B/B Review

B/B is a 2020 feature film written and directed by Kosuke Nakahama.

In a purely literal head trip of a film, B/B welcomes you from the very beginning into a frenetic world and never lets go.

Film purists beware this is a film watching experience that will drive you absolutely bonkers. Forget the 180-degree rule, forget slow edits, all of that is out of the window within the first few minutes of sitting down to this film.

The best way to describe this movie as a whole is really to say that it feels like an anime come to life. Not in any kind of dazzling or over the top special effects, but simply in the plot and the way it is visually shown.

Following a girl who contains 12 separate and distinct personalities inside her in the midst of a murder investigation, this is a movie where your attention is consistently needed. Now does that focused viewing experience pay off with the film as a whole? In some ways, yes, but in others not.

Containing so many characters with so many yet cohesive plot elements, the film at times feels as if it is almost floating along, making some side stories between the personalities up as it goes. It would be quite the tall order to ask for every single personality that is personified here to have a clear arc, but some moments between them work better than others.

Bearing that in mind though the dialogue in this film is as fast-paced as the visual structure and is a testament to the strength of Nakahama to craft not only so many distinct characters but also to have the scenes between everyone stay at an almost consistent rapid pace. It was disorienting at first, but once you are wrapped up in everything, you really just let the film happen properly. Think something akin to the film Brick.

Some may be instantly taken aback by the quick editing and intense dialogue from the start, but there is a lot of enjoyment to be had with B/B. It has a lot of charm, a plethora of colorful characters, and a visual sensibility all its own.

This film was screened as part of Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film presented by Japan Society. You can follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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Cheers!

Daniel Hess

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