Junk Food

Modern-day Tokyo has a secret: It's just as gritty as any other city long associated with crime. Director Masashi Yamamoto paints a dark portrait with a cinema verité style as he follows a young woman (Miyuki Ijima) in the process of making over her life. Shunning the boring conservatism of a computer-programming job, she dives deep into gang life, abusing drugs, indulging in anonymous sex and living life on the very edge.

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imd 1231639 binder John Mora

» Reviewed by 1 person

Junk Food is a slice of life drama broken into three visually distinctive chunks. The first part is like a home video, the second is regular film stock and the third is pseudo-documentary. It's not as if the three visual styles elucidate the story at all. In fact, they just sort of confuse the process and muddle it up. And, speaking of stories, there really isn't one. Junk Food follows several unconnected people throughout the business of their day which ranges from ordinary to murderous. The common element is that all of the characters are outsiders in their respective worlds either through nationality, crime, drug habits or blindness. The sum of its parts equals a very disjointed ensemble story where none of the pieces fit together all that well. I didn't dislike Junk Food but, odds are pretty good that, sooner rather than later, I won't remember anything about it. It's just that forgettable.
- pterosaur