COMPLICITY

Japan/China, 2020, 116 minutes, Colour.
Yulai Lu.
Directed by Kei Chikaura.

Complicity is a Japanese film, made in collaboration with China. It proved popular locally but also internationally.

This is a story of a young man, his life in China, care for his family, lack of opportunities, his becoming part of a group of thugs, involved in theft and smuggling. He wants out and takes the opportunity to go to Japan.

While in Japan, he is able to buy a. Identity and the film shows him trying to adapt, trying to become his new identity. His received by the owner of a restaurant, an expert in making noodles, and he becomes something of an apprentice. He also does much of the menial work around the restaurant. And is helped by the owner’s daughter.

There is a development when he delivers some noodles to an artist who is attracted to him – and she has ambitions to go to study art in Beijing. There is a difficult situation when they are out and the young man loses his wallet, the artist report to the police, he has to hide so that he will not be exposed.

Ultimately, the matter is worked out – but the film shows, especially in the Japanese- Chinese context, not always a happy context, of migration and adaptation and discovery of a new life.

1. The title? The young man, his background in China, escaping his past, care for his family, going to Japan, buying an identity, becoming part of Japanese culture?

2. The Chinese settings, homes, gangs, smuggling…? The contrast with Japan, shops, restaurants, cooking, deliveries? Accommodation? The musical score?

3. The plausibility of the plot? The young Chinese man, migration, accepted in Japan? His identity? The fear of being discovered? Adapting to the Japanese lifestyle, interactions and relationships?

4. The young man, his age, his grandmother, family, care? His becoming involved with the gangs, their activities, smuggling? His wanting to get out? The opportunity to go to Japan, acceptance? The dangers of buying his identity? Living with it? Adapting to it?

5. Getting job in the restaurant, the boss and his attitude, his skills in making the noodles, the young man becoming something of an apprentice, learning? The staff, the customers? The owner and his daughter and her help? The young man prospering?

6. The encounter with the artist, her interest in him, sharing, going out? His losing his wallet? The reporting to the police? His escaping in fear of discovery?

7. The young man coping, dealing with the situation, the buildup to the final resolution?

8. A more sympathetic film about migrants? In the Japanese- Chinese context? New lives and opportunities?