Triangle Triangle
Aug
07
2008

LATE BLOOMER Review

Posted by Rodney at 8:12am.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews .

Gô Shibata’s controversial 2004 film Late Bloomer (Osoi Hito) appeared on the festival circuit a few years ago to much acclaim but subsequently disappeared. Now, in 2008, the film is on its way back into the public conversation with recent screenings in New York and an imminent North American DVD release by Tidepoint Pictures. Similarly themed films have both preceded (Chang-dong Lee’s Oasis) and followed (Crispin Glover’s It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine!) Shibata’s work but this does not really matter.  There is no adequate cinematic frame of reference for the way in which Late Bloomer explores disability and the frailty of the human body.

In this fictional story, Masakiyo Sumida, a severely disabled mute, portrays himself. Sumida is surrounded by friends but his handicap cuts off his ability to fully interact with them. He falls in love with college student Nobuku, who takes on the task of being his helper but ends up exploiting him. Nobuku also becomes involved with Sumida’s friend, Takei. Sumida finds refuge in alcohol, and the resulting hallucinations drive him to acts of violence.

The Late Bloomer begins as a story of a disabled man working his way through life with the help of friends. However, his smile is an immovable mask that covers his heartache and pain. The way in which Late Bloomer links this internal suffering, which is rooted in helplessness, to violence is both disturbing and moving. For example, consider a scene involving a confrontation between Sumida and a handicapped friend. The situation is fictional but the image of these two sickly men, one immobilized and the other threatening to take his life, is genuinely distressing. The film’s black-and-white photography is well-suited for such stark imagery. The hallucination sequences, which are full of quick, choppy cuts and sputtering electronic music, recall the video work of Chris Cunningham; one can also detect hints of Sogo Ishii’s Electric Dragon 60000V, and Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man throughout.

Late Bloomer is, at times, a difficult film to watch. Those who open up to what it has to say will be subject to an emotionally powerful experience.

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Reader Comments

  1. indiemaker0583 08/07/2008 @ 8:27am

    Woah. Remember reading brief reviews about this back 2004/2005 when it played the Philly Film fest. Sounded painfully awful at the time. Now I regret not seeing this, looks terrific.

    When is that DVD release?

  2. Rodney 08/07/2008 @ 8:43am

    A street date will be posted once I can get it nailed down.

  3. lblisters 08/07/2008 @ 10:38am

    Yeah, this was a difficult one to watch but worth it.  It was not as flashy/experiemental/audiosynchronous as I expected, but I think this helped the film overall - the longer dry scenes really let the characters sink in, and the verite style was more abrasive than frantic editing.

    I didn’t understand the purpose of the forward/backward time trickery during the final pullout, but it was a neat effect.

  4. Ichi-The-Killer 08/30/2008 @ 11:23pm

    can’t wait for this one.

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