TONY TAKITANI ~ Vertigo Revisited
Obviously influenced if not downright inspired by Hitchcock's 1957 masterpiece VERTIGO, director Jun Ichikawa goes a few step further than the typical Brian DePalma stylistic homage to create a hypnotic dream of a film. Shot in fragmentary vignettes, we are slowly drawn into the story of a very anti-social man named Tony Takitami (played with understated melancholy by Issey Ogata) who laet in mid-life falls in love and inevitably marries an exceedingly materialistic but loving woman (portrayed by Rie Miyazawa with a graceful lilt) who dies suddenly in tragic car accident. Slowly the man regroups only to find himself seeking an employee to dress up in his wife's designer clothes and ease his sorrow. Completely engrossing in its dreamlike way. Almost lyrical in its presentation of life and its many foibles. A small gem that will gleam for years to come!!