Reel Advice From the Video Store Guy

2LDK

DVD

****

Directed by

Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Written by

Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Cast

Maho Nonami .... Lana

Eiko Koike .... Nozomi

unrated

70 mins

2LDK--this is a truly efficient Japanese real estate listing. What a typical Tokyo apartment hunter would discover from seeing that in print is an apartment with two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen.

Now this by itself is pretty interesting. An American real estate listing, of the same type, might read, "2 bed, living room, dining room, and full kitchen." Or even "2 BR." But the Japanese manage to package a full real estate listing into a mere four characters.

The apartment may just be a four-character listing, but the two characters in the 2LDK are what we're going to have to pay attention to.

So what we have here is the story of two starving artists--actresses, specifically--sharing an apartment in downtown Tokyo.

Sounds pretty benign on it's own, but these two have a lot of problems on their hands. They discover they're competing not only for the same role in an upcoming major feature film, but also for the same boyfriend.
[BB]
Now, close quarters like downtown Tokyo would make anyone twitchy, but when these two get together, it's like The Odd Couple mixed with Fatal Attraction and blended on high with a shot of Silence of the Lambs. You put these two in a cramped, congested environment like Tokyo, have them compete for the same job and the same man, and you know you're going to have serious problems.

That's an understatement for these two.

Well, let's just say you're never going to see a catfight quite like this one--a rolling, roiling, hour-long battle royale featuring catty remarks, cell phone chicanery, power tools, electric chainsaws, and electrocution devices.

It's tough to tell the true intent of all this, but man, is it mind-boggling. Are we going for social commentary here? Is this a treatise on the volatile nature of Tokyo citizenry, forced to live packed into close quarters and closer lives? Could the Japanese just use a few more wide open spaces?

Or are we just watching two hot Japanese chicks duke it out with all manner of weaponry?

2LDK is absolutely unbelievable stuff. Watching these two go back and forth, cattily chipping away at each other by what they think to themselves (in italics in the subtitles), makes for some amazing watching. These two battling actresses show us utterly everything that could possibly go wrong with roommates, and a few things you never thought possible. Even more amazing, 2LDK operates on a cast of two. That's it. Just these two dueling divas, inches from ripping each other a couple new ones.

This movie even packs in disturbing stuff. Check out the scenes throughout involving the tub full of blood. It's intensely creepy to follow these two down into madness.

It's impossible to classify 2LDK into one clean category. There are horror elements, comedy elements, dramatic elements, romantic elements, even just a few action movie elements that muddy these particular waters and bring forth a truly innovative movie.

Check out the poster at the one minute forty second mark. It has the director's name on it at the bottom. Check out the duel at the forty-five minute mark, too.

You haven't seen surrealist until you've seen Pillow Versus Chainsaw!

The ending is positively deranged in the nature of the sheer 180 degrees that it takes from the preceding hour, but it's very watchable.

The special features include a 'making of ' featurette and trailers. We also get some special footage of the Duel Project press conference, giving us background information about 2LDK's inception.

All in all, 2LDK is sometimes clever, sometimes cruel, and usually quality. Look for an excellent performance from our two lead actresses, and strap yourself in for a real wonder of a ride.

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