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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Michiko Watanabe, Mie Kirihara, Chigusa Yasuzawa
Director: Shûichi Okita
Running Time: 88 mins
Go See The Fall is a Japanese film about a group of women who travel on a tour to see an isolated waterfall, but when they lose sight of their guide, they find themselves in the awkward position of having to survive in the wild.
This is a cute little film, following a group of middle-aged and older ladies as they find themselves unexpectedly stuck in a forest without their guide. With a light-hearted sense of humour that blends with a quirky atmosphere and the odd bit of drama, Go See The Fall proves a fun watch throughout, even if it occasionally takes things a little too seriously for its own good.
First off, the most enjoyable thing about this film as a whole has to be its quirky, farcical sense of humour. Although it’s not an out-and-out comedy, and isn’t really intended to make you burst out laughing, its small-scale humour is still more than enough to make for an entertaining watch.
With a seemingly innocuous day out to the countryside slowly turning into a battle for survival, it’s a lot of fun to watch these women come up with all manner of ingenious plans to try and find a way to make it through the ordeal, all the while mocking their stupid guide for having left them stranded in the middle of the forest.
It’s that clever contrast of the innocuous setting and group of sweet older ladies with the presentation of the ordeal as a real fight for survival that makes the film a whole lot of fun to watch. In effect, they’re in a small forest not too far from a road or civilisation, yet awkward circumstances end up conspiring to keeping the group stuck in the wilderness overnight.
Couple that quirky and clever premise with the film’s thoroughly enjoyable sense of humour, and you have a delightfully pleasant and entertaining watch throughout, even if it’s not a comedy that will have you laughing out loud from beginning to end.
However, this isn’t just a fluffy, quirky little comedy, because there is drama and emotion at play as well. However, the dramatic side to the story doesn’t ever work quite as well as its lighter side, largely because it clashes heavily with the almost sarcastic sense of humour that puts the ladies in this bizarre situation.
As much fun as I was having with the comedy, every time when the film tries to bring a little bit of real emotional drama into play, the film really loses its charm, and although the main layer of character development is perfectly interesting, it’s those darker and almost bleaker moments that really feel out of place in the movie as a whole, making for an often frustrating watch that isn’t ever as fully enjoyable as could have been the case.
Overall, I liked Go See The Fall quite a bit. In general, it’s a light and quirky affair with a clever sense of humour and an enjoyably bizarre premise, and although it fails to hit the mark when it comes to delivering good drama at the same time, it still manages to prove an entertaining watch throughout, and that’s why I’m giving it a 7.4.
