Fantasia Film Festival 2020 Screening – Woman of the Photographs (2020) is a sight and sound sensory experience that delves deep into the small, but loud, world of writer/director Takeshi Kushida. It is one of the most visually stunning movies of the year, in my humble opinion, and its narrative is equally moving, mixing poignant and melancholy scenes with uplifting existential moments. Having racked up a few awards for its cinematography and narrative at various festivals, Woman of the Photographs will next be screening as part of the 2020 virtual Fantasia Film Festival.

With a sparse IMDb page, it looks like Woman of the Photographs may be an early feature-film venture for Takeshi Kushida, and yet, this movie seems like it was done by a seasoned filmmaker from the earlier days of cinema. It is so well-directed that it could have been a silent movie without subtitles, but instead, it does the opposite and blows out the sound for even the minutest of occurrences — everything from the scratching of a pen on a desk to the chewing of a praying mantis bug. This sound treatment counter-acted the film’s intentional slow-pace, nurturing the kind of slow burn that feels good as the plot heats up and finally boils over.

In the film, a quiet, older man (Hideki Nagai) lives alone, save for his pet praying mantis. Fascinated by capturing bugs on film since his childhood, the man now works as a photographer, taking personal photographs of customers and masterfully retouching them to his clients’ desires. One day while photographing the forest, a young woman (Itsuki Otaki) falls from a tree, scarring her chest and face. He takes her back to his place, where begrudgingly he acquiesces to her insistence on staying. As the two grow closer through proximity and their shared love of photography and bugs, both find a way to overcome their inner crisis and connect in a way where they can comfortably be themselves.

As mentioned, the sound design for this movie is amazing — something like a noir film where every footstep and door opening/closing is heard, but Woman of the Photographs, visually, is as bright as they come, displaying its darkly damaged characters in an almost blinding light. Visually bright, its narrative, in contrast, is on the darker side for a movie with romance at the end, its existential exploration culminating in a twisted, romantic melodrama. Kushida pens a story that is wholly relevant to today, showing the issue of negative self-perception in the age of social media, and how self-worth can be tied to how many likes and comments someone can get. He uses this issue of body dysmorphia to create a sometimes horrific and gory story that turns into a journey of overcoming that.

Though not quite as gruesome in comparison, it has not been since Audition (1999) that a movie made me squeal in vicarious agony with a character as wounds are literally reopened in Takeshi Kushida’s Woman of the Photographs. It might be a tad slow for some, but this artistically styled brooding romance was captivating, to me, from start to finish, as the imagery grew from light to dark with body horror but the characters’ existential journeys grew from dark places to a brighter outlook. It is a beautiful film inside and out, and deserves an award for every aspect, and at the very least, deserves a watch.

MOVIE RATING — 8 out of 10