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The emotional comedy by French director Ellis Girard, Sidonie in Japan, which participated in the 2023 Venice Film Festival, has been released. The main role in the film is played by Isabelle Huppert, who brings to life a rather speculative story about ghosts and losses with spontaneity and self-irony. Julia Shagelman narrates.
Last May, Russia saw the release of Hong Sang-soo's film "The Traveler's Demands," in which Iris, a Frenchwoman played by Isabelle Huppert, flew through the streets of Seoul, drinking makgeolli and teaching Koreans. French: The ability to live each day without stress is more important. In "Japanese Sidonie," Huppert's heroine returns to Asia, but now learns to let go and forget.
When a border guard at Osaka Airport asks, "Are you a writer?" her Sidonie Percival replies, "Yes and no." She did write one once and became quite famous, but she hasn't done it for long. She's speechless after a personal tragedy. Sidonie comes to Japan at the invitation of Kenzo Mizoguchi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), the publisher who reissued his debut novel. She doesn't want to fly now and is late at Charles de Gaulle Airport, but fate sends her on her way because her flight is delayed by three hours.
The first meeting with the publisher is awkward. Sidonie does not know how to respond to his greeting and asks if he is named after a famous film director, and upon hearing the answer that Mizoguchi is a very common surname, she chases after Kenzo, who kindly accepted her handbag.
Much of the film's humor is based on "white man in Japan"-style confusion. At one point, Sidonie even confuses her translator with another woman. Because, to her European eyes, they naturally look alike.
The more serious moments are also created in the same spirit. Kenzo constantly talks to Shidoni about what is and is not acceptable in Japan, and highlights the differences between her behavior and that of the Japanese. And they always travel together to tourist destinations, such as Nara's parks with deer, famous shrines, or the island of Naoshima with its museums and modern art. Of course, cherry blossoms appear in the frame.
However, there is no racism or condemnation of it in this directorial approach, but rather a cold-blooded view of things. What else can you see in Japan in a week if not the most popular attractions? And the uncomfortable situations in which Sidonie sometimes finds herself emphasize that she has already forgotten how to behave like a famous writer on a book tour, and the foreignness of Japan only sharpens her feelings, like a fish thrown onto dry land.
Her situation is not made easier by the ghost of her husband Antoine (August Diehl), who suddenly begins appearing in her hotel room. It was his death in a car accident that Sidonie herself experienced, an event after which she stopped writing. And that very debut novel was written in response to the death of Sidonie's parents and brother, namely in a car accident. Thus, her writing journey began and ended with the loss of a loved one.
Kenzo reacts calmly to her ghost story. In Japan, ghosts are common and are said to live alongside the living. The publishers have their own list of losses. His father's entire family perished in Hiroshima, and he was the only survivor. After his mother's death, Kenzo returned to his hometown to live with his departed relatives.
Sidonie and Kenzo's reconciliation begins with a conversation about death and the reactions of those who continue to live. Her eyes open, her senses become more acute, she begins to write again, and Antoine's ghost gradually fades, moving beyond oblivion.
The entire film also takes place in a somewhat otherworldly reality. Aside from the reporters and readers who come to see Sidonie, and the rotating hotel staff, there are almost no characters in the film other than a few main characters. Airports, train stations, train cars, museums, and churches are strangely empty. There are no visible signs of age, unless you count the latest sneakers with glowing soles that Sidonie buys. This gives the film a certain artificiality, especially in the scene where she and Kenzo are driving in a car against a static background, like an old film. Perhaps they themselves have long since become ghosts, and this whole dark, romantic Japan is just a collective dream of the characters, writers, and viewers.