‘Kaneko’s Commissary’: Busan Review

Dir. Go Furukawa. Japan. 2024. 125mins

The opening stretch of author/director Go Furukawa’s redemptive drama Kaneko’s Commissary establishes the particulars of Japan’s jail visitation system: deliveries and visits are solely allowed throughout working hours on weekdays, making it troublesome for folks to see incarcerated family members or mates, whereas the dearth of a reservation system implies that any try could also be all for nought. That is the place jail commissaries step in by dropping off packages and visiting inmates on behalf of others. It’s a service that’s usually frowned upon by a collectivist society that doesn’t contemplate those that have violated its guidelines to warrant such privileges.

The suitably uncooked Maruyama is credible all through.

Kaneko’s Commissary receives its world premiere in Busan’s New Currents strand; well-acted, sincerely intentioned however finally somewhat plodding, it could properly acquire entry to additional Asian targeted occasions – notably these with an emphasis on social points. Additional journey is much less sure.

A prologue finds Shinji Kaneko (Ryuhei Maruyama) behind bars for violent behaviour, and expressing anger in direction of his spouse Miwako (Yoko Maki) throughout her visits. But a time bounce sees this contemptible particular person apparently reformed because of the wholesome affect of his household. Shinji now operates a commissary that provides objects to inmates and acts as a liaison for his or her households. Some prisoners deeply admire Shinji’s service, whereas others function reminders of his vitriolic former self. Both means, he’s completely happy to have his life on a good keel.

Sadly, Shinji’s newfound home bliss is disrupted when his son’s younger classmate goes lacking, and everybody’s worst fears are confirmed when her physique is discovered. Nihilistic youth Takashi Kojima (Takumi Kitamura) is swiftly arrested for the crime. Nonetheless, Shinji finds himself in a troublesome place when the assassin’s mom (Toshie Negishi) requests his providers whereas the neighbourhood remains to be reeling from the tragedy.

In dramatising a stigmatised career, Kaneko’s Commissary remembers Yojiro Takita’s Oscar-winning Departures (2008) whereby a mortician experiences prejudice resulting from social taboos towards those that take care of demise. Right here, although, the protagonist is cursed with a brief fuse which makes it particularly difficult for him to rise above the unjustified scorn.

A member of the idol group Tremendous Eight who has solely made sporadic movie appearances, the suitably uncooked Maruyama is credible all through. His strategy to suggesting a twin nature usually echoes Viggo Mortensen’s complicated efficiency in A Historical past Of Violence (2005) with subtly jarring facial twitches and shifts in vocal register as politely understated monotone provides strategy to a fierce snarl. Though the narrative omits the main points of Shinji’s optimistic transformation, Maruyama’s unvarnished portrayal not solely successfully fills within the blanks, however illustrates how sudden occasions make all of it too simple for such people to backslide.

Though Maruyama is surrounded by a powerful ensemble, subplots involving Shinji’s troubled household background and a grisly homicide dedicated by a lately launched yakuza (Goro Kishitani) imply that Kaneko’s Commissary is sort of as weighed down as its protagonist. Furukawa’s earlier credit embrace episodes of the tv sequence Madoromi Barmaid (2019) and Cooking For My Imaginary Girlfriends (2021) and his characteristic debut usually evinces an episodic really feel, with Shinji’s ongoing interior wrestle dovetailing with the circumstances of the assorted inmates that he encounters. 

Moreover, conversations with the remorseless Takashi briefly and unconvincingly take the movie into psychological thriller territory (minus the precise thrills) because the assassin questions whether or not Shinji has really modified. Sadly, flat protection of the confined visitation house by cinematographer Tomoo Ezaki and a scarcity of incisive verbal exchanges means these scenes fail to offer the supposed heft that comes from forcing a flawed man to stare into the abyss. Elsewhere, the graphic luridness of the yakuza strand is at odds with Furukawa’s realist examination of incarceration and rehabilitation.

Furukawa is on surer floor when depicting Shinji’s neighbourhood as a microcosm of Japanese society by way of its adherence to the group mannequin. He additionally succinctly illustrates the nationwide disgrace tradition that sees the family members of criminals being handled as if they’re additionally answerable for the crime when Takashi’s mom is besieged by enraged residents and the media. Furukawa’s screenplay doesn’t name for jail visitation guidelines to be reformed, nevertheless it does categorical a staunch rebuke to those that criticise commissary providers with the ever-practical Miwako declaring, “We’re not those which might be fallacious! It’s this society that’s tousled!” There are definitely some impactful moments in Kaneko’s Commissary, however a tighter and extra constant storytelling would have made it infinitely extra compelling.