The portrait business isn¡¯t what it used to be. Working at the photo studio that he inherited from his father, the protagonist of ¡°Woman of the Photographs¡± looks like a throwback to a bygone era, complete with white three-piece suit and ever-present cigarette.
Yet Kai (Hideki Nagai), the tight-lipped photographer, has adapted with the times. While he¡¯s a wiz with a camera, he¡¯s a master at Photoshop: lightening skin, removing blemishes and performing the kinds of cosmetic enhancements that would normally require expensive surgery. It¡¯s a dishonest profession, but someone has to do it.
The gap between reality and the version of life that we choose to present to the world is a central concern of writer and director Takeshi Kushida¡¯s debut feature. This offbeat fable riffs loosely on author Kobo Abe¡¯s existentialist novel, ¡°The Woman in the Dunes,¡± without overplaying the resemblance.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.