Wool 100%

Mai Tominaga's offbeat Japanese comedy centers on two elderly sisters who live in an old mansion overflowing with junk they've salvaged from their daily excursions through neighborhood trash cans and garbage dumps. The pair keep elaborate illustrated records of everything they collect, from dolls to barbershop signs to pencil sharpeners to multiple balls of red wool. Actually, the red wool causes a problem for the sisters, attracting a mysterious teenage girl into their home, who knits a monstrous sweater, and then—after completing her needlework—screams and cries that she must knit the garment all over again. The sisters initially ignore the interloper, hoping she will leave, but she doesn't and is soon revealed to be pregnant—a development that unleashes long-buried memories of events that warped the sisters' adolescent years and explains their current oddball state. Fans of David Lynch's brand of deadpan surrealism will get a kick from the disturbing yet oddly endearing world created here, and kudos are in order for the film's art direction and set design team—rarely has a junk-filled home looked so inviting—as well as the performances of Kyôko Kishida and Kazuko Yoshiyuki as the deliciously droll and charming sisters. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an 18-minute “making-of” featurette, a stills gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a fine offbeat film.] (P. Hall)