JAPAN CUTS July 10- 21, 2023. REVIEWS

[Chris Knipp]

HAKUTO MATSUMURA, AiNA THE END AND HIROSE SUZU IN KYRIE

SHUNJI IWAI: KYRIE (2023)

Pop stars in a complicated 3-hour saga about street musicians marked by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami

Wendy Ide, Screen Daily: "Homeless street musician Kyrie (AiNA THE END) catches the eye of blue-wigged party girl Ikko (Hirose Suzu) one October night in Tokyo, 2023. It’s not just Kyrie’s raw talent that Ikko recognizes, but a shared past – a teenage friendship from a time when both girls had different names. Shunji Iwai’s music-driven melodrama weaves together multiple timelines, from 2011 until the present day, and a sprawling story that takes in earthquakes, bereavement, teen pregnancy and multiple instances of photogenic yearning. For the first couple of hours, it’s an engrossing piece of storytelling – the movie equivalent of a pulpy page-turner or an airport novel. The final third, however, starts to get a little bogged down with lengthy exposition and numerous tear-sodden emotional climaxes. Still, the music – the film’s key selling point – is distinctive and frequently rather lovely."

Letterboxd: Review by lll ★★. "When Shunji iwai and Makoto Shinkai wanted to revisit the trauma brought by the 2011 earthquake but instead they both made movies that fetishize young women who fall in love with someone played by Hokuto Matsumura."

Mark Schilling, THe Japan Times: "The story, which traces Kyrie’s tempestuous life over 13 years, unfolds on four different alternating and intersecting tracks. One focuses on Luca, a girl who was orphaned in the Great East Japan Earthquake and finds support from a kindly teacher, Fumi Teraishi (Haru Kuroki).

Another follows Luca as a lonely teenager (Aina The End) in Obihiro, Hokkaido. Though she speaks in whispers, she can sing like an angel. She is befriended by Maori (Suzu Hirose), a classmate whose mom runs a small bar. A rebellious type, Maori dreams of escaping Obihiro and moving to the big city.

We also meet the adult Luca (Aina The End again), who now calls herself “Kyrie.” Homeless and still barely articulate, she is busking on the streets of Tokyo when she is approached by Ikko (Hirose again), a mysterious woman in a blue wig, who offers to be her manager.

Connecting these plot threads is Natsuhiko Shiomi (Hokuto Matsumura), who was engaged to Luca’s older sister. Following her death in the 2011 disaster, he searches for Luca and finds her under Fumi’s protection in Osaka. After child welfare workers spirit the girl away, he manages to stay in off-and-on contact with her, while even becoming Maori’s tutor — all the while feeling guilty for not better protecting Luca and her sister.

There is much more to the over-packed plot, including Kyrie’s quick climb up the music industry ladder while never escaping the streets."

I can't say I could fully follow this film from scene to scene with its shifting multiple plot lines and chronology, but it is nonetheless a compelling watch, especially when it takes us right through two lovers experiencing the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami apart, but joined by cell phone as it is terrifyingly happening. If only the filmmaker didn't allow tragedy to drift into sentimentality at times. An overlong but impressively ambitious effort lightened up by a string of songs performed live by the musician characters and pop stars playing them.

Kyrieキリエのうた, 178 mins., debuted at Busan Oct. 5, 2023. Released in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea (twice) Oct.-Nov. 2023. Screened for this review as part of the 2024 New York Japan Cuts series (Jul. 10-21).