Sakuran

I–for reasons including: Shiina Ringo’s score, liking Anna Tsuchiya, and seeing positive buzz–expected great things from the manga-based Sakuran. Regrettably, while I was defensive of my husband’s “this looks kinda like Memoirs of a Geisha” opinions at first (they’re Oiran, not Geisha!), it turned out to be only marginally better than that by-the-numbers piece of frivolous girl power/love story confectionery. And without Tsuchiya’s wild child persona and charisma as the title character, it wouldn’t even have that going for it.

First time director Mika Ninagawa has a rich visual pallette, but squanders it on a dozen too many goldfish-in-a-bowl metaphor shots, and lovely but highly unoriginal sequences of cherry blossom petals, falling poetically to the ground. I haven’t read the manga, but I would venture a guess, going off the movie’s myriad cliches, that she followed it very faithfully. It seems the biggest, if not only, risk she took was having Shiina Ringo compose the film’s score. And, I must admit, hearing “Gamble” blaring over Sakuran’s coronation was perfect in execution and song use. Unfortunately, the pros end here.

Sakuran‘s ending can be guessed within the first ten minutes of the film; all that’s left to do is sit back and (try to) enjoy the imagery, whilst ignoring the many genre trappings Ninagawa and co. fall into. Though it’s been compared to Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette in its excessive costume fetishism and modern touches, that film felt fresh and approached a story we all knew from an interesting angle. Sakuran takes a story most of us didn’t know, and made it one that was painfully familiar. And when all is said and done, no matter how captivating the lead actress is, or how breathtaking the cinematography, that makes for a mediocre movie at best.

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