The Limit of Sleeping Beauty

As one Tom 1 who watched the film with me said, it's the best MV in the world. :-)) Ninomiya Ken may be a completely unknown entity in the field of Japanese directors, but I don't think you should avoid him because of that. What he's managed to conjure up here would blow anyone away. Playing with lights, camera, Hamlet, clowns, colors, perspectives and... and... It simply is not a traditional romance. It's very raw, on the verge of breaking down, yet it manages to be balanced and as tender as it is brutal. And teetering on that edge is Aria Aki, played by Sakurai Yuki, who handles it all with great grace (the question is whether it was good direction by Ninomiya or if she can get that kind of performance out of herself). Aside from the broken and basically almost overly-natural acting Takahashi, who played what he was supposed to, Sakurai was perfectly seconded by Furuhata Nino as the clown, the heroine's crazy self, and the only solid point to take off from. If it doesn't grab your attention at the start, by all means hang on, because I haven't seen such a brilliantly shot sex scene in a long time. One final piece of advice – perhaps more crucial than knowing Hamlet is knowing the song “Hummingbird" by Kyla La Grange. Although that's a bit of a spoiler. A strong 4 stars. (09.12.2018)