There are constant title cards interrupting the images with the days of the week on them. I guess this is to symbolise that time moves differently in space, but when a week goes past while Yoko makes herself tea, it then feels odd when we go through a whole large scene with her and we find out only a day has past. Then out of the blue, a title card will come up stating “One Year Later”........I found it frustrating and thought it added little to the film and would have been better off not in the film.

While I certainly respect that Sion Sono made this little film, especially at the height of his popularity, and there are elements of it that I liked, I wouldn't say that this was a film I enjoyed. That said, I am glad that I saw “The Whispering Star”, and a different side to Sono's work. Restraint is the name of the game here, but I'm just not sure those who enjoy the excesses of Sono's usual style will find much to like here, in fact I think that it may struggle to find an audience at all.

2.5 Stars.