For all the trans-dimensional, out-of-body potential of cinema, there are few directors who can successfully execute otherworldly temporality. Films that stir parallel dimensions or transgressive timelines into their otherwise straightforward plots are forced to walk the line between sci-fi and drama without acquiescing to either genre’s overwrought potentials. If these films were to exist on a spectrum of “inventive and winning” to “deeply unsuccessful,” it would stretch all the way from “Arrival” to “The Lake House.” Japanese director Yui Kiyohara’s surreal debut “Our House,” at once inventive and plodding, falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
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Following two parallel sets of women living in the same home, “Our House” begins on Seri (Nodoka Kawanishi), a teenager haunted by the ghost of her father and betrayed by her newly-romanced mother, before dovetailing to posh amnesiac Sana (Mariwo Osawa) and her savior, the solitary Toko (Mei Fujimara). It’s clear, once Sana and Toko’s story begins, that Toko lives in the same house as Seri, leaving viewers to puzzle over what has happened to Seri and her mother.
Kiyohara is loath to just hand out answers, though, and instead gets to work assembling a quietly artful tale of co-existing female companionship. Vignettes of tenderness overlap as she offers viewers a glimpse at milestone moments in the character’s lives — Seri’s fourteenth birthday, or Sana and Toko’s gleeful late-night trip to a junk heap. Soft, yellow lighting lends a deceptively nostalgic feel to Seri’s world, while darkness and pinks evoke femininity and danger in Sana and Toko’s entangled relationship. By the film’s final act, it becomes clear that its treatment of time is not so straightforward as we thought. But while the overall composition of “Our House” is both pleasing and visionary, its narrative often feels like a too-long journey toward an inconclusive end.
The greatest flaw in this laudable first feature is its penchant for distraction. The latter is most notable in Sana’s timeline. Plot points like Sana’s amnesia, Toko’s covert criminality, and an invasive male friend are little more than red herrings keeping viewers away from the heart of the story. That’s not to say that none of those things should exist in the script, but it’s maddening to see them all end with the same kind of head-scratching ambiguity as the parallel dimensions plot. Kiyohara resists clarity so strongly that the film borders on frustrating, leaving viewers to feel frustrated — even cheated — by its vagueness.
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The script is similarly hindered by its unwillingness to fully embrace its sci-fi bend. Though hints at phantoms and presences litter the film, its crossed timelines go unaddressed until the last few minutes, stretching the scant 80-minute journey to that conclusion into something that feels much longer. There’s so much to explore in the world Kiyohara has so artfully crafted, but she barely dips a toe in before the film is finished.
I always feel reluctant about criticizing female filmmakers whose experimental projects don’t fully work. It’s all too common to see women lose out on directorial opportunities after an imperfect first feature, whereas their male counterparts sail on to the next project. I can’t help but think that if, say Lars von Trier had been judged solely by his polarizing first feature “The Element of Crime,” he still would have gone on to become Lars von Trier. It’s astonishing to step back and remember that “Our House” is a student film, made while Kiyohara pursued her masters at the Tokyo University of the Arts. That amateurism occasionally reveals itself in the film, but it is an astoundingly accomplished work overall.
“Our House” is not perfect. The experimental drama couples the dull-yet-bizarre nature of a film like “Sliding Doors” with the visionary genius of a director like David Lynch — needless to say, your mileage may vary. Still, while “Our House” occasionally loses sight of itself and could stand to take more risks, it offers a wholly original perspective on female friendship bolstered by precocious directorial acumen and a self-assured visuals. [B-]