NYAFF'09 Films
THE CLONE RETURNS HOME (JAPAN, 2008)
NEW YORK PREMIERE
111 minutes, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by: Kanji Nakajima
Starring: Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Eri Ishida, Hiromi Nagasaku
Showtimes:
Mon June 22, 9:30pm at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Wed July 1, 11:00am at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately.
Bad news: Your husband died in Earth orbit. Good news: We have a spare. That's the long and short of it for the would've-been-widow of astronaut Kohei Takahara (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) when THE CLONE RETURNS HOME. The glittering, dreamy manchild of Andrei Tarkovsky and SOLARIS, Kanji Nakajima's debut feature is a fog-choked meditation on identity, family, and science vs. religion, set in a near-future where human cloning is simply the most convenient solution to any unexpected worker shortage. After Kohei is killed in a shuttle malfunction, "Kohei #2" is activated, but oops: his mind is lost in memories of childhood. Soon, Kohei: The Sequel is on the lam in the Japanese countryside, heading for his family home and dragging the corpse of his original self along with him like a security blanket.
This poetic mix of philosophy and technology informs the entire film as we follow not one, not two, but three Koheis through a surreal personal odyssey. Kohei is haunted by the childhood memory of the death of his twin, Noboru, and the anguish that nearly destroyed his saintly mother, Yoko (the luminous Eri Ishida). His guilt informs the path of his clone, and a third Kohei, all treading the same hallucinatory terrain in a strange post-death pre-afterlife world. As the Kohei gestalt loses track of itself amidst memories of Kohei and Noboru switching places, clones carry corpses, corpses carry clones, and just like SOLARIS, it never stops raining on mist-choked fields of green.
First-time writer/director Nakajima scored a major triumph when THE CLONE RETURNS HOME took the Sundance Film Festival by storm as a rare science-fiction entry, grabbing an International Filmmakers prize and snagging a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. Executive produced by no less than Wim Wenders, the film echoes his work as well as Tarkovsky's but is no slavish imitation. Exercising Zen-like restraint over his camera and actors, Nakajima succeeds in making a picture that is both intimate and intoxicatingly alien, with visual tableaus of otherworldly beauty. As bodies switch places and emotional scars disappear and reappear, you'll no doubt come out of THE CLONE RETURNS HOME scratching your head, with more questions than answers. But don't feel too bad: Kohei's the same way. Time to go home and figure it all out. But remember to carry your corpse on your back; you don't want to forget who you are.
THE CLONE RETURNS HOME (JAPAN, 2008)
NEW YORK PREMIERE
111 minutes, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by: Kanji Nakajima
Starring: Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Eri Ishida, Hiromi Nagasaku
Showtimes:
Mon June 22, 9:30pm at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Wed July 1, 11:00am at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately.
Bad news: Your husband died in Earth orbit. Good news: We have a spare. That's the long and short of it for the would've-been-widow of astronaut Kohei Takahara (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) when THE CLONE RETURNS HOME. The glittering, dreamy manchild of Andrei Tarkovsky and SOLARIS, Kanji Nakajima's debut feature is a fog-choked meditation on identity, family, and science vs. religion, set in a near-future where human cloning is simply the most convenient solution to any unexpected worker shortage. After Kohei is killed in a shuttle malfunction, "Kohei #2" is activated, but oops: his mind is lost in memories of childhood. Soon, Kohei: The Sequel is on the lam in the Japanese countryside, heading for his family home and dragging the corpse of his original self along with him like a security blanket.
This poetic mix of philosophy and technology informs the entire film as we follow not one, not two, but three Koheis through a surreal personal odyssey. Kohei is haunted by the childhood memory of the death of his twin, Noboru, and the anguish that nearly destroyed his saintly mother, Yoko (the luminous Eri Ishida). His guilt informs the path of his clone, and a third Kohei, all treading the same hallucinatory terrain in a strange post-death pre-afterlife world. As the Kohei gestalt loses track of itself amidst memories of Kohei and Noboru switching places, clones carry corpses, corpses carry clones, and just like SOLARIS, it never stops raining on mist-choked fields of green.
First-time writer/director Nakajima scored a major triumph when THE CLONE RETURNS HOME took the Sundance Film Festival by storm as a rare science-fiction entry, grabbing an International Filmmakers prize and snagging a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. Executive produced by no less than Wim Wenders, the film echoes his work as well as Tarkovsky's but is no slavish imitation. Exercising Zen-like restraint over his camera and actors, Nakajima succeeds in making a picture that is both intimate and intoxicatingly alien, with visual tableaus of otherworldly beauty. As bodies switch places and emotional scars disappear and reappear, you'll no doubt come out of THE CLONE RETURNS HOME scratching your head, with more questions than answers. But don't feel too bad: Kohei's the same way. Time to go home and figure it all out. But remember to carry your corpse on your back; you don't want to forget who you are.
