Drifting Between Dreams and Reality, Yoshida Daihachi Analyzes ‘Teki Cometh’ Tokyo Competition Film

variety.com:

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Screening in competition at the 37th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, Yoshida Daihachi’s “Teki Cometh” is based on a 1998 novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka about a retired professor, Watanabe Gisuke, who is quietly living out his last days when he receives a mysterious message on his PC that his “enemy” (teki) is coming.

Starring revered veteran actor Kyozo Nagatsuka as Watanabe and filmed in black-and-white, the film begins as a record of his daily existence, from his meticulous meal prep – he is a something of a gourmet – to his platonic relationship with a former student (Takeuchi Kumi) that smolders with an unstated but evident mutual passion.

But once the “enemy” announces its presence, the film segues into darker, more disturbing territory as Watanabe’s unquiet dreams seem to invade his waking life, with his dead wife (Kurosawa Asuka) resenting what she views as his betrayal – and refusing to remain a mere ghost.

In scripting the film, Yoshida said in a pre-TIFF interview, that he updated the novel’s descriptions of Watanabe’s interactions with the digital world – social media has replaced the chat rooms of the 1990s – but Watanbe himself remains what Yoshida describes as a “traditionalist, like the Japanese-style house he lives in.” His protagonist was a professor of French literature, not exactly a traditionally Japanese pursuit. “He is a symbol of the Japanese who live in a tatami room but drink Coca-Cola, who are always in between Western and Japanese culture,” Yoshida told Variety. “For Japanese people, this stance is very natural and commonplace.” Yoshida incorporated autobiographical elements into the film, including his depictions of Watanabe’s over-active dream.