DVD Random 11

Prodigy detective Mitsuko Unagi has been on the hunt for a notorious serial killer known only as "Eleven" since she was 12 years old. On Feb 29th 1996 in Tokyo, Japan, 11 people were killed at 12:25am in different parts of the city. They were all killed in a ritualistic fashion. The authorities were notified of the crimes after receiving Polaroid photos of each victim. 10 years later, after a repeated string of serial murders, the authorities receive 11 photos of another random selection of people.

By chance I've seen a couple of Tony Ukpo's films (shorts mostly) and got interested in his films, particularly since several ones in the bag and due in the near future seemed ambitious and I was drawn to this quality. Random 11 was one such feature film since it involves a serial killer working over decades with strange almost supernatural killings which span a couple of continents – a bit harder than making a short film with 2 actors on one set for example. While ambition is to be applauded, here it appears to have been a case of Ukpo's eyes being bigger than his belly (to use Ulster-Scots) because in reaching for more, the film lets fundamentals slip and sadly weakens the whole. Just to mention it up front, one such example is the fact that, at the end of the film, it is announced that this has only been part 1; again a gutsy move to try to make this movie never mind only make it part 1, but it did hurt me to not have closure and instead be pointed to another film which right now doesn't exist.

It bothered me more because on the basis of this I really didn't fancy too much more story because the story is one of the weaker aspects. At a high level it engages and, although not particularly well explained, at the start it did hook me in. As it goes on though, there is less and less substance to it and things seem to be deducted or explained "just because". The rules are never really understood fully (which I get is part of it being just a theory about the pattern and a mystery) but the film carried itself as a much more serious and mature film. It probably didn't help that I am currently watching season 3 of Forbrydelsen, as the contrast with how well that show does similar twisty and dark crime with a female lead was not a good one to have in my mind. On the positive side though, part of the reason the lack of cohesion in the story is so apparent is because the dark and serious tone is mostly well done. At times I thought it pushed it a bit too heavily, but generally the spirit of the film and the delivery is good and I liked the ways the film delivered this.

One of the ways is the mostly very good use of lead actress Abe. As with the poster, the film makes good use of her face as a frame for the action. She is frequently shown in close up and the camera moves around her, or shows things over her shoulder – okay it does this too much in my opinion, but it is a nice visual theme. It works though because Abe is so consistently good at this aspect of her performance. Part of the reason I wanted to see the film was because I was curious if a woman who was then on ITV convincingly playing a 14-year old girl in a kids comedy, would also be able to work as an older, darker character. She does and she does a lot with her face and body so that the viewer does feel like, although young (as per the script) she carries a lot of weight – and you do get that sense. Some of the things the script asks of her don't help her but when it comes to the oft-used approach of filming her silently in thought, she delivers so that she grabs the camera and the viewer. I preferred her scenes in Japanese to English because, as a character says, her English is impeccable – which didn't wash that she should have such a clean accent. Working with her Kajioka is also good although he is asked to do some comic things that don't fit the film. Beyond him though the drop-off is noticeable and for whatever reason a lot of the rest of the cast is pretty unnatural. Maybe this is related to the writing, but performances from Chok, Wurawa, Maimone and others just seemed to be very stiff and on the surface – particularly when set against Abe doing her thing.

Ukpo's ambition to do this film and follow it up with a second part is to be applauded and he makes very good use of sets and b/w film to set a mood – okay it never feels like Tokyo really, but he covers it mostly. There are things in Random 11 which work very well but unfortunately the central story is not one of them – and this is the main thing, other weaknesses exist but this is the killer one. I continue to look forward to more from Ukpo, but I hope that as his ambition causes him to race forward reaching out, that he improves the basics so that he is not stumbling while he drives forward.