Wtf-film: cult cinema and video reviews

The Klock Worx Co. [2006] 100′
country: Japan
director: Mia Tominaga
cast: Kyoko Kishida, Kazuko Yoshiyuki,
Ayu Kitaura, Carolina Kaneda, Eiko Koike
dvd: Cult Epoch [2008] $24.98
Dual layer DVD9 / NTSC / Region 1
subtitles: English [feature only]
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Ume [Kyoko Kishida] and Kame [Kazuko Yoshiyuki] are sisters who, since their childhood, have been obsessed with collecting and caring for the things other people throw away.  Now asocial elderly women, their daily routine revolves entirely around their finds – which have quite literally engulfed their large home.  One morning while wandering about town they discover a hamper full of red wool yarn and decide to take it home to add to their collection.  But far from being a benign bit of abandoned junk, the yarn attracts a young girl [Ayu Kitaura] to their home . . . a young girl who spends all of her waking hours in a sisyphian routine of knitting the perfect sweater and bursts into ear-shattering hysterics every time she realizes she must knit it again.

The introduction of this stranger into their set way of life is understandably troublesome for Ume and Kame, particularly when the young girl [nicknamed "Aminaoshi", or "Knit-again", by the women] takes to disorganizing and outright destroying their junk collection.  But the old women soon realize that the more things they remove from the house, the more they unravel about their own past and the often traumatic events that have led up to their present circumstances.

Mia Tominaga’s WOOL 100%, which she both wrote and directed, is another in a long line of fantastic genre-defying Japanese feature films that have appeared over the past two decades.  Steeped in its own allegorical fantasy mythology and lacking in traditional narrative sensibilities, WOOL is both welcoming and abstract – intrinsically watchable but so demanding of thought that many audiences will undoubtedly be left scratching their heads.

In style and subtext, WOOL reminds of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s eccentric coming-of-age horror fairy tale HOUSE from 1977 – particularly when various items in Ume and Kame’s huge home begin attacking their ever-knitting guest.  Both films focus on the trials and traumas of growing up, though WOOL’s perspective is ostensibly the opposite of Obayashi’s film.  The two sisters here are traumatized at a young age when their mother dies during pregnancy, with the second World War throwing a figurative wrench into their burgeoning sexuality by destroying the only young man they’ve come to know.  Thusly the two begin a reclusive lifestyle, walling themselves in behind a mountain of remnants of other people’s lives.

Enter Aminaoshi, the first human being the sisters have willingly [even if not at first] associated themselves with in decades.  It is she who allows them to see the things of the house for what they are, less protectors [as the opening narration describes them] than the wardens of a prison of their own making.  As the wall comes tumbling down and Ume and Kame’s routine unravels, they begin to remember the past and, more importantly, start to realize what they have to do.  The conclusion has them [young once more] abandoning the house in the wake of a cheerful Aminaoshi-led firestorm, following a thread of red yarn wherever it may lead them.

The treatment of Aminaoshi is interesting as well.  When she first appears the sisters mark her down as an object like the rest they’ve found and even give her a cute name, adding a drawing of their conception of her to one of their piles of collection scrapbooks.  Their perception defines her existence in the house in the beginning, and the inanimate objects take on an unlikely life in her presence and fight for domination over her.  She is nearly eaten by a blanket and a TV set and is pummeled senseless by a large teeter-tottering doll.  This culminates in an animated showdown between Aminaoshi and some of the home’s more recognizable denizens, a battle that ends with Aminaoshi beginning her destructive rampage through the sisters’ possessions and affirming the importance of the living over the inert.

Tominaga directs with considerable flair and a truly unique visual style, and its easy to lose yourself in the impressive visuals.  She keeps the overall tone of the picture light and whimsical, aside from a few key moments, with excellent results overall.  Her screenplay, which manages to connect just about every story element to a few spools of vivid red yarn, is charming if a bit forced at times.  I was hard pressed to find any nagging issues with the production side of things at all, but I’m a sucker for any film that starts with two old women scaring the bejesus out of a youth choir.  I find it a real pity that Tominaga hasn’t directed more in the three years since WOOL saw release and can only hope that we see more of her in the future.

Special mention needs be made of the fantastic cast Tominaga assembled for her debut feature.  Big-time actresses Kiyoko Kishida [perhaps best known for playing the eponymous WOMAN IN THE DUNES in the 1964 Hiroshi Teshigahara film] and Kazuko Yoshiyuki [Seki in Nagisa Oshima's EMPIRE OF PASSION from 1978] are phenomenal picks to play the delightfully bizarre older sisters.  Both actresses had highly successful careers that had spanned at least five decades at the time WOOL was produced, and Yoshiyuki is still working in film today.  This was Kishida’s final performance before her passing in December 2006, and it’s a fine swan song.  Equally good in her role as Aminaoshi is relative newcomer Ayu Kitaura, who should have a long career ahead of her if her work in WOOL is any indication.

Cult Epoch should be commended for giving WOOL 100% a North American DVD release at all, though the disc has its fair share of detracting factors.  The transfer [mis-advertised as full frame] is a reasonably detailed interlaced 16:9 enhanced job with colors and contrast both well rendered.  There is minor ghosting evident at times as well as a few video artifacts, but this appears to be more the fault of the DV source format [transferred to 35mm for theatrical distribution] than the disc’s dual layer encoding.  The pleasant Dolby Digital stereo audio track is augmented with intelligible and highly readable English subtitles.

The disc only really falls flat in the supplemental department.  We get a set of trailers that are of lesser quality than the feature and a brief behind-the-scenes docu running 17:29.  The latter is particularly troublesome as Cult Epoch has neglected to provide any subtitling options for it, making it a useless add-on for the vast majority of the North American DVD market.  A brief stills gallery rounds out the related supplements, and a few unrelated trailers for other available Cult Epoch DVDs finish off the disc proper.  This release of WOOL 100% retails at $24.98, which seems high to me [particularly given the lack of viable supplements] but is still a better bargain than the pricey and subtitle-devoid Japanese disc from 2007.

WOOL 100% is a real charmer as far as I’m concerned and one of the best films I’ve seen in a while.  This deliciously off-kilter and undeniably original fantasy isn’t going to be for everyone, but I think those willing to give it more than a passing thought will find it a rewarding experience indeed.  Highly recommended!