Film Review: Japanese Story (Sue Brooks, 2003)

Japanese Story is Sue Brooks’ 2003 romantic drama about an unlikely relationship between an Aussie geologist in Western Australia and a businessman from Japan. The film is laden with all the well known and cliché elements that make up that typical cross cultural romantic story – initial resentment between the two culturally distinct characters, text book plot twist (this time their car gets stuck in the desert earth) that leaves the two stuck together in none other than a sticky situation, and the ensuing romance between the most unlikely pair of individuals. Its plot is painfully predictable, driven by narrative devices nicked from a filmmaking 101 handbook and characters with the most stereotypical characteristics imaginable. Its message is an interesting one, tying together erratic and yet fragile human emotions with the brutality of nature. It culminates quite fittingly to an emotionally charged denouement where Toni Collette’s character Sandy is overwhelmed by her lover’s sudden death and her realisation of the cruel fact that her world would not accept his presence despite boasting itself as one that has ‘so much space and yet so few people’.  The arrival of his widow teases her with that impenetrable side of the world that she may never be a part of but at the same time she is made aware of the fact that despite their differences, they share the same human emotions of sadness and remorse, the same feelings of loss and love. The film is not all that bad, in fact, minus the mentioned stereotypical portrayal of characters and cliché plot devices, it is not bad at all. Its contextual meaning and intended message is worthy of praise as much as it is of more in depth analysis. Its stunning cinematography that blends character and landscape with utter brilliance, its fusion of oriental and western harmonies that make up a truly beautiful and immersive soundtrack and Collette’s commendable performance are all enough to provide the film with potential to strike and puncture the very depths of its viewers’ emotions and, dare I say, heart. But sadly as it turns out, the combination of a cheesy, predictable storyline and over the top shallow, stereotypical characters is one guilty of being just too much of an irritating distraction, leaving no more than a few tickles on the surface of what would otherwise be a punctured gut.

 

SBS – six billion People… and counting

The one word that I think could best define the Special Broadcasting Service or SBS is that it is a breath of fresh air. It sits just outside and yet not too far away from the convoluting barrage of regular and often annoying mainstream broadcast. Here in the land down under, it is perhaps the best and most direct way to keep in touch with the world abroad. Coming from a country such as Malaysia, multiculturalism is for me an idea not all that foreign at all. The dominant broadcast service back home is provided through satellite TV which almost every household has a share of. The cultural constitution of the community here in Australia shares some common traits with the one I am most familiar with back home. And in terms of broadcasting stations or channels, the SBS can find itself a similarly motivated counterpart from that part of the continent.

It is a daring and yet noble effort to have a national broadcasting company functioning on the service for minorities. I fully understand the part of terrestrial television in Malaysia, their devotion to an every day multi – lingual broadcast service can be explained by the diverse ethnic groups, each of which speak their own language and make up, even on their own, a rather big part of the majority. On the contrary, in a country where the widespread medium of communication is only English, and where the majority of people speak that one same language, it is surprising that the existence of TV channel such as SBS was even suggested at all. For all that talk about neglecting minorities, I think SBS is one step in the right direction. It opts to take the most unusual stand by shying away from the majority, a move that could even be seen as neglecting the majority. But to attest the latter would seem unfair. SBS does so well not only to recognize and provide a service for minorities, it succeeds in even giving at least some decent entertainment for the majority. Not to mention the awareness it raises of other cultures within and outside the country. And while mainstream television more often than not have such bad programs on show, the ‘alternative’ entertainment provided  by SBS might just be seen as a step up from the aforementioned ‘decent’. Whatever the line up is like at the next station, one can always count on SBS to be a breath of fresh air, and more.