Isabel Coixet left an enduring impression on art house audiences with Elegy, a beautifully filmed vehicle for Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz. Her latest, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, is just as beautiful but considerably more challenging. Transcending the usual narrative structure, Map is told in part by a narrator who can’t possibly know the whole story. The many blank spaces in the elliptically constructed film are filled in over time. Map demands to be watched carefully, and not just because much the dialogue (as well as the entire voiceover narration) is subtitled. Small meaningful gestures and glances are as important as what’s being said.
The story is triggered by a young woman’s suicidea death her powerful father blames on her Spanish expatriate boyfriend, David (Sergei Lopez). Deranged by grief, the industrialist commissions the mysterious assassin Ryu (Rinko Kikuchi) to kill David. Problem: she falls in love with her victim. Possible complications: for David, Ryu starts out as a substitute for the girl he still loves.
Filmed in high style with wonderful use of sound and music, with arty blurs and an acute awareness of the nocturnal beauty of its urban setting, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo becomes an erotically charged elegy for paths not taken in lifeeven if the climax seems a bit bonkers.
