DISCLAIMER: Filmmaker Sion Sono has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by several actresses in Japan’s film industry. To learn more about these allegations, please read this report by Variety and visit this Twitter thread by actor Yuki Matsuzaki.

Filmed in Ether does not tolerate any form of sexual misconduct and condemn those that abuse their positions of power. In light of these allegations, Filmed in Ether will no longer produce any coverage and publicity for any of Sion Sono’s films, new and old, moving forward.  

As we are an Australian-based publication, please seek out these Australian support services if news of Sono’s allegations have caused you distress.

 


 

In a departure from the films that brought him to the dance — from the gory and bloody like Suicide Club or Noriko’s Dinner Table to his recent explorations in genre like Tokyo Tribe, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? and Love and Peace — Sono’s latest presents audiences with a future that is bleak but dripping with nostalgia of times gone by, which is all oh so beautiful when seen through the lens of cinematographer Hideo Yamamoto. This is Sono style maximus — structured, set compositions shot in luscious black and white, beautifully art directed and magnificently minimal.

 

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In a world where the majority are humanoid, The Whispering Star follows an intergalactic courier as she delivers parcels to the last remaining pockets of humanity. Yoko Suzuki (Megumi Kagurazaka), machine ID#722, shoots the star in a retro fitted house space ship — it’s a rental unit and she is a bit worried because the kitchen tap keeps dripping. Space is peaceful and the pace is slow so she busies herself with cleaning and drinking tea. Her only companion is the onboard computer 6-7 MAH em which is like a lo-fi HAL but more benign. It’s only real menace is that it mistakes dead moths in the light fittings as incoming meteors and keeps try to take evasive action. The tight, stylised close ups of the spaceship’s interior matched with hyper real sound effects is reminiscent of Eraserhead but without the angst.

 

The film is punctuated with time stamps; Monday, Tuesday, 1 year later or 06:57 and 10sec etc. They show us the passing of time for our courier but they are very random and feel as though they’re thrown up as a distraction. It doesn’t really seem to matter. We also learn about the passing of time through Suzuki playing back her audio diary, dutifully entered on an old Tascam reel to reel tape recorder.

 

The nostalgia for the retro, for a time gone by is an ever presence and ID #722 confesses in her audio diary that she has a penchant for the olden days. Hence her selection of her rental space ship. Her deliveries take her around the galaxy to different clients but none of their homes are modern or reflect that we are living in a high tech future. We are told that the people that use the delivery service prefer it over the much quicker and convenient instant teleporting technology that exists somewhere in this universe. It’s a world where the preference is to sending a letter via snail mail over the convenience of an email or text messaging.

 

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There is an old lady asleep at her almost derelict tobacco stand set up on a beach that looks like it has just weathered a typhoon. There are no walls in her life but she still fetches her ink and stamp to sign for the package. It lives in a chest of drawers wedged into the beach sand. They use matches to light their cigarettes.

 

In an age of intergalactic travel there is something beautifully comforting that each package delivered is still signed for in the analogue fashion. No bar codes being scanned or credit card payments, it’s all cash, signatures or name stamps.

 

She finds a bicycle and rides it through a deserted town but its back wheel falls off and she continues on foot. An old soft drink can attaches to her foot, serving no purpose other than to create a great soundscape for every step she takes. The young boy who takes delivery at the abandoned subway station gives her a camera (yes, it’s a film camera).

 

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All her delivery destinations are pockets of post apocalyptic retro urban decay. The population has been severely reduced. To our courier and the people that inhabit these worlds, nothing is out of the ordinary, nothing is surprising.

 

The Whispering Star is a triumph of style and aesthetics over substance. Every shot is beautifully composed or lusciously close up. The delivery encounters are odd and surreal, we never know who she is working for, we never learn anything about the recipients of the packages. Very beautiful to watch but very frustrating trying to piece together any sense with these random delivery encounters.

 

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Is there any meaning in this film? Is that the meaning, that there is no meaning? Is there some big picture commentary going on that critiques our everyday existence? Probably? Maybe? Perhaps that is precisely it? Human beings are meaning making machines, sometimes or even all the time putting meaning onto happenings that actually have no meaning. Is this the big statement or is this actually a trap? Sometimes symmetry, contrast, the golden proportion, composition, light and shade are just exactly all there is and that is enough. To sit, dwell and delight in the aesthetics, being comfortable that there is no conclusion; there is no deeper meaning, just being engulfed in the atmosphere. And then the film ends.

 

The Whispering Star will frustrate and disappoint most as this isn’t a populist film, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. This is not like Sono’s ‘Hate’ trilogy, that’s for sure. This is a very striking example of high cinema, though it’s not such a great film. In the context of Sion Sono, as poet and artist, is it a signal that he is back? Has he returned to his roots where it all began? But for the masses is this a great move? Such a prolific filmmaker who operates outside the mainstream recently has been offering fare suitable for a wider audience but this time he has no qualms in steering the work into the very outer fringes.