Tokyo International Film Festival 2018: Love & Friendship With CHAOTIC LOVE POEMS & RENT A FRIEND

For a young professional like myself, Tokyo International Film Festival feels like an extension of what college was some years ago. If approached with the right mentality and a certain amount of humility, it can be a time of immense cinematic discovery – a literal theater for exploration and dialogue on a global scale.

This is my first time at the Tokyo International Film Festival, now in its 31st year, not to mention my first film festival period. If you want a more veteran perspective I would recommend Mark Schilling of The Japan Times who provided a fine piece of some highlights of the festival for audiences. However, in speaking from my own experience of being here, the anticipation comes in finding films you had no prior knowledge of. I must put aside my context momentarily and allow a film to take me wherever it will on its own merit.

Chaotic Love Poems

Despite the miles separating us geographically, it’s fascinating how there are archetypal narratives to connect us. Take Chaotic Love Poems, for instance, the first film I watched at this year’s festival.

It’s an Indonesian adolescent romance intending to evoke such diverse reference points as Adam and Eve and Tom and Jerry. However, the most crucial allusion is to the Bard‘s Romeo and Juliet. The story tells us as much through the words of one our protagonists, aptly named Yulia (Pevita Pearce).

She grew up nearby a boy named Rumi (Chicco Jerikho) in an Indonesia that, while rich in natural resources, is short on prosperity. Their lifelong relationship is a complicated one as Rumi feels drawn to her from early childhood but due to the chiding of her mother and his at times boorish behavior, Yulia does her best to stay away.

He doesn’t make it easy thanks to his continual pranks, whether stealing her bra during a martial arts lesson or posing as a lipstick vampire to get her to pay attention to him. These, as well as other vessels, like lemonade bottles concealing love letters, are tokens to move the story forward. The foremost problem at hand is the film tries to be to many things – meta and heartfelt, artistic and heady – but it winds up hiding behind metaphors never truly explored.

There are the momentary highs fitting for a story of youthful romance and these are appreciated. What becomes increasingly apparent is how easily the dividing line between “chaotic” and muddled can be crossed. It cannot be used as an excuse for a clumsy narrative where ideas are posed and then never really satisfactorily examined. Chaotic Love Poems works in vignettes but they are loose and a function of the fluctuating ambitions that are never fully reconciled. I would have preferred more boldness in the choices made because at least a greater narrative risk is being taken.

Certainly, for those not acquainted with this context, they might be interested in the environment alone, set against the backdrop of Indonesia a few generations ago. The story gives a cursory look at broken family dynamics. Fathers are abusive. Mothers leave their children behind. Fathers disappear. Mothers eke by an existence through their own blood, sweat, and tears.

This is the rocky soil across which a love story must be borne but the narrative never digs in deeply enough. We continue to go back to Adam and Eve but no moral commentary is provided. Their archetypal fall is stripped down to the world’s first love story and an apple. Furthermore, there is not the same bitter gut-wrenching tragedy of Romeo and Juliet – only a school adaptation played for laughs. There are a few Tom and Jerry cut-up moments too, but I’m not sure if they are welcomed or not.

I actually rather like the accompanying music including a ditty called “Fantastic Umbrella” but given what we know about this environment, it feels a bit too twee.  One scene, in particular, showing clients being fitted in the tailor shop, runs long to the point of devolving into tiresome pandering. It takes away from what the film might have been. The moments of obvious candor are undercut by these needless asides diluting any potential impact.

It is a disappointment because, for a story aspiring for playful artfulness, Chaotic Love Poems is not able to deliver in satisfactory terms. Again, it probably comes down to trying to do too much. Unfortunately, it is not able to be all things to all people from tragic romance to zany comedy and it suffers as a result.

Rent A Friend

Like many rom-coms trying to push the envelope, or more precisely, squeeze the accepted tropes for all they are worth, Rent a Friend opens with a major premise. The initial image is a familiar one. A young woman (Eri Tokunaga in her first leading role) is dragged to a bar by a co-worker who is looking forward to flirting with some eligible bachelors. It works in no time at all when a handsome young man (Atsushi Hashimoto) comes up to them to do a magic trick and they wind up picking out another man’s business card from the deck.

Her co-worker is gone with the new prospect and Nasa is left with the wingman who she accidentally finds out is a rental friend. Here the hook of the entire movie is brought to us. But first things first. If you question whether or not this is simply a gimmick, The Atlantic published an article about exactly this phenomena. It’s real folks.

In an often isolating place like Tokyo, there actually is some practicality to it. Soon enough, our winsome heroine goes on his monthly plan complete with a time card stamped in two-hour increments. She now has a paid companion who will trek with her anywhere she pleases and as she has an affinity of all things tall (buildings and water towers), they go around the city taking pictures. In another scene, she is yelling all her deepest secrets at the ocean as he chuckles good-naturedly. They always have a good time without any expectations attached.

At her job with a marketing firm, Nasa creates an extremely popular blogging campaign about her experiences with the boy christened “Rental-kun.” But there must be more. As their “friendship” continues, the audience is continually asked to question it. Nasa is increasingly interested in the “switch” he uses to maintain a professional relationship. And yet the threshold between friendship and romance seem infinitesimal at times. Can they be kept apart? Some might fight vehemently either way but it seems unnecessary to belabor the point.

Of course, there must be further complications. First, her roommate, an aspiring musician, says she might love “Rental-kun” and then Nasa’s boss chides her to keep pushing her story into more interesting places to satiate her readers. She sets up an indubitably cringe-worthy moment by “accidentally” leaving her phone at his apartment one evening and coming back to retrieve it after the last train. Now she has to spend the night at his place. Oops.

With the film progressing as it does, it becomes apparent her rented friend is a bit of a manic pixie dream boy with his tousled hair and cool detachment. He’s probably what the contemporary Japanese culture would term an Ikemen. He even admits to being made by other people when he’s on the job because that’s what he’s paid to be, whatever they want. However, Nasa craves more as most of us do.

It’s when he’s working his side gig – that of an aspiring musician – where he shows more of himself. From thenceforward, the deviations Rent a Friend chooses are mostly of a slight and affable nature. It’s as if a cute Japanese rom-com like Densha Otoko all of a sudden became a bit like God Help The Girl because music becomes a crucial final component.

The sensation of a song seemingly coming to life in front of us is still something I relish. Maybe as someone who likes music but is not totally musical, it feels like there’s some magic in the air as we watch a song all but materialize in a semi-organic manner. The ensuing collaboration between a group of friends is another hopeful note in a story that might otherwise have fallen down in the dumps.

While not a piece to be effusively touted for its formalistic elements, whether its cinematography or the rather pedestrian audio track, regardless, there’s an offbeat charm on display. Rent a Friend is a fine picture to lift spirits even as it comes to inconclusive terms about love in the modern era. In the confessing culture of Japan, it seems to be leaning into a relational ambiguity that is far more western by nature. I’m not sure I know what stance it’s vouching for. There is no major impression in this regard, but still, a geniality of the best kind is present. It leaves us on a high.

If you had the option, would you willingly rent a friend? Where would you go with them?

The Tokyo International Film Festival runs from October 25th to November 3rd.