Four women -- Masako (Mieko Harada of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams), Yoshie (Mitsuko Baisho of Warm Water Under a Red Bridge), Kuniko (Shigeru Muroi), and the younger, pregnant Yayoi (Naomi Nishida) -- work at a bento box factory, carefully packaging pre-made lunches into sterile little boxes, while dressed in white protective suits. Their home lives don't bring much more happiness than their tedious jobs. Masako lives with her unappreciative unemployed husband and sullen, uncommunicative son. Yoshie spends her off hours taking care of her cranky, dying mother-in-law (her husband has long since died), while Kuniko runs up a huge debt buying designer clothes she can't afford. Yayoi has it the worst, though. Her husband drinks and gambles away all their money, then comes home and beats her. One morning after, something snaps and Yayoi strangles him in his sleep. Soon, she's engaged her three reluctant friends in helping her dispose of the body. Through this unpleasant experience, the women all find reserves of strength they didn't know they had. But a panicked Kuniko gets sloppy and dumps body parts in the local cemetery. Soon, the police are questioning a vicious gangster, Satake (Kanpei Hazama), about the husband's gambling debts. Meanwhile, Masako finds herself being wooed by Kuniko's loan shark, Jumonji (Teruyuki Kagawa of Devils on the Doorstep), who wants to get out of the lending business, and has a few unsavory ideas about how he and the women might make some money. Out, based on the novel by Natsuo Kirino, was directed by Hideyuki Hirayama, and was Japan's official entry for the 2003 Foreign Language Oscar. The film had its North American premiere at Subway Cinema's 2003 New York Asian Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Review
Out might qualify as a modern take on the traditional "women's picture," if not for all the severed body parts. Director Hideyuki Hirayama, working from Natsuo Kirino's story, has created a compelling and entertaining film that functions equally well as a brutal thriller, a crime caper, a comedic character study, and a bitter satire of capitalist society. Expertly mixing tension, laughs, and human drama, Out presents four women, three of them middle-aged, who pragmatically resort to criminal activity when their backs are against the wall. The four of them cross that line, with varying degrees of hesitance, and each discovers strengths she didn't know she had. Hirayama gets exceptionally strong performances from these actresses. While Shigeru Muroi as the dimwitted and desperate Kuniko and Naomi Nishida as Yayoi, the unabashedly selfish young pregnant woman who sets the drama in motion, border on the cartoonish and provide many of the film's comic moments, Mitsuko Baisho as Yoshie, the group's sweet-natured matriarch (the other women call her sensei), and Mieko Harada as Masako, the put-upon ringleader, bring surprising depth to their roles. Harada in particular, gives a restrained and moving performance as a woman of principle in an untenable situation, strengthening the film's moral center and distinguishing it from so many other darkly comic thrillers. From Masako's brutally matter-of-fact response, to Kuniko's pathetic pleas for acceptance, to the minute breakdown in composure the unhappily married Masako suffers when she finds herself unexpectedly wooed by another man, Harada's performance is a joy. While the basic plot of Out isn't especially fresh, the filmmakers have filled in the framework with a wealth of detail and enough surprises to keep the audience guessing. That would be plenty for most thrillers, but Out is also trenchant on a thematic level, making for a distinctive and memorable film. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
