Sidonie in Japan

East meets West in Élise Girard’s latest film, Sidonie in Japan.

Sidonie (Isabelle Huppert), a lapsed French author, travels to Japan to publicise her first book, which was written years previously. She is not there by choice but at the insistence of her editor and translator, Kenzo (Tsuyoshi Ihara). She is also haunted by the ghost of her husband (August Diehl), who died in a car crash years earlier.

Most of her time in Japan is spent in the company of Kenzo who she finds increasingly drawn to even though she is  still mourning her husband. These feelings are further complicated by the visits from her husband’s ghost. Kenzo is trying to move on from a divorce, and these two people who had loved so deeply and for so long find the outlet of their grief in each other.

Huppert plays Sidonie’s gradual return to the real world by slow, nervous degrees, her face a mask of strain that occasionally lapses into laughter or a sudden, flush of past warm feelings. Her character portrayal is a fascinating psychological insight into love and grief.

Ihara’s portrayal on Kenzo is sensitive and perfectly matched to Huppert’s Sidonie. Their relationship is measured by the proximity of their hands when sitting on the back seat of a private car. They progressively get closer and closer, a clever device.

The film depicts its ghost-story elements casually, with only the occasional visual effect drawing attention to the eeriness of Sidonie and Antoine’s renewed meeting. Her husband appears before her, only visible to her and only because she “still had things to say to him”.

Where Sidonie in Japan does ‘fall down’ at times for me is its evolution into a kind of romantic melodrama. I admire the comparison of cultures and their attitude to romance; however, the film moves slowly and I found myself becoming annoyed with Sidonie at times for her reluctance to join normal life.

That being said, this is possibly what director/writer Élise Girard intended to build the romance to its inevitable conclusion. The handling of a foreigner working through a translator and still trying to maintain the nuance of the original language is masterful, as is Sidonie’s dilemma of balancing the security of her dead husband’s ghost with an attraction to a foreigner that is growing.

Beautiful cinematography by Celine Bozon and costuming by Dorothee Hohndorf add to the sensitive writing and direction by Élise Girard to make the film an delight for filmgoers who are looking for more than action and special effects.

Sidonie in Japan is a discerning look at a mature woman finding new purpose in her life later years, which should appeal to older viewers.

Barry Hill OAM

More details: https://sharmillfilms.com.au/feature-film/sidonie-in-japan/