@ Odeon, Edinburgh, Sat 20 Jun & Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Mon 22 June 2015
Kei Morikawa / Japan / 2015 / 86 min
Makeup Room is in some respects quite a departure for director Kei Morikawa, who is more experienced as a director of both Japanese adult video and mainstream Japanese horror. However, his long career in the adult film industry has greatly informed his witty, well-written script, in this gentle comedy set in the makeup room for a porn shoot.
Under the watchful eye of a makeup artist (Morita Aki) who has clearly seen it all before, waves of people — actresses, technicians, agents, the director and so on — enter and exit the surprisingly confined space, bringing with them their problems, joys and thoughts. We are party to a series of small and subtle dramas, which despite the unusual context, are discovered to be ordinary and unremarkable.
There is something very much of the theatre about Makeup Room, which has the air of a stage play adapted for TV. The whole of the action takes place in the same room, which has no views to the outside, and which can only by entered to and exited from one side. The resulting visual limitations puts the focus firmly on the dialogue and it is this that really carries the film. The acting too is often theatrical, with lines consciously projected rather than conveyed by more visual means, and there are even a few out and out gags that could easily come straight from vaudeville.
Shot and edited in a televisual rather than cinematic style, with a limited palette of washed out colours and a minimal set, Makeup Room does itself have the look of a low budget adult video. However, even given a cast that includes a number of actual Japanese porn stars, this is not a titillating experience in any way. Nor does Makeup Room offer any critique of the adult film industry per se. Rather it is a wry and well-observed portrait of ordinary people who have done that most human of things: adapt to their situation and make the most of it.
Showing as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015