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ERVICE • REPAIR • PROFESSIONAL
T he M ars C anon
Guild Theatre, July 19; Whitsell Auditorium,
July 20
elieve it or not, Japan has even fewer
female film directors than the United States
of America. So it’s fortunate that Shiori
Kazama has released her third feature, Kasei
No Kanon or The Mars Canon (also known as
Canon on Tuesday). Even better, it includes a les
bian relationship, albeit a rather unsatisfying one.
Kinuko is a 29-year-old beauty who’s having
an affair with a 40-something married man.
They see each other every Tuesday night, and
he appears to have no intention of leaving his
wife, remarking to Kinuko, “1 love you; isn’t
that enough?”
It isn’t really enough, and Kinuko pines for
him, seemingly devoid of other relationships,
until she meets up with Hijiri, an old acquain
tance, and her friend Manabe, a male street
poet. The pair try to get Kinuko to leave her
lover immediately, both for basically the same
reason— each one wants her.
This sounds like an amusing love rectangle
B
with plenty of space for barbs and sexual explo
ration, hut Kazama’s goal isn’t merriment, it’s
postulating on devoting your life to impossible
relationships. Kinuko won’t give up a man who
cannot commit to her entirely; Hijiri pursues a
woman who has shown no interest beyond
friendship; Manabe tries for both women unsuc
cessfully. When Kinuko does switch lovers, it’s
out of desperation and not without regret.
At a full two hours, there’s very little action
beyond constant anguish among characters,
most notably the two women. This extremely
slow pace, as well as a lack of close-up shots and
scenes of a rather bare-bones Tokyo, parallels
Kinuko’s existence— she plods along, taking no
real steps to improve her completely empty life.
W hile the pacing works to instill this sense
of emptiness, it also works on one’s nerves.
Scenes could have been cut back a lot without
losing aesthetic or narrative purpose. And the
lesbian character is portrayed as somewhat
pathetic and unstable a la Basic Instinct.
Overall, The Mars Canon is successful in estab
lishing its point hut unsuccessful in its method.
— Lisa Bradshaw
> 03 . 232.5545
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Oregon
M etrosexuality
TLA Releasing
ast on the (high) heels of
Q ueer as Folk, and in some
ways a corrective to it, comes
another homo T V show from
Britain’s always edgy Channel 4,
Metrosexuality.
The series was commissioned,
according to Channel 4 ’s Adam
Barker, “because of its vivid and
funny take on the sexual arid mat
ing dilemmas of today." One of the criticisms of
Q ueer as Folk was that it was too white with no
dykes; Metrosexuality opts for the opposite in its
vision of a manically polyracial, polysexual
Britain.
Kwane (Noel Clarke), a 17-year-old straight
boy, lusts after his classmate Asha (Rebecc^i
Varney). He has no mother but rather two
dads, Max (Rikkie Beadle-Blair, who created
the series) and Jordan (Karl Collins). The dads
are separated, and Kwane schemes to get them
hack together, even though Jordan is dating a
hunky honky and Max is trawling the personal
ads for a new squeeze.
Complicating matters are Kwane’s gay best
friend’s obsession with daddy Max; love trouble
between Max’s sister and her girlfriend; and a
dizzying variety of other relationships, trysts
and tricks covering most of the possible permu
tations of straight and queer, male and female,
white and black.
F
Anyone put off by the superfi
ciality of Q ueer as Folk won’t he
reassured by Metrosexuality. This
seldom-funny comedy is frantic
and shrill, with a nonstop stream
of cutesy effects like words on the
screen and faces appearing sud
denly in heart-shaped inserts to
address the camera. Beadle-Blair’s
dialogue (he also wrote the 1996
feature Stonewall) is delivered at
machine-gun speed, perhaps to
cover a lack of inspiration. The
acting would be forgettable if it weren’t so
loud— all snapping fingers, feather boas and
carry-on.
Most of the show’s energy seems to have
gone into the sets, couture, hairdos and thun
derous soundtrack (by Moby, among others),
which do represent a veritable catalog of mod
em queer-glam style. Intriguing, hut not
enough to redeem the rest.
Some of us were surprised that Q ueer as Folk
made the transition to U.S. television (even
cable), hut it seems even less likely that this
series will follow suit. Laudable as its goals
are— who doesn’t want to bust up the white-
boy monopoly in queer media?— Metrosexuality
just isn’t up to the job.
The DVD is loaded with extras, including
director and cast commentary, “making o f’
documentaries, deleted scenes, a photo gallery
and promos.
—Gary Morris
With
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