Under the Open Sky

Directed by Miwa Nishikawa, Under the Open Sky follows Koji Yakusho’s Mikami as he’s released from prison after a 13-year stretch for murder – with the movie subsequently detailing the character’s ongoing attempts at getting his life back on track. It’s an exceedingly familiar premise that’s employed to well-crafted yet distressingly uninvolving effect by Nishikawa, as the writer/director delivers an often excruciatingly deliberate narrative that does, for the most part, prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly connecting to the protagonist’s plight – with the picture’s saving grace ultimately its uniformly superlative performances and a smattering of compelling sequences. The former is undoubtedly exemplified by Yakusho’s often riveting turn as the thoroughly sympathetic protagonist, and it’s worth noting, too, that Nishikawa does an excellent job of establishing and developing the various periphery figures in Mikami’s post-prison existence (eg a kind supermarket employee, a journalist working on a story, etc). And although Nishikawa has admittedly peppered the proceedings with some compelling moments, including Mikami’s tender late-in-the-game friendship with a mentally-handicapped coworker, Under the Open Sky is, generally speaking, unable to make the emotional impact for which the filmmaker is obviously striving. (The finale does pack a slight punch, to be fair.)

**1/2 out of ****

Leave a comment