SF IndieFest: Antenna
SFist wasn't quite sure what to expect when we went to last night's screening of Antenna, and our mind continues to reel almost 20 hours after experiencing the film.
With undeniable references to Lynch and Cronenberg, Antenna remains a strikingly original work. The story itself is slight: Yuchiro (played with great nuance Ryo Kase) is a grad student haunted by the childhood disappearance of his sister, Marie. His mother has lost herself in grief and religion, and his younger brother, born after Marie's disappearance, is either insane or supernaturally gifted.
Picture from the Office Shirous official site
Stories of the horrible wake left by the loss of a child are nothing new, but director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri constructs the film in a way that truly brings home the catastrophic effect unmanaged grief has on a person -- and on everyone around them.
We don't want to say too much about what goes on in the movie because it's really better enjoyed if allowed to unfold before an audience. It's an intense, methodical, moving work that you will not easily forget.
Friend of SFist Bruce Fletcher moderated a brief Q&A with the director post film. Through an intrepeter, Kazuyoshi discussed his influences, the Indie film community in Japan, and how he chose Antenna as his first adaptation. Our favorite moment of the night was his response to a questioner who wondered, as the film has been screened around the world, how audience reactions differ from country to country. He answered that most audiences squirm at the same moments, but that San Francisco was the first place where the comedic moments (we hope they were intentionally comedic moments --otherwise, we feel like a real a**hole for laughing) received laughter from the audience.
If you want to see if San Francisco makes our Antenna laughter 2-for-2, you can buy tickets for Sunday's 4:30 show at the Roxie here.