KOTOKO (2011)
As the title character arrives with a lot of discordant classroom instruments, a few dance moves, and some screaming, it seems clear that this isn’t just another Tsukamoto movie. Even if the man himself is in the film and like Gemini the top billed cast also includes a music star. There’s also another descent into madness (or hell) and another painful relationship like the ones his earlier features. However, as things unfold this becomes the director at his most atypical, without the technological metaphors or even the Chu Ishikawa tunes. These kind of stylish touches would only serve to make this less disturbing. Here the nightmare happens in broad daylight and seems like a documentary, complete with a narrator, about the life of someone trapped by problems conjured up by their own mind. Any moments of dark comedy or fantasy are fleeting in a story that is more an endurance test than a macabre thriller.
