The Village Review: Countryside Suspense Barely Builds Up Momentum

The Village Review: ヴィレッジ is a Japanese film that originally released in April 2023. On June 16, 2023, the OTT Netflix premiere unveiled the Michihito Fujii directorial to the international audiences. The 2 hours long thriller flick stars Ryusei Yokohama, Haru Kuroki, Arata Furata, Shido Nakamura, Wataru Ichinose and others. Ryo Yukizane and Michiaki Tsunoda have produced the dark fictional dystopia with Tomoyuki Kawakami as its cinematographer.

The Village Review Does Not Contain Spoilers

The Village Review: Discussion

The fictional town of Kamon-mura was once swimming in the glory of its famous theatrical performances of the traditional art form Noh. However, a dusty present overtakes the place where a massive landfill and the operating recycling plant therein has become its only highlight. There’s something evidently ominous about this place, and the same dark cloud looms over the village in question. With the overarching landscape taking shape as a fateful and silent monster of its own, people living within have their own share of secrets as well.

Led by Ryusei Yokohama as Yu Katayama, a labourer at the same plant who’s a victim of his traumatic past and a debt-ridden present, the plot finds itself a grey protagonist. As soon as he’s introduced for the first time, it’s made clear enough that he’s been ostracised by his community, and it has something to do with the ghosts of the past haunting him. Visions of a distressed man setting himself on fire cloud his narrative, and in turn make us question how it all relates to Yu.

While the village people constantly murmur about him and look down upon him as a supposed criminal in the lot, a new entry changes it all for him. His old childhood friend Misaki Nakai, played by Haru Kuroki, returns from Tokyo and helps him get back on his feet eventually with her undying support.

Throughout the movie, we’re made to believe that Yu is going through a lot. Yet, unfortunately, when the truth comes crashing down in the end, we barely feel any sympathy for his character. It’s not that he’s purposely made into an unlikeable character, it’s just that he’s never fleshed out as a worthy one. Despite his layered personality and narrative, there’s nothing about his story that surfaces as interesting. Even though the film bathes itself with a mysterious garb, and incorporates some elements of a horror thriller at times, there’s nothing frightening or chilling to the bone about it.

Moreover, the eponymous location is often spoken of as an antagonist itself, and though some subplots help explain that the place desires scapegoats to be sacrificed in order for a new chapter to start, not much is loaded off to explain why the people living in it are always desperately wanting to leave it. This fear only arises and explains itself in words, which again only spell out the individuals’ desire to run away, but never the the crux of it all.

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And then, a clear distinction between the village’s traditional arts and the modern utilitarian vision is drawn up, but that conversation is also left undiscussed and hollow. The overall visuals, themes, music and other elements try so hard to make it all work out, but other than the visual horrors and dark colour schemes of the film, the depth of its story underneath is never unravelled practically. Many characters even come off as infuriating additions, and seem to add nothing worth mentioning in the film. Ryusei Yokohama’s portrayal of Yu also ends up turning into a try-hard attempt which never appeases you.

In the end, even if the movie was trying to work out a social commentary related to the horrors these townsfolk have had to face in order to push for their home to go back to being a visible dot on the map, neither of their hardships are broken deep into. The ones holding the power either mostly stay off camera or sum up their wrongdoings in a sentence before the film runs its course. Therefore, the countryside dystopia fails on many levels.

The Village: Final Thoughts

Apart from the visual grimness of the film, The Village barely probes into anything. Even when all mysterious – past and present – are untangled in the end, the plot barely leaves you with a fulfilling taste. Despite the leading character being a majorly flawed one, the storyline doesn’t open itself to the ambiguity of the setting and monotonously drags out the runtime for a distasteful ending that never gives us a chance to root for its protagonist.

The Village Netflix film is now streaming on the OTT platform.

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