You’ve had a long day at work but your mind is too active to go to sleep. You need a light comedy to watch to relax before bed. Well try Key of Life. It’s entertaining enough to keep you watching until the end, but not taxing enough to completely exhaust you for tomorrow.
Why Watch Key of Life?
- You’re in the mood for an easy-to-watch, entertaining comedy
- For an identity swap (you loved the body swap in Japanese anime Your Name)
- Anything can happen in a Japanese bath house!
- See the pre-recorded eulogy of Kanae’s father at his own funeral
The Breakdown
Key of Life opens with Kanae, a Lifestyle magazine editor. She vacuums her desk with a pocket vacuum, looks at her calendar, and circles her marriage date. She then stands up and informs her employees that she will be getting married in a few weeks and must take some time off of work. One of her employees asks who she is getting marries to but she says that she has not met him yet. Meanwhile hit-man Kondo carries out a successful murder and Sakurai, a failing actor, fails in an attempt to kill himself.
Stereotypically, the character’s rooms help build their characters. Kondo, a precise hit-man, has a very clean apartment with everything laid out and stored exactly where it should be. His apartment exudes wealth and decisiveness. In contrast, Sakurai’s wood shack is messy. This contributes to his status as a failing creative. If he can’t organise his own apartment, how can he organise his life. Lastly, whilst we don’t see Kanae’s house, we know that she is meticulous and precise like Kondo as she keeps a calendar and vacuums her desk. The director shows her vacuuming her desk to emphasise that she is a control freak.
In a similarly obvious way, the director uses music to influence the audience. The music changes from comedic major melodies to minor chords when we should be finding the film funny or tense. For example, when Sakurai is paying off his debts with Kondo’s money the music is comedic. It signifies that we should be laughing. Just like the rooms (and desk) tells us how to judge the characters, the music tells us when to feel amused or tense.
Conclusion
Key to Life is a great film to watch when you want to have a relaxing night on the sofa before you have a good night’s sleep. It is an easy-to-watch and enjoyable Japanese identity-swap comedy. However, if you want to watch something deep and challenging, I suggest you save this film for another time. There is no room for your input in this film as all the interpretation is taken out of the film. But who needs that in a comedy anyway?
Closed Curtain stands up for Iranian activists. To understand this film, you have to know a little a bit about the director, Jafar Panahi. After making a number of critically acclaimed films, Panahi was placed under house arrest after being charged with producing propaganda against the Iranian government. What was his reaction? To keep making films under house arrest and having them smuggled out of the country. So here’s Closed Curtain, the second film released under house arrest.
Your Name Film Difficulty Ranking: 2
This film was so provocative and great that the French Prime Minister at the time commissioned a mandatory screening for all entire French cabinet. The film brings social unrest to the big screen, showing us that Paris is not the romantic and happy city that Hollywood and beyond have portrayed it as. Here are the people we have forgotten. Like Taxi Driver and Do the Right Thing, La Haine gives a voice to the marginalised.
Song of the Sea Film Difficulty Ranking: 1