2199. Someone (何者) (2016)

Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Fumi Nikaidô, Masaki Okada

Director: Daisuke Miura

Running Time: 97 mins

Someone is a Japanese film about a group of five friends who work hard to achieve their ambitions, regularly meeting to discuss their plans and aptitudes as they strive to land their dream jobs.

This film really bored me. Unfortunately, it’s a story that centres on a rather dry premise, with little more to our main characters than being driven to get the jobs that they want, and the conversations that they have over the course of the runtime ultimately proving futile in giving you more depth and intrigue, leaving little reason to really care about and support them on their quest to achieving their ambitions.

You may say that’s a very cynical attitude to have, but the reason that so many films about those wanting to achieve their dreams work isn’t just because of that general premise, but rather more and more insight into their past failures and overall character, something that Someone tries to do, but really misses the mark on.

For me, that’s largely down to the fact that it has so many main characters that it tries to balance out equally. Of course, each character gets their own separate spotlight and focus, but they’re treated very equally throughout, meaning that you have to split your attention across five parts, something that’s not easy to do when not even one of the characters has the depth to really grab you in the first place.

Throughout, the film switches between the young people going to their job interviews and missing out, only to return back to meeting with their friends as they strive to do more. However, those conversations, while occasionally interesting, give very little depth to the people as individuals, away from their jobseeking life and even away from this friend group, which means it’s so hard to care about any of them when it comes to going for the job, ultimately proving the biggest frustration in a film that really lacks the energy and ingenuity to ever impress.

Moving along at a snail’s pace, and featuring a story structure that’s so robotically divided, there really isn’t the excitement or flair in Someone to prove an enthralling watch, so it’s even more difficult to find any enjoyment or intrigue on top of the lack of character depth, which I found incredibly frustrating and ultimately dull to watch, and that’s why I’m giving it a 5.6 overall.