KOTOKO
DVD. Third Window Films

Coming to DVD after a year of dividing and devastating audiences at film festivals, Shinya Tsukamoto's Kotoko is a difficult proposition, but one that is definitely worth the effort to watch.

Japanese pop star Cocco plays the title role, a new mother with severe mental issues that have either been caused or exasperated by the birth of her child Daijiro, who she is obsessively protective of. She frequently sees double images of people – not duplicates, but one passive (and real), the other aggressive and threatening, ready to attack her. Her efforts to fend off these hallucinatory attackers have caused her to frequently move home and try to close off the outside world as much as possible. She cuts her wrists, not to cause harm but to test her body’s ability to take punishment.

Her worsening mental condition sees Daijiro removed from her care and sent to live with her sister, and for a brief moment it seems that she may be returning to normality. But a destructive relationship with novelist Tanaka (played by director Tsukamoto) becomes increasingly violent, as he acts as her punching bag during her increasingly psychotic rages.

Kotoko is a film of uncompromising intensity, seen entirely through the eyes of the title character, who is played with astonishing power and bravery by Cocco (all the more astonishing when you discover that the film is partly inspired by her own mental issues). She can move from joy to despair to psychosis in a moment, utterly convincing in each and even at her most intense, still sympathetic.

And the intensity is very intense – the beaten face of Tanaka and the relentless wrist slashing are almost painful to watch, while the moments of hysteria reach a level of madness that compares to Zuwalski’s Possession. Another film that this seems to touch on is Polanski’s Repulsion, sharing as it does the internalised view of mental collapse and hallucination, if not the horror movie aspects of that film. Kotoko might have played at horror film festivals and been categorised as such, but it really isn’t – this is a film that transcends any easy genre definition, though perhaps only horror film audiences will be able to handle the blood and brutality.

But at other times, the film is sedate, measured and thoughtful – Kotoko’s voice-over expressing her decline in whispers, not shouts. The film has moments of real beauty – washes of intense colour (it opens with the bluest ocean you’ll ever see) and carefully framed moments of quiet before the dizzying camera work that increasingly fills the second half. And it ends, if not exactly happily, then at least with a suggestion of hope.

This is a deliberately intimate film (as well as the director taking a leading role, Kotoko’s family are played by Cocco’s real life family, and it was shot with a minimal crew) that offers a haunting, unforgettable look at madness that is distressingly raw. It’s not for everyone, but there are many rewards to be found if you can take bear it.

DAVID FLINT

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