Name: Gipusu
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 h 23 min
Rating: 6
Cast: Hinako Saeki, Machiko Ono, Hiromi Kuronuma

An odd low budget film that's worth tracking down.

Gips is a 2000 Japanese movie. I saw this film a long long time ago, and for some reason, it's always stuck with me. I can't explain why really, as it's not a terrific movie or all that unique of an experience. Nevertheless, I did like it quite a bit, and it's somehow managed to carve out a small place in my brain while dozens and dozens of other movies slowly faded from memory.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I should probably revisit it again before writing a review, but why bother with that. I'll just wing it from memory as best I can, and since more than a decade has passed without a single IMDb review to date, I guess whatever I can recall and recount is better than nothing at this point.

Here's your story: Young lonely office type worker girl meets another girl with a broken leg on her way home from work one day. Feeling bad for the girl as she watches her struggle up an endless flight of steps, she offers to help her get home. Once they arrive at her place, an odd relationship between the two begins to take shape.

I can't remember the character names or which actress played which part. Both actresses did a fine job though, and, I'll just refer to them as Young Office Girl (YOG) and Broken Leg Girl (BLG) from here on out for simplicity's sake. YOG is very impressionable and is the classic archetype of an emotionally needy & clingy person who desperately seeks acceptance; if you were a guy who started casually dating this girl, you'd literally be forced to figure out a way to fake your own death by the third date. BLG, on the other hand, is quite the opposite; she's carefree and independent, somewhat sadistic, and likes to mess with other people's emotions in order to get what she wants.

After their initial encounter, each girl becomes increasingly tied and drawn to the other because of their differing personalities. BLG wants to manipulate YOG as she sees fit on her own time; after all, BLG has always been successful at doing this with everybody she meets, so it stands to reason that the shy and reserved YOG would just easily fall under her spell. BLG has met her opposite match with YOG however, and she just didn't count on the lengths YOG would go to continue this relationship. From there, it a battle of two warped minded girls to see who wins out; the manipulative mind of BLG vs. the obsessive determination of YOG.

You can draw some comparisons to this movie with the likes of SWF or 2LDK, but it's not quite like either of those films. It's much more of a quirky and often light hearted movie compared to those films, although it does have some darker moments; but these darker moments are usually framed in more of a black comedy format more than anything else.

As the film progresses, YOG & BLG slowly become more and more like each other, and it's clear that they are developing some odd type of undeniable bond to one another that will be hard for them both to let go of. You'll have to watch the film yourself to see whether this "bonding" will ultimately result in utter disaster, or some type of amicable friendship, or serve for the characters to arrive at some middle ground in between.

One other thing of note: This movie is incredibly impressive when you factor in the minimal cost it was afforded in order to make it. This film was produced on the cheapest of cheap ass budgets, yet the lack of resources available somehow never seems to detract from the production values, story, acting, viewer experience, or overall end product. I'm tempted to think I actually like this movie more because it was so effective on such a low budget, but at the same time, I don't think it could have been any better if you had extra money to throw at it.

Bottom Line: I like this movie. It's quick and to the point, and has a real nice pace to it from start to finish. It's not going to win any awards or set your pants on fire, but I feel it's an effective and entertaining watch nonetheless! 

7 out of 10 stars!

Japanese cinema is celebrated for its refined minimalist dramas and avant-garde experimentation; it also introduced popular genres like jidaigeki (samurai epics), kaiju, and anime. Across both high art and mass entertainment, it often explores morality, impermanence, and the pressures of modern life.

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The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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Gipusu

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