Lost Girls and Love Hotels

Thought for a while about this one, about how to review it I mean, and it all came down to, "yeah, but not quite......."

Setting is good, a good level of moody without being too dark. Daddario is very good but you don't get to fully understand her character.

If we could give half points would've gone 6.5, it's not a 7. Quite intriguing though.

Greetings again from the darkness. The temptation here is to compare director William Olsson's latest film to FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. While the two films do share the foundation of best-selling adult erotica novels, this film is darker and grittier, and doesn't treat the lead as a cartoon character. Catherine Hanrahan wrote both the novel and the screenplay, a likely contributing factor to the more grounded feel to the setting and characters.

Alexandra Daddario stars as Margaret, a young woman living on her own in Tokyo. She works days as an English "pronunciation" teacher at a Flight Attendant Academy. In the evening she imbibes at a local dive bar with other ex-pats (Carice van Houten, Andrew Rothney) before heading out under the neon lights in search of that night's partner at one of the "love hotels". Margaret is burning the candle at both ends to an extreme. Her alcohol intake would put most sailors to shame. Is Margaret looking for the meaning of life or just trying to forget? That's the question we spend most of the story trying to answer.

One day Margaret meets Kazu (played by Takehiro Hira), a dashing Yakuza (organized crime) member. She quickly falls under his spell, and the two have a lustful, fast-moving connection. Of course, traditions being what they are, the relationship can never be the same for Kazu as it is for Margaret. In other words, she finally found love, but with the wrong guy. Margaret as narrator offers up wisdom such as, "I tell myself there are no happy endings." "Things are ragged and messy." These sentiments perfectly describe her life.

Margaret is challenging to figure out. We feel her pain and confusion and desperation, though we never fully understand what's driving it. She's 'happy and sad', and more than just another pretty face. In fact, this dark world of loneliness and sex finds her starting in a bad place and then sinking lower. However, director Olsson and cinematographer Kenji Katori ensure the film is stylish and atmospheric, and no matter how ugly things get for Margaret, the film itself is quite something to look at.

This is a side of Tokyo we don't often see, and the love hotels are a sub-culture that set up perfectly for those who have lost hope or control of their life. The city seems to prey on some ... no matter how beautiful they are. Kudos to Alexander Daddario for taking on this role. She's been around for a while with memorable appearances in "True Detective" (Season One), SAN ANDREAS (2015), and BAYWATCH (2017). It's nice to see her go deeper and darker, and let's hope it opens up some new opportunities for her.

Not only is alexandra probably the most beautiful woman in the world, but she is also an actress of extraordinary talent unfortunately very little known to the large audience, but in this film she gives an Oscar-winning interpretation, the character of Margaret is so intense, powerful, melancholy that remains etched in the memory. Alexandra is so great that even in moments of silence she manages to convey a myriad of emotions just with her gaze. Too bad the same cannot be said of the film, which is not as bad as some claim, but it could have been much better, the director cannot always keep the interest in what is happening , everything is just sketchy and if we exclude alexandra, the other actors as well as their characters are very flat, in return, the film has a beautiful photograph, with dark colors that actually fascinate. In conclusion, I consider this film only watchable, with a rating of 6, while the vote that Alexandra deserves is 10, immense actress, beautiful woman, the woman of my dreams that I hope to meet one day.

I didn't really have any expectations other than shots of beautiful Japaneese aestethics which I got to some extent, even though I think that it felt a bit "touristy" and repeating at times.

As for the plot and acting I did not expect much. And except for the very first scene which I didn't like at all because it felt a bit cheesy and unnecessary seeing as you would understand what kind of girl Margaret was rather quickly by just watching the movie anyways... I hoped for more focus on the lost girl and less (but some) love hotels. One thing I liked about the many "love scenes" were that they were short and rather silent unlike some movies where there's awkward moaning for 10 minutes straight.

If you are looking for something as good as "Lost In Translation" or some block buster with explotions every other second you shouldn't watch this one. But if you want to look at some pretty cinematography with an okay story you should go for it! Especially if you like movies set in Japan. I can confidently say that I wouldn't have watched it if the movie had taken place anywhere else, but I'm glad that I did.

A bleak and rather depressing film for the majority of the screen time, but the movie suffers from the lack of substance and convenient encounters to drive the story forward.

The problem I have for these type of films is it often do succeed in showing how low the human condition can reach, but there's no major theme or message after the fact. We see a woman spiraling down mentally and physically but other than showing it, the movie never goes deeper.

I guess it's kind of a cautionary tale. It's letting you know the obvious: humans are driven by goals, meaning, and a sense of belonging. If you have none of those, you might find yourself in the protagonist's shoes; desperately trying to find a connection and meaning, but mixing with the wrong crowd and habits.

Unfortunately, the conclusion leaves a lot to be desired and the movie as a whole feels like a missed opportunity.