Vaiburêta

I can honestly say that the moment this movie began, I was drawn in by the coldness of Shinobu's voice... The entire message of the movie, in my opinion, is a beautiful one-- one of rebirth and renewal in one's life, and the decision to live for the better. True, the film contains long filler clips of scenery and music-- but that only gives the viewer time to take in what they've seen along the ride of VIBRATOR.

The previous reviewer of this movie states that it was absolutely horrible... But I find an artistic quality to it that touched me on a personal level. The film grasps concepts of the longing women have to fit in-- seeking out beauty by destroying ones' body, and so on. But throughout the movie a metamorphosis takes place, and Shinobu realizes that she is no longer alone and has something in her life that she should live for.

If you're into action flicks, or movies that are easy to comprehend, then I don't suggest VIBRATOR for you. However, if you've enjoyed films such as 'Last Life in the Universe' or perhaps, 'All About Lily Chou-Chou' in the past, then I would recommend this movie. There are a lot of deep messages hidden deep within the plot, and I had a fun time discovering them.

I made the mistake of being sucked in by glowing reviews and saw this film at the Philadelphia film festival a few days ago. It was apparently reviewed as THE BEST Japanese film of the year by a few Japanese film critics. Moreover the Philadelphia Film Festival review touted it as a "must see" for those interested in modern Japanese cinema. This movie was truly horrible. I'm foreign film fanatic and usually enjoy the relatively slow pace of most foreign films vis-a-vis the A.D.D-ness of Hollywood films, but this film was painful. Character development was nonexistent. There were minutes and minutes of filler scenes of a truck driving across Japan. The dialog was banal and the use of voice overs annoying. If this is the best that Japanese cinema has to offer (and I know it isn't!) this would be the last Japanese film I'd see ever. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

I read the last comment, and I wonder what film that person saw, or what planet they're from. This film was fun, it was interesting, and it was thoughtful.

If the previous reviewer is so myopically wrapped in his/her Pennsylvania experience, then don't comment on foreign-made films.

This film uses a couple of interesting personality quirks of the female lead to open interesting doors that seem to lead to a bit of peace, maybe a bit of satisfaction for her, and then, in the end...?? what is it we really find? The cinematography is well done. The story is funny, quirky, with an urban edge that transcends Japan with universal images, fears, expectations and situations.

And it does it all with two main characters... ;-)

This is truly one of my favorite films; i've worked in the industry for many, many years now, and have access to films that many folks don't get to see, and to edits and versions that are many times better than the final public releases. I truly enjoyed this quaint, quirky, sometimes sexy, often naughty, youthfully edgy film from Japan.

Vibrator is a movie I'd like to forget. A movie where the fake-outs and plot twists get faked-out and twisted-over so you're right back where you started. A movie that transfers, seamlessly, from grotesquely silent anal sex sequences to intricately technical discussions over the innermost workings of CB radio.

There are shots in this film that make you wonder if the projectionist accidentally spliced in thousands upon thousands of identical frames. Characters sit, silently eating soup, for up to and including ten minutes at a time. It's like watching paint dry, only at some point in the course of the first act, the paint is already dry, and you just sit around watching paint for two hours!

Vibrator is truly remarkable in its refusal to tell a story, to grab your attention, or event to through in a shred of music every now and then! For a movie with practically two speaking parts, you might figure it to be a characters study, but that would involve actually wiggling some effort in the way of character development.

Vibrator never surmounts to anything. The cinematography, flashy at best, is reminiscent of a Mitsubishi commercial, sans-techno. The main players do fine, but are given virtually no material to play to an audience with. Characters cry, and you just watch them. You don't feel them.

I walked out of the late-night screening of Vibrator from the LA Film Festival feeling drastically cheated.

Rei is a freelance writer embattled by personal demons. We first meet her in a convenience store where she is buying too much alcohol and not enough food. At the magazine rack she pauses to contemplate the happiness of the glamour girls on the glossies for which she writes. Only later do we realize that this is self-reflection. A chance encounter with truck driving Takatoshi, leads to a two day romp of sex, friendship and introspection. It's unclear if what happens to her is the product of her writer self imagining it all as a magazine serial (hence the inter-titles and voice of the narrator).

The relationship has a certain healing sweetness that comes out in simple daily pleasures of Japanese life, like a bath or a bowl of hot soba on a cold winter's day. It's a little fluffy, but this seems to be an intentional point of the story: the musings of a glamour writer reaching out to the young readers who struggle in silence with the pain brought on by the ultra-thin, ultra-beautiful ideal put forward by the magazines for which she writes.

In the end, it's a road-buddy picture that gives Western viewers a taste of the complex Japanese landscape that is both brilliant in its natural beauty and frightening in its industrialization.