The shadow of Invasion of the Body Snatchers hovers over Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s stately, darkly comic tale of a stealthy plan by aliens to take over the Earth. To prepare for the invasion, the extraterrestrials send three scouts to commandeer the bodies of earthlings and learn about humankind. The possessed are Shinji (Ryûhei Matsuda), a young businessman; Akira (Yuri Tsunematsu), a teenage girl who may have murdered her parents before going missing; and Amano (Mahiro Takasugi), a cocky young man who is looking for Akira. The trio of alien/humans join up with two other people they persuade to become their guides: Narumi (Masami Nagasawa), Shinji’s estranged wife, who is puzzled by her husband’s changed, docile personality, and Sakurai (Hiroki Hasegawa), a freelance reporter at first interested in getting a scoop, who eventually becomes complicit in Akira and Amano’s plans. Kurosawa’s film has moments of action, especially Akira’s inclination to deal with obstacles by simply killing whoever poses a threat. For the most part, however, it emphasizes deadpan comedy as the alien-possessed humans go about their business of stealing ideas from various victims (who are radically altered in the process). Before We Vanish is not mainstream sci-fi, being more concerned with questions about what it means to be human rather than special effects, but it draws on genre conventions in quirkily amusing ways. Recommended. (F. Swietek)
Before We Vanish
Virgil, 131 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, R, DVD: $19.99 Volume 33, Issue 4
Before We Vanish
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